Memorandum submitted by Staffordshire
County Council
INTRODUCTION
Staffordshire County Council has recently undergone
an Audit Commission Inspection of their Library and Information
Service. The outcome, announced on 21 October 2004 was that the
service was rated good with excellent prospects of improving.
The County Council has demonstrated a Corporate commitment to
service improvement, remaining focused and providing resources.
The service involvement in LPSA and the support given through
this process corporately has helped to maintain that focus, as
has been outlined below.
The inspection found that: "Staffordshire
County Council is committed to delivering a modern library service.
A strong focus on re-branding the service, marketing and effective
use of funds to create attractive modern libraries is providing
local people with a good service. Increased opening hours, adoption
of retail principles and developments of one stop shops and advice
surgeries within libraries are providing local people with improved
access to the range of services they require."
The County Council welcomes this new enquiry,
dated 26 October 2004 and presents the following evidence which,
it is hoped, will assist in the Committee's deliberations.
1. BACKGROUND
The following information is intended to provide
information on the efficacy of the County Council delivering a
statutory service, in line with local authority corporate priorities
and in partnership with a variety of organizations, including
the eight local district councils. It will also focus on the national
context and framework and how this has informed the development
and delivery of the service.
The Council's Vision is: To make Staffordshire
a great place to live, work, visit and invest.
Key areas for Libraries and Culture within the
wider Education and Lifelong Learning Directorate are highlighted
in Staffordshire County Council's corporate strategy as:
— Providing lifelong learning opportunities
through schools, colleges, libraries and adult education, learning
and youth services.
— Focusing on people and communities—the
cultural life of a community is enhanced through access to music
and the arts, through library activities and through the museums
and archives services.
— Services in the areas of libraries,
culture and lifelong learning are working hard to improve customer
access and to engage communities. Part of this wider access is
delivered through greater use of ICT with e-services increasingly
available through libraries.
1.1 The Audit Commission Inspectors found:
— Good quality facilities with opening
hours that reflect local needs.
— Opportunities to access services
remotely using IT plus up to date IT facilities within libraries.
— Strong focus within the service on
improvement, on increasing usage, improving access and improving
the experience of visiting a library for local people.
— Effective joint working with district
councils and other partners to deliver services jointly via one
stop shops and advice surgeries.
— Strong commitment within the county
council to developing the service further.
— Service is developing a system to
monitor impact of its services and use this data to inform future
planning.
1.2 To help the services improve further,
inspectors' recommendations were:
— Ensure all targets at all levels
within the service are measurable so that the impact of activities
can be properly monitored.
— Finalise the draft cultural strategy
and identify how the service will contribute to the cultural agenda.
(The full text of the Inspection report can be found on the commission's
web site www.audit-commission.gov.uk)
1.3 Further corporate, regional and national
influence
— Audit Commission researchers visited
Staffordshire County Council in early 2000, to discuss its improvement
programme, developed as part of the Best Value Review of Library
Services.
— The resulting information was featured
in both "Building Better Public Libraries" (Audit Commission
2000) and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport's report
"Framework for the Future" (February 2003), as evidence
of good practice.
— At the invitation of the MLA, the
County Librarian was invited to partner the MLA and give a presentation
at the recent Low Countries Seminar in Belgium in 2004, as an
exemplar of good practice for the "Framework for the Future".
— The County Librarian is also a board
member for the regional MLA.
— From a position of 34th in the league
tables in 1999, the service is now rated 18th and has been assessed
as having excellent prospects for improvement by the Audit Commission.
— The authority recognised the importance
of its library service in the delivery of e government targets
and the head of service sits on the e government board and leads
a LPSA1 target for one stop shops. She also represents the service
at the negotiations and preparation for LPSA2.
— The service is represented at a corporate
level both in the Policy Development Group and in the People and
Communities agenda of the County Council.
— The service was awarded IiP in October
2002. It identified excellence in induction, staff review and
recognition processes, communication, the staff conference, training
and development. The directorate, including Library and Information
services achieved IiP as a whole in April 2004.
