Support resources are out there for postmasters

Mark Eldridge wants to ensure that everyone in the post office network knows where to seek wellbeing support if needed. He has successfully led a collaboration between Post Office Ltd (PO), the National Federation of SubPostmasters (NFSP), and Voice of the Postmaster.

The Wellbeing Initiative was showcased to staff and postmasters at PO’s Wood Street Headquarters in London at the end of October. Mark, the PO Postmaster Experience Director, Christine Donnelly, NFSP Non-Executive Director, Sara Barlow, Voice of the Postmaster secretary, and Martin Hopcroft, PO Director of Health and Safety, explained the effort invested into the project and spoke about the wellbeing tools and resources now available.

With the mantra throughout the initiative ‘if we just help one person, it will all be worthwhile’, Mark says it is vitally important that postmasters know where support can be found.

He highlighted how he had difficult times when he started out as postmaster in 2018 and could have done with a support network: “I had five days of on-site training after which the unbiblical cord was cut.

“I made every mistake going and it really affected my mental wellbeing because I was in a crisis most days. I was constantly trying to firefight and recover from issues I had created. I just felt alone.

“There were stats at the time around how many times branches called the Branch Support Centre. I interpreted that as I shouldn’t be calling because I knew I wasn’t as highly skilled as I should have been. But these were all my own perceptions, I didn’t have a postmaster network to rely on.

“I didn’t have a friend to call to ask for support and advice. I draw a reference to that personal experience to know that whilst the support structure has moved on since then thankfully, there are still people out there who have their moments of need, and they are unpredictable at times.

“We just want to publicise the work we have done so everyone knows where to go if they ever need that support.”

A tile on Branch Hub and the Wellbeing Toolkit on the NFSP website were both launched on World Mental Health Day (10 October). Mark said: “The feedback has been great, and we’ve had a lot of clicks on the Branch Hub tile. Whilst in one way we don’t want postmasters to need the resources, it’s good they know it is out there.

“If we just improve the experience or the support for one postmaster, then the work has been worth it. There is a lot of support resource out there now through PO, the NFSP and Voice of the Postmaster.

“I’m super proud of what we have delivered so far. We now want to continue this work to ensure postmasters always know where to go for help and support.”

Health and Wellbeing resources can be found on the NFSP website and through a tile on Branch Hub.