Scores on the Doors - Salford puts food safety results online with Civica web toolkit
‘Drop in’ web publishing tool enables council to put inspection results online
Salford City Council’s Environmental Health service has become the first UK local authority body to publish fully accessible details of all its food hygiene site inspections, using the new Authority Public Protection web toolkit from Civica.
Salford’s environmental health department, which inspects approximately 1,900 food premises in the city, is publishing key findings on a daily basis (at www.salford.gov.uk/scores) under the “Scores on the Doors” food safety initiative. Salford’s campaign is one of a series of first stage information programmes being run by local authorities under the “Scores on the Doors” banner, ahead of a potential national education programme likely to be overseen by the Food Standards Agency.
The new Authority Public Protection web toolkit from Civica takes hygiene inspection data from Salford’s existing Authority database, enabling it to be published on the council’s web site. Civica’s ICT experts, working in conjunction with Salford City Council’s web team, were able to install the web toolkit over a couple of days in mid-September to start the project.
With 1.3 million cases of food-related illness recorded in the UK every year¹, and greater public awareness of food safety issues, standards in the food production industry as well as the leisure and catering sectors are coming under ever greater scrutiny. The whole “Scores on the Doors” philosophy supports environmental health departments’ existing enforcement powers and also aims to generate greater public understanding of food safety matters.
The new site details each inspected establishment’s food hygiene standards, structural condition and general attitude to food safety legislation.
Councillor Maureen Lea, Lead Member, Environmental Services at Salford City Council said, “People want to know that they are eating or buying items from the best possible food and catering establishments in the city. Our “Scores on the Doors” website is the first local authority-hosted site which gives residents detailed information as user-friendly, click through pages and meets all disability legislation requirements.”
Full press release can be viewed here...
The demo and the 'Scores on the Doors' flyer can be viewed here...