2. ACCESSIBILITY
AND IMPACT
Staffordshire County Council is in the West
Midlands of England. It covers an area of 260,000 hectares and
has a population of 810,000, living in 328,324 households. 2.4%
of the population are from minority ethnic communities. The main
urban areas include Stafford, Lichfield, Tamworth, Cannock, Burton-upon-Trent,
Newcastle-under-Lyme, Leek and Codsall. Three quarters of the
total land is rural and one quarter of the population live in
small rural communities. 40% of the population work in the county
and unemployment stands at 1.5%. However, 68,000 of the population
live in the 20% most deprived super output areas nationally by
the index of multiple deprivation 2004.
The council has endeavoured to improve its library
services in recent years to better serve these diverse communities.
It has invested time and resources in the development of the modernisation
programme identified as part of the best value process. It sees
its library service as being at the "heart of its communities"
and this has been endorsed by the inspection of the service. Consequently
the 43 static libraries, 11 mobiles and one mini library ensure
that the service reaches the National Public Library Standard
for libraries per 1,000 population in shire counties.
Staffordshire County Council has identified
that culture; lifelong learning and community based activities
are inextricably linked. The library service plays a key role
in supporting and delivering such activities. These range from
reading groups, creative writing development, arts activities,
literacy and family learning events to local family history events
and community engagement through local user groups facilitated
by local politicians. Widening participation and audience development
forms a basic part of the Regional Arts Lottery Programme Project
as well as the marketing programme.
The library as a source of information, advice
and support is crucial to community development and capacity building.
Many agencies now use the service as a focal point to offer support
with staff trained to support people in a variety of ways through
their mediated enquiry and advice skills. The service has been
charged with corporate support in developing a training package
for the delivery of e government. They are in a position to provide
interpretation of official information, active referrals to the
appropriate specialists and agencies and to put the enquirer at
ease in a neutral and non threatening environment. This will develop
further as libraries are an integral part of the corporate e government
agenda.
2.1 External evaluation of the impact of the
library service
Customer satisfaction surveys carried out in
the last two years have shown an increasing satisfaction with
the service. These have addressed users and potential users. In
addition to the CIPFA Public Library User Surveys of both adults
and children carried out in 2002 and 2003, there has been a pre
and post evaluation of the marketing campaign and a general council
user satisfaction survey carried out as an annual postal survey.
Key findings
— 90% of library users rated the quality
of books as good or very good.
— More than 95% agreed that staff are
helpful, polite and approachable.
— 60% felt that libraries had changed—most
frequently discussed were computers, the internet, libraries being
more modern and providing more and better service.
— 89% suggested environmental changes
have improved libraries, as they have become more open, informed
and spacious.
— The October 2003 CIPFA PLUS Adult
Survey and May 2004 Children's Survey demonstrated that satisfaction
with LIS has increased (see Position Statement, enclosed).
— Libraries performed very well in
the SCC General User Satisfaction Survey of 2003-04, with recognition
from one third of the respondents that the services had improved
in the last three years.
National standards
— 22 out of the 26 National Public
Library Standards were met by 31 March 2004 compared to 20 in
2002-03 and a starting position of nine when the standards were
introduced. A further three will be reached by March 2005.
— Visits—this standard is still
to be achieved with a 13% increase in actual visits over last
year and a further increase projected for March 2005 as part of
LPSA stretch targets and as a result of the improvement programme.
— It is disappointing to the authority
that the revised standards do not recognise virtual visits. The
increase of visits to the library service web site—as opposed
to web hits—has increased by 24.6% over the previous year.
2.2 Accessibility
— The service has focused on the accessibility
of local libraries, in terms of opening hours, location and community-wide
appeal in the last three years and, as is demonstrated above,
it meets the current demands of 60% of the public of Staffordshire
(see General Satisfaction Survey above).
— The Library service has increased
its opening hours by a total of 118 hours per week during 2003-04,
reaching 122 aggregate hours per 1,000 population in March 2004
with plans in place to reach the full standard of 128 by March
2005. This includes improvements in evening opening, Saturday
and Sunday opening times.
— The mobile library service has been
improved, reaching more communities with fewer vehicles (reducing
from 13 to 11 to a further reduction to 10 in March 2005)—this
is now forming the backbone of the community library service in
urban and rural areas.
