Meeting documents

Members will receive a briefing on the delivery of library services in Buckinghamshire. They will consider the key recent changes and developments, and the opportunities and challenges for library services going forward.

Martin Phillips, Cabinet Member for Community Engagement

David Jones, Service Delivery Manager

Julia King, Development Manager

Papers:

·         Buckinghamshire Library Service: an Overview

The Chairman welcomed Martin Phillips, Cabinet Member for Community Engagement, David Jones, Service Delivery Manager, Julia King, Development Manager, to the meeting.

An information paper was circulated with the agenda.

The following questions were asked;

The report sets the position and current situations for the Library Services following recent changes.  What is the County Council’s long term vision and aspiration for future of the Library Services for the next 5-10 years and are there plans in place for this? Mr Phillips explained that the library service is currently going through a 4-5 year transformation which has just passed the halfway point. The management structure was looked at a couple of years ago, followed by the community libraries and how library services were delivered in Bucks.  One of the commitments made was made not to close any libraries unless the community did not want them.

There has been a review of the mobile library services in Buckinghamshire to see how this can be delivered more effectively.  This includes the use of community shops and pubs etc within the smaller villages and hamlets of Buckinghamshire i.e. an order of books being delivered by a small van to a shop/pub which would be a better use of resources. The next part of the review is to look at the retained library service to see how the number of volunteers can by increased whilst maintaining a professional staff.

There has been a change in the way that libraries are used which the County Council has to react to i.e. the move to increased self-service and check in/check out of books, better IT resources and the sharing of library buildings with other services. There are a couple of libraries in Buckinghamshire where the police force is sharing the facility. Health checks have taken place in Libraries. The Health and Wellbeing Team have used 26 locations and health checked 1825 people. 3 locations were BCC libraries at which 835 residents were seen.  This equates to 46% of those seen in the 26 locations.

What is the succinct vision/concept for Library Services? The succinct vision is reacting to the market and making better use of the buildings in the next 5-10 years.

To what extent it is feasible to roll out the community library service even further i.e. using other community buildings and what are the opportunities and risks for this model of delivery? Mr Jones explained that points 1-6 in the report give an analogy of model - looking at county and community as a complimentary partnership.  At the moment there is a very clear relationship of the support given in the county which in turn influences the success of the community. The scaled up of a model is i.e. in the biggest and busiest community partnerships in Wendover and Gerrards Cross, begs the question of whether the dynamic in terms of the number of volunteers, the range, volume and complexity of the transactions would be successful.  The plan at the moment in terms of future savings is to invest in self-service technology, to continue to ensure that the county can adequately support the community but also to use volunteers in an added value context and continue to generate efficiencies.

Working with other partners, how can the Authority get the best use of the facilities and services? Mr Jones referred members to section 8 of the report which describes the variety of agendas that the county library service can contribute to i.e. digital inclusion, Health and Wellbeing, employment skills and particular areas of importance and attraction for elderly people. We need to remember that with Community Library partnerships, there is a transaction or contract of sorts about liaison with the council to support the delivery of a service to reduce greater cost. This goes hand in hand with greater freedoms that the community can then use to shape and define that library in line with their needs.  This is slightly at odds with a co-ordinated, high quality, skilled approach which allows the county council to contribute to some of those agendas. The county offer is starting to be defined now in terms of those agendas

Mr Phillips added that another area of partnership being looked into is that similar to the business hub in Chesham – the provision of a conferencing within the library for businesses in the Chiltern area as well as a free meeting room and office space for hot desking. It is hoped that this model will be rolled out across the county.

How much work has taken place to look at opportunities to develop and share premises with local businesses to run a community library? Mr Phillips explained that talks have taken place with the police and other groups and they also have the need to save money. The County Council and organisations can work together to make these joint savings.

Mr Jones added that during work to implement the community library partnerships, there was a very high profile consultation which in turn provoked a lot of interest, in particular from Thames Valley Police. There are some existing partnerships for example children’s services. However; a concerted proactive approach in terms of targeting particular agencies has not been rolled out. In some respects, there is almost an abundance of opportunities.  Over the last five years the Council has reacted to significant financial challenges and a lot of time and effort has been invested in delivering a new model. Work needs to take place to look at the contribution the Council would most like to see and what that might be in terms of the role out of the business, business hubs in libraries and using these as the face of the Council to co-locate other services, drive down costs and bring the Council closer to the community. At the moment it is felt that this is where there is no clear direction of travel.

