Corporate report

Nineteenth meeting of the Libraries Taskforce

Published 3 April 2018

Meeting date: Monday 19 March 2018: 13:00 to 16:00 Location: Sheffield Central Library, Surrey Street, Sheffield, S1 1XZ

Attendees

• Kim Bromley-Derry (Chair) - Chief Executive: London Borough of Newham
• Kathy Settle - Chief Executive: Libraries Taskforce
• Paul Bristow - Director, Strategic Partnerships: Arts Council England
• Professor Steven Broomhead - Chief Executive: Warrington Borough Council
• Dr Neil Churchill - Director of Participation and Patient Experience: NHS England
• Jane Ellison - Head of Creative Partnerships: BBC
• Mark Freeman - President-elect, Society of Chief Librarians; Libraries and Heritage Services Manager, Stockton Borough Council
• Felix Greaves - Deputy Director of Science: Public Health England
• Polly Hamilton - Assistant Director, Culture, Sport and Tourism: Rotherham Council and Vice-Chair: Chief Cultural & Leisure Officers Association
• Kate McGavin - Deputy Director, Arts, Libraries and Digital Culture: Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) (job share)
• Simon Richardson - Head of Libraries: DCMS
• Mark Taylor - Director of External Relations: The UK Library and Information Association (CILIP)
• Sue Williamson - Director of Libraries: Arts Council England
• Julia Chandler - Communications Lead: Libraries Taskforce
• Charlotte Lane - Programme and Project Manager: Libraries Taskforce
• Foluke Oshin - Business Support: Libraries Taskforce
• Sheila Bennett - Policy and Secretariat Manager: Libraries Taskforce

Apologies:

• Cllr Mike Bell - Local Government Association (LGA): Culture, Tourism and Sport Board
• Sue Cook - Interim Chief Executive: Suffolk County Council
• Roly Keating - Chief Executive: British Library
• Neil MacInnes - President: Society of Chief Librarians (SCL); Strategic Lead – Libraries, Galleries and Culture, Manchester
• Nick Poole - Chief Executive: The UK Library and Information Association (CILIP)
• Liz White - Head of Strategy Development: British Library
• Sue Wilkinson - Chief Executive: The Reading Agency
• Helen Williams - Deputy Director, Arts, Libraries and Digital Culture: DCMS (job share)

1. Introduction

At its December 2017 meeting, the Taskforce had expressed an interest in spending more time looking at local arrangements and initiatives where Taskforce meetings were hosted by library services around the country. The visit to Sheffield library service had been arranged because it was working with a model of council-run and community-managed libraries (supported by the council).

Sheffield’s Cabinet member for Libraries and Culture, Cllr Mary Lea, joined the Taskforce for a ‘Show and Tell’ about the Darnall Library project. (She was ward member for Darnall as well as sponsor for the project). A recent One Public Estate (OPE) funded feasibility and community engagement project, this looked at services in a deprived area of the city with high numbers of new arrivals over recent years. Sheffield City Council (SCC) had numerous plots of land in Darnall and diverse service provision; the OPE aim was to explore whether and how it could combine services with the library.

The project used external organisation FutureGov, who had a track record of user centred service design. Their approach was to undertake in-depth discussions with individuals providing insights, rather than large consultation processes, as Darnall had previously had very poor response rates to usual survey techniques. Sheffield had supported FutureGov with a blended team drawn from libraries and internal change staff.

Sheffield talked the Taskforce through the process, and gave examples of the insights and opportunities uncovered for the library and its community. These were used to produce a new vision for the library at Darnall.

The Taskforce walked around a number of displays produced by the team and put questions to team members. Scott Mullen (SCC Business Change team), Alex Bunting (Sheffield Hallam Student), Liz Biggin (Library Development Officer) and Mubarak Hassan (Locality Officer for Darnall) attended for this session.

Phase 1 of the Darnall Project was nearing completion, and proposals for Phase 2 (to implement some of these ideas through rapid prototyping) were being reviewed with FutureGov and Sheffield’s own Business Change team.

Sheffield believed that bringing together library staff, locality officers, and the change team had created a unique blend of officers committed to making a difference for Darnall and promoting a ‘Libraries First’ ethos within the council.