— A Prison Library Service serves six
prison establishments in the county and Housebound services are
extensive and highly regarded
— Co-location and joint service delivery
in "extended" services—including the one stop
shop ventures—have attracted new users, as has the reduction
in barriers to use, such as reducing the need for identification
and every child receiving a library card at reception class.
— A framework for investing in children
and young people is informed by and engaged in the work of the
national offers formed as part of "Framework for the Future".
It is also a part of the corporate initiative and will be part
of the new Children's Directorate from April 2005.
— A Marketing plan is in place to increase
the public's use of local libraries, particularly hard to reach
groups and marketing and retail consultants have acted as critical
friends and advisors/trainers for the organisation.
— Details of the innovative work that
has been undertaken with the support of the authority as part
of the LPSA and allocating additional resources to meet standards
is outlined in both the latest Position Statement and the Audit
Commission's inspection report.
2.3 Policy and funding
The County Council invests in the service improvement
with a revenue budget of £11.4 milllion in 2004-05, an increase
of 5.1% over 2003-04.
Capital funding has been provided to complete
the improvement programme for design and improvements, supplemented
by external funding and the reinvestment of capital receipts.
An additional £250,000 has been invested
over the last two years to boost the stock fund and additional
resources have been made available to improve opening hours and
achieve Public Library Standards
LPSA target funding of £0.4 million supports
a project to introduce 12 one stop shops into local libraries
and support this with mediators, marketing and training. The library
service will deliver the CRM provision through library outlets
and trained staff.
16% of the total LIS budget is allocated to
stock purchase, with 20% for children. This balance is currently
under review, as are efficiency savings.
Staffordshire has introduced a charge for internet
access after the first hour free, to supplement developments in
ICT.
£8,000 was invested in the service by the
Directorate to introduce SMS services for customer request, online
ordering and joining is also in place and overdue requests are
also to be text messaged as well as using other means. A saving
of £10,000 was identified as a result of introducing text
messaging.
Reviews of stock supply and the delivery of
services to schools is currently under way to ensure the most
cost effective methods are employed. Future savings are planned
as part of these reviews in order to reinvest in more stock purchase.
Working in partnership to create new facilities
and spaces with joint funding has proved successful with such
projects as:
— NMI pathfinder—funding a one
stop mobile library and mini library run by volunteers in a school;
— a library in a school performing
arts facility;
— one in a youth and community centre;
— the first jointly managed one stop
shops with the Staffordshire Moorlands District Council at Cheadle,
Biddulph and Leek.
External funding has been awarded through the
Lottery; the Arts development fund for mobile livery and design;
the Regional Arts Lottery Programme; Regional MLA; the national
"Lending Time" initiative and the "Caring with
Books" project. Discussions are well under way with Early
Year and Surestart projects to help deliver the Bookstart programme
effectively.
An income strategy is being further developed
to ensure the full impact of a pricing policy, resources have
been provided to develop new procurement methods, including EDI
to produce a shelf ready product.
The SCC medium term financial strategy is identifying
efficiency savings and further investment in service development.
3. LEGISLATIVE,
STRATEGIC AND
ADMINISTRATIVE FRAMEWORK
Developments at a national level are positive,
on the whole. The County Council welcomes the revision of National
public library standards, with the exception of the omission of
virtual visits and the narrower interpretation of visits overall
and the low satisfaction rating for children. This does not support
the wider remit for library and information services outlined
in "Framework for the Future".
3.1 Staffordshire County Council's e government
agenda has placed libraries at the heart of delivery and influence
for both county and district councils. It has ensured that more
people are able to access services directly and with mediated
help in a seamless way. The increase in membership and use and
access to council services and to library services demonstrates
the wider role that libraries must play in helping people to navigate
and understand the plethora of information that is all around
them.
3.2 Neighbourhood renewal and capacity building
show that access to information and interpretation of information
gives people confidence and allows them to grow and move on. By
narrowing the remit for counting visits the DCMS are not helping
the service to demonstrate this crucial role to the full. Traditionally
libraries are routes to knowledge and empowerment, their genesis
was concerned with offering the disadvantaged in society the chance
to develop and grow. Access to a range of information and services
with personal assistance is still a vital part of this role and
something that people need, particularly those who are excluded
in society.
