AND THE AWARD GOES TO .....

Intake Team, Sydney Supreme Court Family Division

from left to right:
Pamela Kachafanas, Janice Pottie, Noreen Campbell
Minister Jamie Muir
Valerie MacPhee, Arlene Tobin, Belinda Cox

The Award of Excellence is the highest honour of the Nova Scotia civil service. It recognizes civil servants for outstanding contributions or achievements.

The Intake Team at the Supreme Court Family Division in the Sydney Justice Centre received the 2007 award for its efforts to improve how family law programs and services are delivered to those experiencing separation and divorce. Such experiences are stressful and often overwhelming time for families, and so the impact of the Team’s efforts has been significant.

Team members displayed innovation and creativity in implementing these changes. As an example, instead of giving blank forms to self-represented litigants, the Intake Team developed, and now delivers, group sessions that provide clients with valuable legal information before they file their legal documents. Overall, the Team also developed policies and procedures that now refer clients to the right place at the right time, with appropriate support along the way.

These ideas, developed and implemented on the Team's own initiative, have saved time for staff as well as clients. They have dramatically reduced wait times for assessments, improved assisted negotiation services, and increased overall client satisfaction. Delays have now been reduced to under two weeks, where clients once waited up to four months for an appointment.

 

All the winners of the 2007 Premier's Award of Excellence:

Back row:
Andrew Bagnall, Dr. Toby Balch, Marshall Giles, Alan McNeill, Cory Aldous, Geordie MacLachlan, Lewis Clancey, Mark TeKamp
Middle row:
Noreen Campbell, Belinda Cox, Sharon Davis-Murdoch, Pamela Kachafanas, Valerie MacPhee
Front row:
Arlene Tobin, Janice Pottie, Minister Carolyn Bolivar-Getson, Minister Jamie Muir, John Soosaar, Charles Weir, Jr.
Missing:
Cyril Boudreau, Robert Gordon