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Witness Name: Sarah Juliff
Statement No.: WITN06400100
Dated: 2™ March 2023
POST OFFICE HORIZON IT INQUIRY
WITNESS STATEMENT OF SARAH JANE JULIFF
I, Sarah Jane Juliff, will say as follows:
‘L.
I joined Post Office Ltd October 1999 as a part- time Crown Office Counter
Clerk working 19.5 hours, eventually becoming full-time after several years.
I was promoted to Financial Specialist around 2009/2010 time. I became
Assistant Manager for a short period covering sickness before a new
manager was appointed. I started as a Field Support Advisor around 2013
time where I was a Trainer and Auditor until I took voluntary redundancy in
September 2016. Before joining the Post Office, I worked in Lloyds TSB in
the insurance and complaints department in customer services.
. I have no external qualifications other than O-Levels and CSE's
from school.
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3.
I have no experience working in any IT roles apart from knowledge I
have gained and been trained on in using IT equipment for the
companies I have worked for.
Upon joining the Post Office, I undertook four weeks of classroom
training in Bournemouth to learn about polices/ procedures and
products/ services that the Post Office offered. It was a classroom where
the trainer presented, and we then put this into practice using dummy
scenarios. This showed me how to serve the customers and balance the
tills. We had worksheets to take away so we could refer to them whilst in
the Crown Office. I then had two weeks training in branch with a buddy
who was an experienced member of staff, and they shadowed me and
assisted with any queries that arose.
There was a similar process when I progressed to the financial services
role and again, I undertook some classroom training to develop
knowledge on the products we would be introducing to our customers,
which was provided by the Bank of Ireland.
When I became a Field Support Advisor and started training other people,
I had a couple of weeks where I shadowed another trainer presenting to a
classroom of new starters in the crown network and New Sub Post-
Masters. There was no set time frame for me to have gained the
confidence, but through my knowledge and experience of working in the
Post Office for approximately the past 10 years, I felt confident in being
able to share my knowledge with the new starters to enable them to feel
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confident and ready to take on their new roles. I also had a team of
colleagues in the same role as me, so I was able to ask questions and we
worked together to support each other if we needed. Sometimes we would
train with another colleague, and we always had the support from our
managers.
. As part of the role as a Field Support Adviser, I was also an auditor as well
as a trainer so it would vary week on week whether I was auditing or
training. It would depend on the scheduling team as to what was required/
allocated each week.
. I have used the Horizon IT System since 1999 when I joined. I had gained
lots of experience and knowledge over the years which meant I was
confident in using the system and felt knowledgeable in being able to serve
customers.
I. The persons who attended the classroom course would receive two weeks
training in a classroom environment with other new colleagues including
crown staff and Sub Postmasters. This would involve us going through
slides and presentations. We would then go through different practical
scenarios where we would use the Horizon IT System to familiarize them
with it and offered support and guidance in the transactions they would be
completing, including balancing and stock allocations etc. We would do two
balances on a Wednesday (which is when the balance weekly period is
required) and cash declarations each day to make it as real life as
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possible. We would be giving handouts all the way through the course
which were created by the Post Office. Once the Sub Postmasters had
completed the course, they also had two weeks on site training. The
crown colleagues went back to their offices and had the support of the
crown network and other colleagues.
10. During the two weeks onsite training, two balances would be completed.
If the Sub Postmaster felt they needed more support with the balancing,
then we could request that a trainer was sent out on a Wednesday to that
specific office to support them. When we left them, we would refer them to
the helpline (Network Business Support team) if they needed any other
support. I also gave them my telephone number and they knew they could
contact me at any time to ask me anything. I also told them that if they
had any problems with balancing/ cash declarations/ stock received not
being correct then to report it straight away to the Post Office. As part of
our role, we would also attend offices for interventions so we could assist
the Postmaster.
11.After I delivered the training, I would give the persons a feedback form
which would be sent off to the scheduling team and if there was any
feedback specifically about me then my team leader would share this
with me. From the best of my knowledge the feedback I received from the
trainees was always positive and they also verbally told me they enjoyed/
learnt a lot from my training.
12. During my time of using the Horizon IT System I was never aware of any
bugs/ errors or defects in the system. If I was aware that there were any
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issues with errors/ bugs or defects in the system, then I would never have
wanted to train people on it or use the system myself.
13.1 feel the training which was delivered to the trainees and the further
support that was given to them was sufficient. However, at times during
the on-site training, the Sub Post- Masters would be visited by reps from
other suppliers as they were running a business at the same time. This
could, and sometimes would, interrupt the on-site training if they had no
other staff. I was there and ready to help them as much or as little as they
wanted. As previously stated, they were always given my number and
could contact me with any queries or questions that arose after my visit. I
feel sufficient time was given to balancing and we also did follow up visits
after a period where we would attend and check how things were
progressing.
Statement of Truth
I believe the content of this statement to be true.
Signed:_}
Dated: 2 Ae VOM2=
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