3.3 The digital citizenship role so clearly
outlined in the "framework" document is a crucial role,
libraries have always provided every citizen with access to information
and knowledge, underlining and supporting democratic rights. Libraries
ensure effective access to a wide range of information, guidance
and support, they provide neutral and safe spaces for all.
3.4 At this time of shared locality working
and the Children's agenda lower satisfaction rates for children
than for adults does not support the key role that libraries have
to play in the Children's agenda and gives mixed messages about
the importance of improvements in service to children.
3.5 The Audit Commission inspection recognised
in all three of its inspections of the service that Staffordshire
County Council's library service was at the forefront of engagement
with communities in service support and development. Local Members
chair small groups of local people. Thus reinforcing their local
role and impact. If it is to truly be close to all communities
it is essential that it engages with those communities and officers
support their Members in pursuit of this goal.
3.6 Staffordshire County Council is clear
that responsibility for the statutory library and information
service must remain with democratically accountable local government.
The service is the foundation of the authority's community service
and a people-centred library service must be part of the local
democratic process and managed within a local authority framework.
3.7 The impact of "Framework for the
Future" in this authority has enabled the service to focus
on core service areas and adopt these in their planning and service
development and delivery processes. The action plan could have
been better served by a focus on fewer key areas with the funding
being thus less widely spread and a focus on the wider context
would be welcomed.
3.8 This authority believes that the top
priority for the national agenda must be a focused national marketing
campaign and the national procurement agency for stock to simplify
the supply chain and allow for economies of scale in automated
services, similar to the model in the Netherlands. ICT infrastructure,
including hardware and software licensing procured as part of
the national agencies remit would ensure the relevant economies
of scale consistent with Gershon and the work currently being
undertaken on a strategic approach to procurement more generally
in the public services. This authority supports others in the
need to overhaul the public library supply chain from author to
reader.
3.9 National initiatives in the areas of
reading development, children's services and improved service
to young people through "Fulfilling their potential"
are the other key areas that this authority would want the major
national focus to be on.
3.10 The various domains are still not as
cohesive as they might be, with little evidence of overall strategic
planning for the culture, community and information sectors. It
is essential that crosscutting issues relating to access, content
development and delivery of e services, generic working and inclusion
must be progressed across the board at national, regional and
local level. Library services have a key role to play in this
as can be demonstrated in the many examples of good practice across
the country. A more co-ordinated supply of resources through the
academic, health and public library sector could enable some closer
working and shared resources.
3.11 Resourcing is a major challenge and
will continue to be so. ODPM and the Treasury need to re-assess
investment in the DCMS sector overall. It is difficult at present
to develop a case for a joined up sector. This authority would
like to see more recognition for the impact made by the sector
overall and how it contributes to the local authority objectives.
We agree with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
in her recent statement about the importance of the sector, the
sector urgently needs an evidence based approach that reinforces
this contribution. The development of impact measures to support
public library standards is a welcome improvement and this authority
is prepared to offer support and expertise in developing this
area.
3.12 Major challenges in capital funding
and re-location or co-location of premises continue to exercise
the corporate agenda. This authority has invested in an improvement
programme with £5 million, this has enabled developments
to take place in 27 service points. The addition of capital receipts
from sales ensured that some services can be re-located in joint
service provision. The remaining capital funding will enable some
minor design and re-furnishing of smaller libraries and the revision
of the community library service and introduction of one-stop
shops has created some economies of scale.
3.13 The continued maintenance of our property
base is under resourced. The high expectation of the public for
modern, light and bright facilities does necessitate the need
for further investment. This authority has pursued as much joint
service provision as has been available and has some innovative
projects. Historic buildings and the built environment is an area
that has not been properly recognised as a national imperative
to protect our heritage. This authority has several historic buildings
that require a significant investment to allow the best improvements
to take place, changes to the eligibility for library and other
services to apply for funding via the national lottery could provide
a manageable solution to this problem.
