Understanding the Needs of Rural Communities
Citizens Advice wanted to understand the impacts of temporary post office closures (and their replacement with outreach services) on rural communities.
The research presented two key challenges:
Identifying and recruiting participants to ensure a good mix of people in specific geographic locations – we were looking for people in very specific rural settings. It was vital that we spoke to people who were genuinely part of those communities served (or not) by the specific types of post offices of interest.
And then, importantly, we wanted to be sure we were telling their stories in a compelling way.
The two challenges were right up our street! Our mission as a company is all about ensuring that communities’ voices are heard. We have extensive experience of exploring how things are ‘on the ground’ and creating outputs which bring this to life for decision makers.
We conducted over 50 interviews with people living and working in ten villages across England, Scotland and Wales. Interviews were conducted with people who lived in villages with community post offices; villages where the post office had closed in the last eighteen months; and villages where the post office had been closed and replaced with a part-time outreach service. The mix of experiences was important so we could really understand the importance of the post office in these remote rural communities.
The recruitment of community members in these very remote and specific locations (including villages in the Inner Hebrides, mid-Wales and the Highlands of Scotland) was challenging so we worked with the experts at Fieldmouse, who specialise in rural recruitment. They use recruiters in local areas who are known in their local communities and also raise awareness of their company through sponsorship of local community events, from charity events to literary festivals. For us, because some of the locations were very remote, some of their recruitment was achieved through travelling long distances to specific villages to recruit community members in person.
In terms of telling the stories, we made sure that our reporting focused on enabling community members to have their voices heard. We were able to tell stories to illustrate the different ways post office services impact on people’s lives; vividly demonstrating the ways in which they are relied upon by people in these communities; as well as showing the very real detriment faced by those who have lost theirs (or have reduced services). The inclusion of community leaders in our sample, and our focus on ten specific locations, meant we were able tell these stories at, not only an individual, but also at a community level, drawing together the different narratives to show the wider impact. In this way, we took a 'community view' approach, recruiting several residents, community leaders and SME owners within each village to get a rounded view of how the community as a whole used traditional post offices, and the impacts of their closure or of the shift to mobile post-office services (provided, for example, from a van a few hours a week). We also partnered with Postcode Films, award winning documentary makers, to produce an ethnographic film of residents affected by changes in service in two of the selected communities. We are proud to have told their stories.
The research outputs have provided compelling evidence of the central role of traditional 'bricks and mortar' post offices in rural communities, such as providing the essential functions of life to some of the most vulnerable residents; connecting people to banking and online retail services; and providing valuable social interaction to people at risk of isolation.
Community Research presented the research to a large group of government and industry stakeholders responsible for decisions on postal services. Citizens Advice published the research findings in their report, Gaps in the Network, as part of their campaign for improvements in the post office network.