The national trend for public libraries since 2006 is visits to libraries and book borrowing nationally has dropped.  The challenge is for public libraries to consider services and to look at where else they can bring value and make the effective contribution to the overall priorities of the Council.  The final section of the report (section 11) gives a number of scenarios and the direction of travel.

Page 16 of the report outlines what the key facts and trends were in 2013/14. The Committee asked if there were some figures available to put these into context.  Has this information been prepared for the meeting today? Mr Jones explained that figures are available.  The guide for the members induction 2013 which includes 2012/13 data can be circulated to Committee Members.

Action: Mr Jones

The headlines for the key facts in the report are;

Physical visits – the estimate for 2013/14 is 1.7 million, last year 12/13 1703.

The most recent national trend data from the Chartered Institute of Professional Financial Accountants (CIPFA) shows;

12/13 shows the national trend in terms of number of visits reduced by 6%; book issues are down by 5% (the national trend is 9%); active members reduced by 5% (national trend data 9%); new members up by 18% to 18,500 members (14,675 in 2012/13). This could be related to the pricing strategy for IT usage.  The first hour of IT usage is now free for members of the library. The number of visits to libraries catalogue page are static; access to online reference materials – the figures are slightly down; online issues i.e. e-books – an increase of 168%; public computer sessions - an increase of 28%.

Nationally there is an increase of 88% in the use of e-books. These statistics tell of a new and emerging market that public library services are beginning to respond to.  Although only 3% of the overall issues are library stock; nevertheless these are exponentially increasing at a very sharp rate.

The level of the report is commended. How is the level of public satisfaction of the library service monitored/measured i.e. regular surveys, public awareness sessions etc.  Mr Jones explained that library services tended to conduct a standard customer survey every four years which has been rolled out nationally and allows comparative data to be pulled together for all library services nationally. The requirement from the current Government to produce this data has changed.  Many library services now no longer carry out this survey. Buckinghamshire County Council plan in the year ahead to continue to carry out informal surveys but a comprehensive county wide survey has not been rolled out for several years. In the previous year a survey for computer users was carried out to find out what they were using the computers for and if they were happy with the offer being provided.  There is an informal customer comment and complaint procedure in place as well as a focus from managers and frontline staff to engage with customers informally in developing and improving the service.  There is the need to roll out a countywide customer services survey which is planned in the year ahead. The results of the survey can be reported to the Committee.

Action: David Jones

Is there engagement with those who run the community libraries to ask what is being done well, what is being done badly and what could be done better and regular forum to communicate and liaise?  Mr Jones explained that regular review meetings take place with all of the community libraries.  A member of staff has specifically been recruited as part of the community library strategy to offer a supporting role particularly in terms of training.  Each county library has a role in terms of informal buddying support to ensure the community libraries have clear information in terms of first points of contact and resources available for training.  There is member of staff within the Information Services team who visits community libraries to deliver sessions on 24 hour on line resources and e-books etc. A children’s co-ordinator goes to each community library to invite and involve them in our summer reading challenge. Library services that previously felt challenged by the community libraries have a renewed and revised approach to supporting community libraries and are now vocal champions of the service.

Has a Committee been set up to act as governance for community libraries and what parameters do community libraries operate within?

Mr Phillips explained that the Community Library has a Committee and a group of volunteers.

Mr Jones added that there is a Resource Grant arrangement in place whereby the County Council seeks to support and direct but not control, to include but not to coerce. This has been quite a challenge for the County Council in terms of a cultural shift of staff etc as this is quite a new model.  There is no precedent nationally in terms of what has been done. Self-managed community libraries are invariably ‘not for profit’ organisations constituted as charities.  They have their own internal governance.  The Resources Grant Agreement will require transparency and equity.  The County Council concern is that the organisation should be an inclusive and fair organisation. For models where there are a number of different reasons where formal lease arrangements or Resource Grant Arrangements have not been entered into, there are Partnership agreements which define the clear roles and responsibilities.

