National Lottery Charities Board Corporate Office

Operations Planning Unit

The OPU is a corporate resource with a Charities Board-wide remit.

The OPU was set up to meet Board-wide co-ordination and planning needs. Our aim is to develop a more Board-wide approach to planning, which will lead to less "re-invention of wheels" and therefore more effective use of everyone�s time. We aim to improve communication between all departments and to integrate views from across the organisation.

Our role involves:

• Change Management - relating to internal changes to operations and co-ordinating release of new materials
• Projects and issues - providing a channel for new projects and ideas and involving staff in coming up with business-led recommendations
• Working groups - co-ordinating groups to ensure balanced membership, progress and achievement of deliverable targets, with no duplication of work
• Co-ordination of new grant programmes - providing a forum for internal feedback that will influence the policy and delivery of new programmes
• Telemarketing - managing our external call centre to respond to requests for application packs
• Cross-distributor initiatives - pursuing joint Lottery distributor working
• Forward timetable - planning and time-tabling organisational activities by collecting and monitoring information from key sources