This project was now being used as an exemplar of community engagement across Sheffield City Council at managers’ events chaired by the Chief Executive. Briefings had also been well received by the Clinical Commissioning Group who are located in Darnall. The chair thanked Sheffield library service for hosting the meeting and for a very stimulating and thought-provoking discussion.

2. Future of the Taskforce team - update

As Taskforce funding was scheduled to cease after March 2020, the Taskforce had been considering how work currently undertaken by the dedicated Taskforce team might be delivered in future.

At its February 2018 meeting, the Taskforce agreed a series of principles that would be used to inform this work. Using these to guide the discussions, one-to-one meetings had been held between the Chief Executive of the Taskforce and the Deputy Directors of Arts, Libraries and Digital Culture, DCMS, and key organisations on the Taskforce who were seen as best placed to take over activities currently delivered by the Taskforce team.

The Taskforce considered and endorsed a transition plan based on those discussions, and noted that there were still a few issues which needed further investigation prior to resolution. This included the Taskforce Communications Lead being asked to draw together proposals for where various Taskforce documents and resources (currently located on the Taskforce’s GOV.UK site) might best sit for the future, for discussion at the Taskforce’s June meeting.

The Taskforce agreed:

• that the proposed transition plan should be submitted to the Libraries Minister and LGA Culture, Tourism and Sport Board for agreement
• to receive a report on future communications arrangements at their June 2018 meeting

3. Taskforce Action Plan and monitoring for 2018

At its meeting on 21 February, the Taskforce agreed to publish its high level goals for 2018, 2019-2020 and outcomes for 2021. Some amendments were suggested at the meeting and were incorporated prior to circulation by email for final sign-off. The final version of the Action Plan had now been published on GOV.UK.

The Taskforce discussed the specific work that needed to be undertaken by Taskforce members and the Taskforce team to achieve the goals set for 2018, which it would regularly monitor progress against.

The Taskforce agreed:

• that the Taskforce Team’s Programme Manager would meet over the coming weeks with the organisations leading on specific actions to discuss their timescales / milestones in more detail
• following these discussions, a revised version of the monitoring document would be circulated to Taskforce members for final sign off via email
• the agreed version of this document would then be used to monitor Taskforce activity at future meetings.

4. The role of public libraries in health and wellbeing for the general population - follow up (Outcome 5: Healthier and happier communities)

At its last meeting, the Taskforce discussed opportunities to further link the libraries agenda with the health agenda. The Taskforce wanted to focus on a limited number of specific areas to achieve traction and engagement, based on supporting priority areas for the NHS and health system. Felix Greaves and Neil Churchill led a discussion on existing work and future opportunities likely to produce the most impact.

The Taskforce discussed the high-profile campaign due to be run over the autumn on mental health, and the existing work being undertaken between PHE, SCL and The Reading Agency to align the work of public libraries with this. It also noted the cross-government work that was getting underway on combating loneliness and social isolation, and the need for library services to provide strong examples of public library work to the Taskforce Secretariat, who were participating in bilateral departmental discussions.

The Taskforce also discussed new opportunities, and the information needed from Taskforce members to help move this work forward:

• PHE, NHS England and the Department for Health and Social Care are considering a proposal to make children and young people’s mental health a focus of the Health and Wellbeing Fund in 2018/19. Bids would be open to VCSE organisations with an interest in reading and mental health, and once the funding criteria is confirmed, discussions can be held to brief organisations interested in developing proposals.
• NHS England has strong ambitions for further growth in social prescribing, and libraries are in a good position to support social prescribing in primary care. However, services can only be signposted if prescribers are aware of them. Currently NHS England’s knowledge of such initiatives is piecemeal.
• In delivering the NHS Five Year Forward View, there is a particular interest in those parts of the country with high levels of disadvantage. Public libraries often have good reach among disadvantaged parts of the community and this could be helpful to NHS organisations seeking to enhance their engagement.
• DCMS had initiated discussions on strategies to prevent and mitigate loneliness. PHE and NHSE are contributing. Cross-government work on this was underway, and the Taskforce Team Policy Manager was involved in advocating for public libraries during bilateral discussions.

