POL00027664 - Post Office Branch User Forum (The Forum). Terms of Reference - Draft.

Evidence on official site

Post Office Branch User Forum (“the Forum”)

Terms of Reference (Draft)

Purpose

The purpose of the Branch User Forum is to provide a way for sub-postmasters and
others to raise issues and insights around business processes, training and support
directly feeding into the organisation’s thinking at the highest level. The forum is a
forward looking mechanism to ensure the business processes and approaches are fit for
purpose for users and are in keeping with Post Office behaviours and values.

Objectives of the Forum

¢ To assess issues raised from with the Post Office network; identify appropriate
solutions and recommend improvements to rectify the root cause and prevent
recurrence of the issue.

e To assess issues raised from Post Office support/central functions; identify
appropriate solutions and recommend improvements to rectify the root cause and
prevent recurrence of the issue.

e To input into the design of the end to end process for new products and services
before launch to the Post Office Network

e¢ Toassess improvement suggestions from the Post Office network and
support/central function ie “would this work?”

Members

A prerequisite of membership of the Forum is that members are either responsible for
the design and/or the delivery of business policy, processes, training and support or are
end users of any of these.

The Forum will consist of a core Post Office senior manager population who will refer to
a subgroup of POL experts to assess in detail the operational implications of the
issues/improvement opportunities. The membership of the subgroup will be determined
by the detail of the issue or improvement suggestion. Likewise the frequency of the
subgroup meetings will be driven by the flow of issues/improvements into the Forum.

The Forum will consist of have representatives from

Chair — Angela Van Den Bogerd

IT & Change — Dave Hulbert

Network — Michael Larkin

Commercial — Paul Brown

Spmr population — 4 current serving Spmrs who will also act as conduit for other
Spmrs (to include a NFSP rep with recent live experience of running a Post
Office)

e Crown population - Counter colleague and a BM or ABM who will also act as
conduit for other crown members

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The subgroup will consist of lead members from:

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Managed Services — Andy Garner

Security — John Scott

Network Services - Craig Tuthill

Network Operations — Drew McBride

Finance Service Centre - Rod Ismay

HRSC - Joe Connor

Commercial — determined by product/service
Communication (Mark to advise on appropriate person)
Contact Centres - Amanda Stevens

Cash services — Doug Brown

Role of the Members

To be open-minded and objective when considering the issues raised from
whatever source.

To assess the benefit(s) and cost of the potential solutions to the issues raised
and make recommendations to the respective Post Office business owner or
board as appropriate.

To have clear ownership of actions arising from the Forum and commitment to
deliver within the agreed timescale

Each issue/improvement opportunity raised is to be allocated to a Forum member
who will take responsibility for ensuring conclusion in a timely manner of the
issue/improvement opportunity including updating the person who raised it
initially.

To review periodically Branch User Forum terms of reference to ensure fit for
purpose

Role of the Chair

The Chair will report to the Operating Board
The Chair will sponsor and present board papers as appropriate

To ensure each Forum member has equal opportunity to contribute to the
meetings.

To maintain a record of the issues/improvements raised and their outcome.

To provide a monthly progress update to the Post Office Operating Board.

Ways of Working

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e Meetings will be chaired by the Chair or other person nominated by the Chair.

¢ The Forum will initially meet once a month to discuss new issues/improvements
raised; update on progress on existing issues/improvements and agree next
steps.

« As the Forum becomes embedded in business as usual the frequency will
probably move to quarterly/6 monthly dependent on business need as
determined by the Forum. The overriding consideration is that the Forum needs
to be responsive to business change and consequently ad-hoc meetings may be
required.

e The Forum will on a quarterly basis meet within the Regions to ensure ease of
access for users and the raisers of issues/improvements to contribute to the

discussion of the Forum. The quarterly Forums will be led by an ExCo member.
(As per previous bullet this may move to 6 monthly Forum meetings in the

regions)

e The issues/improvements raised will be confidential to the Members of the Forum
and the subgroup until the Forum formally agrees otherwise.

e Where a Forum member is unable to attend a meeting they will send a suitable
representative fully empowered on their behalf.

Decision making
e The Forum as an entity has no decision making powers

e The Forum will via the Chair make recommendations (with a business case if
required) to the Operating Board; ExCo and Post Office Board as appropriate

Funding

« The Forum shall have access to a discretionary budget of £xxx to ensure quick
wins are able to be realised in a timely manner. The Chair will be budget holder.

e Hospitality and travelling expenses budget of £5k pa will be required for the
quarterly regionalised meetings.

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