For too long, the work of highly-achieving councils delivering good practice across services for communities throughout Wales has gone unnoticed. Like the Beacon council scheme England favours, the Excellence Wales awards, launched for the first time this year, seek to encourage innovation, inspire, promote excellence, and reward the councils involved.

This isn't lacking in the Beacon scheme, but within Wales the fundamental point of launching the awards is to share good practice among all councils. Indeed, in achieving Excellence Wales status, authorities enter into a commitment to share ‘good practice, experience and lessons learned with peers'.