Does the County Council insist that community libraries must be a charity so there is a public record of finances and trustees? Before taking forward the report for a Cabinet Member decision, all of the Committees were required to submit a business plan.  BCC does not insist that a Community Library constitutes as a charity but invariably all of them have elected to be a ‘not for profit’ organisation in one form or another.

How is the co-location with other services working and is there governance in place? Mr Jones explained that governance arrangements take place through the lease which makes a provision for co-location. In Haddenham the community library is co-located with a children’s centre and in Great Missenden, Thames Valley Police.  With the children’s centres, a demised space is created through the lease.  A lease is entered into with the Community library for the building with the exception of the area used for children’s services.  This area would be a separate lease.

The community library and business hub in Chesham are mentioned in the report.  Is this model going to be rolled out and are the services financially viable? Julia King explained that Chesham Hub is run in partnership with Bucks Business First and they have the model already operating in Saunderton.  As part of the work the County Council does with BBF in terms of them signpost their members to the library for some of our professional business resource, the dialogue started from their desire to operate hubs outside Saunderton. As part of the work being done with Chesham partnership to bring different bodies to work together, Chesham seemed to be the key starting place for libraries to work with Bucks Business First.  They are keen to look at other areas i.e. in the North of the county.  The library service will take this forward with BBF to see if the Chesham hub can be replicated in a library in the north of the county i.e. Buckingham library

Future challenges have been mentioned in the report but not how savings will be delivered. The report refers to an increased income of only £10,000 per year which does not seem a huge amount.  Is there more scope to increase income? Self-service organisational change savings of £450,000 are also referred to in the report.  Are these figures realistic; does this pose a threat to the service or is it an opportunity to improve the service.  Mr Jones explained that the report summarises the last four years in terms of £1m.  The County Council is very proud of the track record as there has not been a reduction in opening hours and no libraries have been closed. Eight of the community libraries have increased their opening hours and over £1m of savings has been generated year on year in terms of net expenditure by remodelling.

There is the further challenge of saving another £500,000 in the next three years.  A period of formal staff consultancy on proposals for organisational change will begin on the 29 April 2014.  This will be the stretching of the management span of the county structure and the de-layering of the management structure for the county library.  It should be possible to deliver in the region of £200,000/£300,000 savings though by necessity having a bold approach to the transformation of the management structure.  It is hoped that more flexible, more casual staffing arrangements will be introduced in the following years.  Section 11 of the report refers to future shape/governance.  Having plans in place for another £500,000 of savings, the library service might need to consider either new governance arrangements such as a staff mutual, a trust or a co-operative approach or the County Council may want to consider a network of community venues which could be the core around which other County Council services are co-located.

This is a very good opportunity to use libraries and other premises owned by Bucks County Council as hubs around which other Council services can be clustered, bringing the Council closer to the Community. Mr Phillips said that in the North of the County one option being considered is retraining/reskilling library staff to act as a ‘contact point’ in those areas.

Mr Jones referred to the national trend which is a year on year decline in the number of library book borrowing and physical visits, libraries attract a huge emotional, social and community support which can sometimes be out of proportion to the level of use the service. A way of continuing to deliver the traditional services that are very popular needs to be found i.e. co-locating could represent a way forward in terms of sustainable library services.

The Chairman thanked the presenters for explaining the report and for their response to the variety of questions and the very useful discussion.

Comments made by the Committee

·         There is a lack of clarity of the vision and commitment for the future plan in terms of what the library services is, and could be and the governance process.

·         An understanding of how the financial challenges are being used to drive a vision for the new library

·         An understanding of the overriding strategy of the transition to a new library service

The Committee agreed the following;

1.    The Cabinet Member/Service Area design and plan a long term strategy and vision for the future of library services, including more of a strategy on how budget changes will be dealt with.

2.    Develop more defined objectives over how the council library services can work in partnership with other organisations (e.g. co-location opportunities/community hubs) and proactively pursuing opportunities in a coordinated way.

3.    Provide the committee with an update in 6 months on the longer term plan for the future of library services over the next 5 years and incorporating the points above.