Mickey Neale

The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham has one of the lowest rates of adult numeracy and literacy in the UK. Mickey Neale, the borough's street cleaning manager, knew that a number of his staff had these problems and decided to do something about it.

Last December, after months of hard work and negotiation a learning centre was set up at the borough's cleansing depot where staff were offered courses in literacy and Health and Safety legislation provided by the College of North East London.

Mr Neale says workers were initially reluctant to take part so he organised workshops and one-to-one meetings to help make them more comfortable with the idea of going back to school. Now 200 refuse, recycling and street cleaning employees have achieved national vocational qualifications at level 2.

Some have gone on to enroll on Institute of Leadership and Management courses in order to become supervisors and managers. The learning centre now offers courses in literacy, numeracy and information technology and is looking to open larger classrooms and at weekends due to increased demand from staff in other departments and family members.

The Learning and Skills Council has recognised the centre as the best model for workplace leaning in England and it has had interest from Brighton and Hove, Newham, Waltham Forest and Redbridge councils.

"The model can be used anywhere - and we have," says Mr Neale. "Even if someone has resigned themselves to the idea that all they are going to do is sweep streets, they should be made to feel they can do other things if they want."

Mr Neale's proposer, Nick Kingham, head of the council's strategy and support, says: "We believe that Mickey deserves to be Public Servant of the Year as his hard work and commitment to his staff has shown them they can acheive heights they had previously thought unreachable. This has now been translated into huge benefits to the local community in terms of raised aspirations."