Francis Koffi-Anafo

Said the following about London West Focus Group:

“Led by the charismatic and hard working Jamie Martin, the London West Focus Group consisting of Jamie Martin, Ayse Parish, Arthur Jones, Daisy Utuk, Winnifred Moore and Sandra Hider strive to improve relations among colleagues and customers alike.

The previous year they have really surpassed themselves. The Changing Times which is the newsletter for the London West stations is produced by the focus group and is very much sought after and other stations are in awe of it. A member of staff has even used it as a platform to come out as homosexual in a groundbreaking edition. Other issues have had articles on handling autistic passengers and their expected behaviour, Ramadan and what it means, and they also do their research on long retired members of staff to catch up with what they are doing no.

This year has also seen the introduction of the shadowing programme which involves members of staff shadowing any position and phase three of the programme involved other southwestern station group members coming to Charing Cross or Waterloo East to shadow for the day.

They are well known for their charity work raising thousands of pounds for Breast Cancer Care, Oxfam, MacMillan Cancer Support, Dame Kelly Holmes Trust, NSPCC, and the Army Benevolent Fund

They have hosted world food festival days, Christmas parties and are in the process of planning a Diwali party.

They also organise staff training in P2, Tyrell and basic computer skills.

The focus group also took a barren wasteland at the back of Waterloo East and turned it on to a thriving community garden and they erected hanging baskets on the platforms

Their ticket recognition course has proven to be popular and they have rolled it out to other station groups. The aim of the course was to teach every member of gate line staff in ticket validity and acceptance.“