Consumer Focus Post is working to ensure that Post Office Outreach services in Northern Ireland provide a sustainable range of post office and banking services in safe, pleasant and accessible surroundings and over convenient hours which match the needs of rural communities and businesses.
In May 2007, following a national public consultation, the Government announced the closure of up to 2,500 post office branches across the United Kingdom under the Network Change Programme, with approximately 500 of these to be replaced by Outreach services. The intention was that the programme would be a key component in a strategy to help stabilise the network following a substantial reduction of business at many branches, by concentrating that business in a smaller number of branches with an assured future. At the same time the programme would ensure that good accessibility for consumers to post office services would be maintained, with a set of accessibility criteria established to which the programme was required to conform.
The concept of Outreach service was adopted for the programme in rural areas of low population density and where low transaction levels meant it was difficult to justify a full-time conventional branch. Outreach was designed to ensure that the accessibility criteria were adhered to in such areas, with a range of formats providing a suite of key products, but at reduced service levels and incurring significantly less cost to Post Office Limited (POL) than a traditional post office.
Outreach services can be provided in four different formats:
- Partner service – A local business runs a post office service from their premises, for example a shop, mainly during the course of normal business hours, under the supervision of a nearby ‘core’ subpostmaster
- Hosted service – A subpostmaster from a nearby core post office visits a community at fixed times and provides a service from a ‘host’ location, such as a village or community hall, or shop
- Mobile service – A subpostmaster from a nearby core post office visits a location in a vehicle fitted with a post office counter and equipment, at fixed times and for a set period of time each week
- Home delivery service – A subpostmaster from a nearby core post office branch offers a limited service to registered customers, at the door, or at a local ‘drop-in session’ at a designated place
The Network Change Programme effectively reached completion by the end of 2008. Within Northern Ireland the programme involved the outright closure of 38 branches and the replacement of 54 others with Outreach services. This resulted in a post office network in Northern Ireland at December 2008 comprising 441 conventional branches and 58 Outreach services (including four earlier pilot Outreach services).
While the programme was underway, an unplanned, forced closure at one location (Kircubbin, Co Down) resulted in POL introducing a pilot for a new format similar to Outreach, called PO Essentials. This format is akin to Partner service, but it is stand-alone, without supervision of a core subpostmaster and with a slightly different operational structure.
Since the research was carried out two additional PO Essential branches have been opened to replace unplanned closures at conventional post offices and there have been a small number of adjustments in services at Outreach locations. A full list of Outreach and PO Essential branches in Northern Ireland at time of publication is attached.
The Network Change Programme met with strong resistance in many communities in Northern Ireland. Along with resistance to post office closures generally, much criticism was made regarding the likely impact of the closure of a community’s conventional branch and its replacement by an Outreach service. Consumer Focus Post made it a priority to carry out an evaluation of the impact of Outreach on those communities where it was introduced, and if necessary, to campaign publicly for changes so that services provided better meet the needs of consumers.
This report summarises the findings of research commissioned by Consumer Focus Post, and carried out by Millward Brown Ulster, between September and October 2009. It evaluates the range of Outreach formats introduced across Northern Ireland, and includes some findings regarding the PO Essentials pilot established within the timeframe of the Network Change Programme.
This report reaches conclusions about each Outreach type individually, and about Outreaches generally, and goes on to make recommendations to tackle a number of important shortcomings in the formats revealed by the research.
The full research report is also available: Evaluating Outreach Services in Northern Ireland – Research report by Millward Brown
