COMPANIES and organisations from across the Tees Valley gathered at an event on Friday to celebrate achieving Investors in People (IiP) status.

Schools, businesses and public sector bodies that have been awarded the accolade were invited to the event by the Gold Club, a Tees Valley organisation supporting organisations with IiP status and helping others to achieve it.

IiP is a national standard that sets a level of good practice for improving an organisation's performance through its staff.

The event was organised by the Gold Club and supported by Assessment North-East, which assesses the IiP awards, and Business Link Tees Valley.

The Gold Club holds subsidised training events and seminars to help IiP companies.

The group membership comprises representatives from local government, education, and private companies, and meets regularly to look at ways of promoting IiP.

Craig Hargreaves, training manager at Cleveland Potash and Gold Club strategy member, said: "It was excellent to see so many companies turn out for the celebration of their Investor in People recognition.

"It is encouraging to know that so many companies still see the award as an important part of their people strategy and that they are prepared to turn out at such an event to celebrate the achievement with some of their team."

The organisations that attended, all from the Tees Valley, were: St Peter's RC Comprehensive; Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council; Sheers; St Patrick's RC Primary School; Eemits Communications; Balfour Beatty Power Networks; St Cuthbert's RC Primary School; RA Howard and Sons.

St Gregory's Catholic Primary School; Crimewatch Systems; The Centre for Process Innovation; Poppy's Hairdressing; Manning; NECIL; Marshalls Cladding and Roofing; William House Nursery; Elliott and McCarthy Dental Practice; Hemlington Detached Youth Work Project; St Peter's Primary School, Cleveland; Cleveland Cascades.