At a joint discussion the West Mids Forum felt the level 1 requirement should read 'appropriate and sufficient staffing to carry out core responsibilities' It was felt that service level agreements and contracts for professional advice - conservation, archives and records management, were important for any non-professional led or voluntary organisations to demonstrate that their staffing was appropriate. In our discussion an advanced POD level consisting of higher level targets which PODs would have to reach to be able to maintain their POD status was felt to be desirable. Clearly this would require higher levels of professional staffing than a voluntary run organisation.

It was as the result of a discussion of 7 heads of service, archivists and users in the region