The rural agenda is also an area that the authority
it tackling through various initiatives and approaches. A rural
pathfinder in the north of the county will provide opportunities
for partnership working and the development of the community library
service and one stop shop approach is intended to deliver better
to this agenda. Involving the library sector in this agenda nationally
and locally would enable expertise and a more creative approach
to access for hard to reach groups be shared. The LPSA2 process
in the authority is looking at widening access to a range of council
services, however, the tight restrictions on outcomes is proving
difficult and is in danger of stifling innovative work and ensuring
that the focus is on safe and achievable targets.
4. VISION FOR
STAFFORDSHIRE COUNTY
COUNCIL'S
LIBRARY AND
INFORMATION SERVICE
— Our vision for the development of
the Library and Information Service is fully embedded in, and
consistent with, the County Council's Corporate Strategy and priorities.
This integration of strategic policy has been reinforced by the
inclusion of the Library and Information Service (LIS) in the
newly constituted Education and Lifelong Learning Directorate.
The new structure has benefited LIS, helping ensure that its potential
is more fully developed and has enabled the Service to play a
vital role in the wider vision of the Directorate to make Staffordshire
an "inclusive learning county".
— It is also evident that the Library
Service will be able to contribute to the development of an integrated
Children's Service in line with the aspirations of forthcoming
legislation outlined in the Green Paper, Every Child Matters.
The County Council will also ensure a clear focus for the
next five years to achieve the aspirations of Framework for
the Future (DCMS) and sustain improvements. This includes
a high profile and contribution to achieving e-enabled and seamless
Council services by 2005.
— Our political aspirations and arrangements
ensure that as the County Councillor responsible for Library Service,
the Councillor with responsibility for LIS (Jim Muir), is a full
Member of the Cabinet and a passionate advocate on its behalf.
In recent years the Council has prioritised the development of
the Library Service, in line with its statutory obligations, national
public library standards and priorities for library authorities.
This is reflected in increased levels of investment to ensure
we reach the standards required and an increasing impact and use
of services.
— The tiered structure introduced in
2002, as the result of the in-depth Best Value Review, provides
an area/district basis for the management of service delivery
while retaining effective strategic planning at the centre. This
allows the Service to combine strategic coherence with a locally
responsive and flexible delivery. It also means that the Service
has been able to respond to wider community initiatives working
in partnership with other agencies and stakeholders and is well
placed to play a key role in the localisation agenda of the County
Council.
5. SUMMARY
The public library service must lie at the heart
of its local authority and local community. It is central to the
delivery of culture, knowledge and heritage, contributing to corporate
programmes relating to digital citizenship, community cohesion
and the delivery of joined up and improved services to children
and young people. We can evidence the improvements in inclusiveness
and contributions to the regeneration and lifelong learning through
a variety of initiatives outlined in our Position Statement.
In this authority it has been recognised that
the library service is innovative and clear at working in partnership
to provide better access to services and community engagement
in service improvement. This authority believes that there are
economies of scale to be achieved through the supply and delivery
of resources such as stock and ICT, allowing changes in automation
of routine task to free up staff to interact with the public.
Closer integration of the cultural service domains and the academic
and health library and information sector should ensure better
access for all. A key role in the delivery of the e government
agenda has placed the library service at the centre of the local
authority e agenda.
Development of the workforce through generic
skills shared with the above sectors and the identification of
skills and competencies to deliver a modern services are key components
to ensuring the services continues to improve and deliver what
is required.
The financial framework for both capital and
revenue needs to have more impact in budget setting forums, with
recognition of the benefits of the service in the revenue support
grant settlement and through local authority funding. Access to
lottery funding is a key issue, as is the protection of high quality
built environment and investing in our heritage buildings. The
difficult issue of continued maintenance of property must be on
the agenda and the imaginative use of buildings for more than
one service with pooled funding and management can aid this process,
as we have demonstrated in this authority. However, there is still
a need for a radical approach to asset management and the associated
costs.
Staffordshire County Council would welcome the
opportunity to present examples of good practice to the inquiry,
particularly in areas of community engagement and improved access
to council services. For further information the recent inspection
document, and the library service annual Position Statement are
available on the following web sites: at www.audit-commission.gov.uk
and www.staffordshire.gov.uk/libraries.
There is a short DVD enclosed with this report
and a summary of the content, which demonstrates the results of
the innovative work that has been undertaken in the last few years.
12 November 2004
| 
