Issue - meetings

Cabinet Member: Safer & Stronger Communities

Forward Plan Ref: 2011/172

Contact: Alexandra Bailey, Corporate Performance & Review Manager Tel: (01865) 816384; Karen Warren, Acting County Librarian Tel: (01865) 323580

Report by Director for Social & Community Services.

To consider the report on the outcomes of the public consultation on the future of the library service and agree the way forward.

The same report will have been considered by the Safer & Stronger Communities Scrutiny Committee, and their views will be presented to the meeting by the Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee.

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to accept the proposals outlined in this report:

(a)         The County Council will fully fund and resource all of the libraries that form part of our comprehensive and efficient library service.  These core libraries are:

         Abingdon, Banbury, Berinsfield, Bicester, Blackbird Leys, Botley, Carterton, Chipping Norton, Cowley, Didcot, Eynsham, Headington, Henley, Kidlington, Littlemore, Neithrop, Oxford Central, Summertown, Thame, Wallingford, Wantage and Witney

(b)         The County Council will continue to provide a fully supported infrastructure (building, ICT, book stock and the installation of self-service facilities) to those libraries which fall outside of our comprehensive and efficient library service.  The Council will also work with each of these libraries to establish a Friends Group to enable a shift in the balance of staffing in these libraries towards volunteers over a three-year period. 

(1)                                             For Community Plus libraries, this would mean one third volunteers and two thirds paid staff.

                        These libraries are:

                        Chinnor, Faringdon, Grove, Wheatley and Woodstock

(2)                                             For Community Libraries this would mean one half volunteers and one half  paid staff.

                        These libraries are:

         Adderbury, Bampton, Benson, Burford, Charlbury, Deddington, Goring, Hook Norton, Kennington, North Leigh, Old Marston, Sonning Common, Stonesfield, Watlington, Woodcote and Wychwood

(c)     The Council will review the Quantitative Analysis of Service Requirements every four years, or earlier if deemed appropriate.

Cabinet considered the report on the outcomes of the public consultation on the future of the library service. The same report was considered by the Safer & Stronger Communities Scrutiny Committee.

Councillor Lawrie Stratford, Chairman of the Safer & Stronger Communities Scrutiny Committee presented the views of that meeting. He commented that the Committee had heard from 6 members of the public and 2 councillors. Amongst the main points raised were the following:

Dependence on volunteers

• Fear there could be a lack of volunteers to be found
• Volunteers’ skills, need for extensive training
• Lone working concerns
• Friends of libraries groups already stretched

Consultation

• Criteria based on need, current usage not taken into account
• Rural bias in the methodology used to assess the requirements of the library service
• Smaller libraries affected disproportionately
• Cuts should be evenly distributed across all libraries
• Not sufficient account taken of proposed housing growth

Costs and funding

• Benchmarking of service costs against other authorities
• Savings difficult to deliver

He noted that the Committee had heard a detailed case from the officers and the Cabinet Member for Safer & Stronger Communities. The Committee had thanked officers and the Cabinet Member for their work throughout the consultation and were appreciative that local issues had been heard and responded to. The Scrutiny Committee welcomed that all libraries were to remain open and that in Community libraries the balance of paid staff to volunteers had been increased to half and half. The Scrutiny Committee had also welcomed the review in 4 years or earlier if appropriate as made clear in the recommendations. He concluded that at the end of the debate most members had been satisfied that concerns had been met and supported the recommendations before the Cabinet.

Ms Meryl Smith, ORCC, in welcoming the revised approach, which avoided library closures, commented that it would still be a significant challenge particularly for the rural areas. There would be a need for volunteers and for support for the local communities. Her organisation was available to support the efforts of the local Friends’ Groups, local communities and the local authority. Responding to a statement from Councillor Couchman that the ORCC had particular skills in finding volunteers Ms Smith agreed that new volunteers would be needed.

Councillor John Goddard, Shadow Cabinet Member for Safer & Stronger Communities commended the work done over the past year and particularly the diligent, courteous and thoughtful approach of Councillor Judith Heathcoat. He recognised that the current position was a massive shift from the original proposals and outlined what he saw as the reasons for this including the outpouring of public support for libraries. He believed that the concern about the lack of volunteers was overstated and that sufficient people would come forward. He welcomed that the Council would work with each particular library. He still had concerns about lone working and stressed the need for instant access to advice and support. The report recommendations generally reflected a good position which he had supported at the Scrutiny Committee meeting. Councillor Judith Heathcoat replied  ...  view the full minutes text for item 141

10.45

To discuss the revised proposals for the future of the library service, in order to advise Cabinet. The Director for Social & Community Services, John Jackson, will give a brief presentation on the Cabinet report (attached).

The committee discussed the changes proposed to Cabinet for the Library Service at some length. The Director for Social & Community Services, John Jackson, gave a comprehensive presentation on the Cabinet report. He explained how proposals had changed, taking into account:

• Public reaction to initial proposals a year ago and responses to the consultation over the summer
• Additional resources available as reflected in February’s council budget
• Library service legislation now tested in court

The council had now defined that its ‘comprehensive and efficient network’ of library provision was made up of 22 core libraries. No alternative definition had been put forward, except the suggestion to base it on usage figures rather than need.

John Jackson noted that the Wirral case suggested a comprehensive and efficient network should be based on need not current usage; a wide range of factors influenced usage figures of any given library. The case also showed that clear robust criteria should apply across all libraries without exception. In terms of the concerns expressed about the council’s data analysis, he referred to the full response made available on the website and included as Annex 6 of the Cabinet report.

He offered a detailed overview of the costs of the library service, concluding that genuine back office functions made up less than 10% of the overall cost of the service - a comparable figure to other authorities.

In response to suggestions that reductions should be shared across the whole service, officers had advised that the core network should be resourced properly. The introduction of self-service had also brought savings in these 22 libraries.

However, the council wished to see the other 21 libraries remain open as valued community assets. It proposed to continue funding these, 81% of the costs of community and community plus libraries, and ensure they had full access to the library system. The proposals included an increase in the proportion of paid staff to volunteers, at an additional cost of £67,000. It was noted that it was up to town and parish councils to decide if they wanted to provide additional funding through their precept.

Karen Warren gave further details on how the council was, and proposes to, train and support library volunteers. She noted that there already were 140 active volunteers and 24 in process of being trained. Training would be mostly in-house and where this was not possible, e.g. with First Aid and Fire, it would be held as locally as possible. Support could be tailored for individual libraries and guidance would be light-touch. There would be clear support and a communication tree for any cases of lone working, where this could not be avoided. Officers were confident that volunteering in a library would be an attractive option and the service would be able to attract and retain sufficient volunteers. 461 potential volunteers had come forward in the consultation.

During the subsequent debate, members raised further questions and sought clarity and reassurance in a number of areas. These included support for volunteers, cost of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 171