Agenda item

Having considered the strategy in November 2021, the Committee requested an update on the Libraries and Heritage Strategy.

Cllr Neil Fawcett, Cabinet member for Corporate Services, Mark Haynes, Director of Customers and Culture, and Mark McCree, Service Manager: Libraries and Heritage, have been invited to present the report and to answer the Committee’s questions.

The Committee is recommended to consider the report, to ask any questions, and to AGREE any recommendations it wishes to make to Cabinet arising from the report and discussion.

Cllr Neil Fawcett, Cabinet member for Corporate Services, gave a brief introduction to the report which sought to update the Committee on the outworking of the Libraries and Heritage Strategy since it was launched in June 2022.  Cllr Fawcett commended the work of the Director of Customer Experience, Cultural, and Property Services, Mark Haynes, (the Director) and that of the Service Manager: Libraries and Heritage, Mark McCree, (the Service Manager) who attended alongside him.

The Director explained that the Strategy was now very well-established and that it continued to evolve and develop.  Libraries were about far more than simply borrowing books and it was important for the Council to respond to the needs of the community.

The Service Manager gave an extensive but succinct overview of the report and its annexes.  The main report set out for the Committee the planning and performance framework that was established prior to the launch of the strategy and which had been subsequently implemented over the last 18 months.  The implementation of these were demonstrated in the annexes to the report.  He explained to the Committee that he had been determined that the strategy would not ‘gather dust’ but rather had provided quarterly updates measuring achievements against the service plan.  The Committee’s attention was drawn to the infographic at annexe 9 setting out how Cultural Services had benefit the people of Oxfordshire in 2022/23.  Amongst that it was noted that there had been 1.6m visitors to Oxfordshire libraries with over 800 activities run, attended by 133k people.

The Service Manager assured the Committee that there was a constant and consistent commitment to further improvements for the benefit of residents in accordance with the Council’s priorities.

The Committee were grateful for the clarity of the report and for its presentation.  The infographic in annexe 9 was commended as a particularly excellent example of good practice which should be shared with colleagues more widely as it set out so clearly and so easily the service’s data.

In discussion with members, the following were raised:

·       That the Council had partnered with the Library of Things but that there was no intention for the Council to run one itself;

·       There were Digital Champions who supported those who struggled with ICT to use such in libraries and the staff and volunteers in libraries were commended for their helpfulness by members of the Committee;

·       The Committee was advised that 11000 validations for bus passes had been supported in libraries last year and that the library populations tended to mirror background demographics with those in the greatest need tending to navigate to the library; the Libraries Services had reached out to partners and had worked with those supporting homeless people and local colleges; greater awareness of the support libraries could offer was to be encouraged;

·       It was noted that there are many services to support vulnerable users but what would be most helpful would be a single point of access triage service which could support people to access all the services the Council could support them with;

·       That the Council did not want libraries to be standalone but embedded in their communities as community assets, with a number of organisations present at the Westgate; there was exploration of whether cafés and banks could be placed in libraries; the Committee was advised that there were live discussions with two commercial banks about access to rural banking services.  Regrettably, financial constrains meant that any return to a mobile library provision was very unlikely but the Council’s Home Library Service was valuable to those unable to visit libraries themselves;

·       Whilst the service had come in on budget this year, there were financial constraints and ongoing pressures to provide the optimum service necessary with hesitations regarding the Asset Development Plan; it was suggested that the experiences of the French Ambassador to the OECD, might be worth exploring as she had conducted significant work in this area;

·       It was noted that the whole county had a rich and diverse living heritage – far wider than simply ancient buildings, towns, and trees but including motor-cars, bicycles, and music - and, whilst most of the heritage focus was led by partners rather than the Council itself, the Council was keen to draw attention to that aspect of the service; the Committee’s attention was drawn to the Heritage Search part of the website (https://heritagesearch.oxfordshire.gov.uk/ ) which had many and varied resources available;

·       The question of how heritage was protected across the county whilst nonetheless building the necessary houses was explored briefly.

In closing the item, the Committee once again commended the clarity of the presentation and of the infographic and observed that it would be well worth the Scrutiny function drawing other services’ attention to it as an exemplar.  The Committee also observed that the Cabinet member would do well to contact the French Ambassador to the OECD to seek her advice.

The Committee resolved to make recommendations to Cabinet under the following headings:

1.    That the Council should consider how best to partner with other organisations to provide community hubs in libraries;

2.    That the Council should continue to work with Age UK and Family Centres and other organisations to encourage awareness of the facilities available in libraries;

3.    That the Council should proactively advertise the Home Library Service;

4.    That the Council should proactively raise the profile of the heritage aspect of the service and also of music education;

5.    That the Council should consider how best to integrate the Libraries and Heritage Strategy with the Street Homelessness Strategy to ensure easy navigation of services for vulnerable users.