Taskforce members agreed to provide the following information to Neil Churchill and the Taskforce Team, to support advocacy about libraries’ role in supporting and delivering health-related services;

• identifying national organisations which may have an interest in considering an application to the Health and Well-being Fund, whom Neil Churchill can approach for early discussions
• examples of social prescribing work involving libraries so Neil Churchill could share this with STPs and include this in resources for commissioners
• more precise information about the reach of libraries in disadvantaged areas and among disadvantaged population groups, so the potential of libraries could be better understood and utilised by NHS organisations
• strong examples of how library services were undertaking work to combat loneliness and social isolation, to assist the Taskforce Team Policy Manager in advocating for public libraries during bilateral discussions on cross-government work on this issue
• national statistics held by DCMS and links to LG Inform standard reports on health and well-being, so NHS England could identify any gaps in the data or evidence

5. Preparation for future Spending Review

In the 2015 Spending Review, funding for the Taskforce was secured. This £500,000 per annum will cease at the end of March 2020.

The Taskforce had previously agreed that it wanted to be ready for future funding opportunities by preparing a number of business cases. As a result, the Taskforce team had produced the following (Green Book compliant) business cases, which the Taskforce made some comments on:

• maintaining and expanding the business offer delivered through the public library network
• supporting the extension of makerspaces in public libraries
• universal child membership of public libraries

The next Spending Review is expected to take place during 2019. The Taskforce was asked to consider what further preparations it wanted to undertake in the lead up to this. The Taskforce team is already working to get the role of library services embedded in key strategies and championed by relevant government departments and stakeholders. Other possibilities mentioned as potential areas for future bids included work on the Single Library Digital Presence (following the current phase of work being led by the British Library and funded by Arts Council England and Carnegie UK Trust), mental health and volunteering.

The Taskforce agreed that it would be advisable to review the impact evidence it was collecting to see how far it supported approaches focussed on themes such as placemaking and economic growth, which were expected might emerge as strong themes during the Spending Review process.

Taskforce members agreed:

• to provide any further comments on the business cases, or ideas for topics to undertake further work on, by 26 March 2018
• to include Spending Review preparations as a standing item on all future agendas

6. Ongoing changes by library authorities

The Taskforce discussed the current proposals under consideration by library authorities.

The Taskforce discussed the implications of a report published by National Audit Office on 8 March that explored the financial pressures councils were facing to meet higher demands on services, including, in particular, statutory social care responsibilities. It estimated that social care accounts for 54% of local authorities’ total service spend, up from 45% in 2010-11. NAO also noted that many local authorities were using reserves to balance current overspends, but that this was not financially sustainable and risked some councils exhausting their reserves within three years.

While demand for social care increased from 2010-11 to 2016-17, the report stated that real-term spending on social care reduced by 3%. This compared with a 33% reduction in real-term spending on other service areas, including reductions of 53% on planning and development; 46% on housing services; 37% on environmental and regulatory services (including highways and transport); and 35% on cultural and related services. Within the latter, the report noted a 33% reduction in real-term spending on libraries.

Against this backdrop, the Taskforce noted that the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) had published the report received from the independent inspector appointed by the Secretary of State to better understand Northamptonshire County Council’s compliance with its Best Value duty. The inspector concluded that the council had failed to properly comply with this, and made recommendations for how improvement can be secured.

These included recommending the appointment of Commissioners to ensure the proper running of the Council and delivery of services, and inviting local proposals for a 2 unitary model of local government in the area. As the report notes, this would require the Secretary of State to: make the necessary orders to establish “shadow authorities”; and commission the Local Government Boundary Commission for England to undertake an electoral review with a view to holding the first elections for the new authorities (potentially in May 2020).

The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government was considering the report’s findings and proposals for the future, and would shortly set out his proposals for next steps, including whether or not, following the report’s recommendations, to exercise his powers of intervention under the Local Government Act 1999 Act.

Separately, DCMS had been considering whether representations received about Northamptonshire’s library service (from CILIP) should be treated as a formal complaint under the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 (that the council may be failing to to meet the duty under the Act to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service). It confirmed that a letter had been issued earlier that day from the DCMS Secretary of State confirming that representations from CILIP were being treated as a formal complaint. The DCMS Libraries team were in contact with MHCLG officials to discuss how any next steps in relation to the Best Value inspection might impact on the delivery of the library service, the council’s recently agreed changes, and the handling of the libraries complaint.

The Taskforce reflected on previous discussions as to its role / the roles of its constituent members in influencing and responding to change proposals put forward by local authorities. It discussed sharing information on this more widely to clarify remits.

