Now in its 25th year, the event was attended by over 300 professionals, including senior decision makers and Ambassadors for Excellence across the public, private and third sectors, who help support the aim of making excellence a national characteristic of Scotland.

In order to achieve the Recognised for Excellence award, PoLHA conducted a self-assessment process in January 2012 and developed quality improvement plans from the assessment results, which were independently assessed by a Quality Scotland assessor. As a result, it received a Committed to Excellence recognition in 2014, and for the last two years has been working towards a Recognised for Excellence accolade.

The inaugural Good Practice award, exclusive to Recognised for Excellence winners, is based on the EFQM Excellence Model’s Fundamental Concepts. Fundamental Concepts of Excellence outline the foundation for achieving sustainable excellence in any organisation and are used to describe the attributes of an excellent organisation’s culture.

Margaret O’Connor, chair of PoLHA, said: “I’m delighted the Association has received these honours. The awards are based on the European Foundation for Quality Management Business Excellence Model - the same quality framework that underpins our own Port of Leith Housing Association Excellence Model - which we use for organisational self-assessment and development.

“The Business Excellence Awards scheme therefore complements and indeed validates the Association’s own continuous improvement programme.”

Keith Anderson, chief executive of PoLHA, added: “Achievement of 4 stars in the awards therefore provides us with an independently validated gauge on how we are progressing as an organisation along the journey to excellence, with 5 stars a standard of excellence that is recognised at a European level.

“We reached our first key milestone on that journey two years ago, when we were awarded Committed to Excellence. Now we have achieved 4 stars, what an achievement it would be if we could progress to a 5 star level.”

Claire Ford, chief executive officer of Quality Scotland said: “The achievement of Recognised for Excellence is a clear demonstration of the embedding of the principles of excellence across an organisation. This recognition is gained from an evidence based assessment process and enables an organisation to compare themselves against the best in Europe enabling a continual drive for further improvement. Congratulations on this European level of recognition and all the hard work and effort that has gone in to achieving it.”