A WORCESTERSHIRE schools inspector has been short-listed for the Public Servant of the Year Awards.

Ray Westwood, who is principal inspector for school improvement with the Worcestershire Local Education Authority, is one of three candidates up for the Getting the Most from Technology award.

He could also be singled out as the Outstanding Public Servant of the Year when the 20 candidates, nominated across 11 categories, come together at the gala ceremony in London, on Monday, May 14.

"I'm a bit surprised really, I guess," said Mr Westwood.

"A mixture of pleased and surprised."

A spokesman for the awards, organised by Public Finance magazine, said an idea from Mr Westwood had proved invaluable in the effort to improve standards in schools.

"He has developed a database that allows the authority to track the progress of the county's 80,000 pupils by storing the results of national tests for all the key stages, as well as those for public examinations," said the spokesman.

"This information is shared free of charge with all schools within the LEA and has proved to be an invaluable aid for them when setting performance targets."

The database is backed up by a county-wide training programme which focuses on school self-evaluation and self-improvement.

The spokesman said Mr Westwood's colleagues had nominated him for the award because it was "a local initiative, which very productively squeezes the last drop of information potential out of our information systems".

"It was more about how we use the database," said Mr Westwood.

"By cross-referencing the existing database with examination results we were able to develop a way of getting information out of the data base that we didn't have before."

"Remarkably, Ray put together this innovative package with virtually no budget or infrastructure support," added the spokesman.

Other finalists in the national awards include a school cleaner, a housing association chief executive, a dog warden, a government auditor, a hospital director, a headteacher of an inner-city school, and the co-ordinator of the community trauma team who led recovery efforts following the Omagh bomb.

The awards are designed to recognise excellence and outstanding achievement across central government, health, social services, education, housing and local authority services.

They are organised by Public Finance, the journal of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, and are backed by the Cabinet Office.