The Taskforce agreed:

• to provide thoughts to the Taskforce Secretariat on what it would be beneficial to publish about Taskforce member organisations’ remits, to clarify understanding across the sector

7. Six month progress report

The Taskforce received a draft of the six month progress report, covering the period October 2017 to March 2018.

The Taskforce agreed:

• to provide any final amendments, additions and comments on the report to the Taskforce Secretariat by noon on Monday 26 March
• to the publication of the six month report on GOV.UK at a suitable date, once reviewed by the LGA CTS Board and the Libraries Minister

8. Information items

The Taskforce noted progress on the following issues:

8.1 Taskforce communications

Alyn Thomas (from Kent County Council) was continuing to work with the Taskforce team on secondment, and the brochure to support advocacy around the Health and Wellbeing Outcome was nearing completion. This had been shared with SCL/The Reading Agency Health Universal Offer group, and the Taskforce team would be working with Dr Neil Churchill and Felix Greaves on a communications plan for its distribution.

8.2 Update - CILIP sector reviews

The evidence gathering phase for the Ethics Review began in Summer 2017 with an Ethics Survey, which had over 1500 responses. The results were disseminated via a series of blog posts. This was followed by a series of CILIP led workshops in London and the Devolved Nations, and Member Network led ones. Reports from these workshops are also available online. As Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) information professionals were under-represented in the survey, in early March CILIP ran a special workshop for those communities. They also sought contributions from Data Managers.

After the evidence gathering phase is completed in March, CILIP would compile a landscape of professional issues, a commentary on each of the existing Ethical Principles, an issues paper and research report. These would be discussed at the Ethics Committee meeting in April 2018 and at an Ethics Summit in May 2018. A consultation on a draft revised Ethical Framework would be launched in June and will run until July, with a session planned for the CILIP Conference in Brighton in early July. The final version will be launched at the end of 2018.

CILIP’s privacy project had also completed its evidence gathering phase. This was taken forward via 5 privacy workshops (UK wide), a series of one to one interviews with experts/ leaders from across the sectors, and a survey of CILIP membership. Outputs from the project would be a user guide on privacy for library and information professionals, and an Information Rights Charter which would set out the rights and responsibilities of the citizen. The project would also advise the Ethics review on the issue of privacy and how it is reflected in CILIP’s Ethical Principles and Code of Professional Practice. The intention was to publish a final report with recommendations in June 2018.

8.3 All Party Parliamentary Group for Libraries

In November 2017, the All Party Parliamentary Group for Libraries held a roundtable on Creating the library of the future. Panel members were from the British Library, Arup, Carnegie UK Trust, CILIP and the James Reckitt Trust. Areas of discussion included the changing needs of individuals and communities due to societal and technological change, the economic potential of public libraries, and the impact of new delivery and funding models. Questions from the floor focused on the role and importance of library staff, the financial challenges facing libraries and local authorities, and defining the ‘library mission’. The APPG plans to support the launch of the Summer Reading Challenge in July 2018 and Libraries Week in October 2018.

8.4 Society of Chief Librarians - future leadership

SCL had announced that Isobel Hunter would be its first Chief Executive and that Mark Freeman had been confirmed as President Elect.

Isobel would join SCL from The National Archives, where she has been Head of Archives Sector Development. This coincides with SCL becoming a registered charity and final preparations for its future role as the Sector Support Organisation for public libraries, funded by Arts Council England.

Mark Freeman is Libraries and Information Services Manager in Stockton-on-Tees. In June, he would take over as President from Neil MacInnes (who had been SCL President since June 2016).

8.5 Libraries: Opportunities for Everyone innovation fund (LOFE) evaluation

DCMS and the Taskforce had commissioned (and funded) the Office for Public Management (OPM) to undertake a programme wide, independent evaluation of the LOFE programme. The 30 projects (across 46 councils) had been divided across 5 themes (digital skills, literature and creative expression, families and wellbeing, makerspaces and arts and culture). Projects had self selected which theme their project most applied to (some cut across themes), and attended a theme-specific workshop (held January - February 2018). At these workshops, projects looked at theories of change and data collection for the projects. OPM were providing ad-hoc support to the projects ahead of final data collection (end of March / beginning of April). The report would then be drafted, with OPM presenting its findings to the Taskforce at its September meeting. The Taskforce team would also be holding an event in the autumn to share the findings of the report.

Some of the feedback from these workshops indicated that it would be helpful to learn more about conducting evaluations. The Taskforce team will run a series of masterclasses later in 2018 to provide practical hands-on experience, followed up by detailed guidance on conducting project evaluations.

8.6 Core dataset

The Taskforce team was continuing to work with library management system (LMS) and other technology suppliers to see how they could help with data collection for some of the core dataset, support library services to publish their own data, and support pilots it would be running to test data collection methods. It was also producing a schema for the core dataset, with the LGA data team, to ensure consistency across published data.

As part of this, the Taskforce team held an event on 15 January 2018 with library management system suppliers and aggregators so they could find out more about the Taskforce data work and the pilot projects (who were also in attendance), and to secure agreement to them using the core dataset schema once it is finalised.

The pilot projects were having a follow up meeting at the end of March 2018 to look at an initial draft schema for the core dataset (being produced by the LGA) which will be tested with library services.

The Taskforce team had been talking to CIPFA, who produce benchmarking data for library services, who had agreed that it would align its future plans and data definitions with those of the Taskforce.

8.7 BBC events

The BBC launched its Spring 2018 Civilisations Festival at the National Gallery on 6 February. This put a spotlight on the work of museums and libraries coinciding with the transmission of the BBC Arts series Civilisations on BBC Two. The Festival was concentrated around 2 to 11 March for broadcast coverage on regional TV and on every local radio station. Forty five library partners joined, with 35 events across the country registered on Museum Crush. Ranging from classical Indian dance to calligraphy, the Peterloo Massacre and bad language, it reflected a range and diversity of cultural activities combining big themes with local engagement and hands on activity.

The BBC ran a Get Creative Festival from 17 to 25 March, with significant library engagement.

8.8 Inputs to government strategy thinking

Libraries featured in the Culture is digital strategy document, published on 7 March 2018 by the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). [Launched at the National Gallery[(https://cdn.instavr.co/html/l7nnKtJAQonKiVpzjsO1_app.html?bust=8idijabbbnu), this report mentioned the work done to develop makerspaces, the Single Libraries Digital Presence project, and the business support provided to creative industries through the British Library Business and Intellectual Property Centre (BIPC) national network. There are 12 policy commitments with a set of projects led by sector organisations.

On 14 March 2018, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) published its Integrated Communities Green Paper, which recognised the role of libraries in bringing together people from diverse backgrounds. Libraries and other community hubs will be challenged to maximise their future contribution to this work. The Suffolk Libraries ‘Chat and Chill’ project was featured as a case study of good practice.

The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee had announced an inquiry into the positive social impacts of participation in culture and sport. DCMS had prepared written evidence to this inquiry, building on information from its ALBs and other government departments. The Taskforce team provided input to this, covering the contribution of public libraries on issues such as social mobility, health, education, and community engagement and diversity. LGA also provided written evidence supporting the role of libraries.

9. Taskforce meetings and governance

9.1 Taskforce minutes

The Taskforce noted that the minutes from the last Taskforce meeting (held in Woolwich Centre Library on 7 February 2018) had been cleared by correspondence and published on GOV.UK.

9.2 Forward programme

The forward programme lists the proposed dates, venues and agenda items for future Taskforce meetings, which would be held on a quarterly pattern (in June, September, December and March). The Taskforce agreed that members would send suggestions to the Policy and Secretariat Manager on further items to be programmed for future meetings

9.3 Taskforce membership changes

The Taskforce welcomed Sue Williamson, Arts Council England’s new Director of Libraries, to her first Taskforce meeting. It also thanked Paul Bristow for covering the Taskforce meetings between Brian Ashley’s departure and Sue Williamson’s arrival.

It was also noted that Neil MacInnes, President of SCL, would be stepping down from the Taskforce before the next meeting in June; and that Kathy Settle was stepping down as Chief Executive of the Taskforce after 3 years. The Taskforce recorded its thanks to both for their valued contribution to the Taskforce’s work and deliberations.

9.4 Date of next meeting

The Taskforce noted that the next meeting would be held on 12 June at Barking Library, Barking Learning Centre (BLC), 2 Town Square, Barking IG11 7NB.

10. Any Other Business

The process was now open to nominate individuals for honours for the 2019 New Year Honours List. The Chair suggested that Taskforce members should give thought to putting forward names of those that they think have made significant contributions to the public libraries sector in recent years, at all levels.