Corporate report

Minutes of the sixth meeting of the Leadership for Libraries Taskforce

Published 5 February 2016

Meeting date: Thursday 21 January 2016: 14.00-17.00

Meeting location: BBC, Old Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London W1A 1AA

Attendees

• Dr Paul Blantern (Chair) – Chief Executive: Northamptonshire County Council
• Kathy Settle – Chief Executive, Libraries Taskforce: Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)
• Brian Ashley – Director, Libraries: Arts Council England (ACE)
• Laura Caton – Senior Adviser: Local Government Association (LGA)
• Julia Chandler – Communications Lead, Libraries Taskforce: DCMS
• Mike Cooke – Chief Executive: London Borough of Camden
• Rebecca Cox – Principal Policy Adviser: LGA
• Ciara Eastell – President: Society of Chief Librarians (SCL)
• Jane Ellison – Head of Creative Partnerships: BBC
• Felix Greaves – Deputy Director of Science: Public Health England
• Roly Keating – Chief Executive: British Library
• Sharon Kirkpatrick – Libraries Taskforce Secondee: Dorset
• Charlotte Lane – Programme and Project Manager, Libraries Taskforce: DCMS
• Foluke Oshin – Business Support, Libraries Taskforce: DCMS
• Nick Poole – Chief Executive: Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP)
• Simon Richardson – Head of Libraries: DCMS
• Darren Smart – Libraries Taskforce Secondee: West Sussex
• Iain Varah – Chief Executive: Vision Redbridge Culture and Leisure and Immediate & Past Chair: Chief Cultural & Leisure Officers Association
• Anna Wadsworth – Secretariat, Libraries Taskforce: DCMS
• Liz White – Head of Strategy Development: British Library
• Sue Wilkinson – Chief Executive: The Reading Agency
• Sue Wills – Libraries Taskforce Secondee: Poole

BBC observers and presenters:

• Jessica Cecil – Controller, Make it Digital
• Helen Foulkes – Creative Director, Campaigns, BBC Learning
• Mark Friend – Controller, Radio and Music Multiplatform
• Jacqueline Hodges – Business Manager, Partnerships
• David Holdsworth – Controller, English Regions
• Judith Nichol – Partner Manager, TV
• Bill Thompson – Head of Partnership Development, Archive Development

Apologies

• Dominic Lake – Deputy Director of Arts, Libraries & Cultural Property: DCMS
• Pat Ritchie – Chief Executive: Newcastle upon Tyne City Council

Reminder of Taskforce priorities for 2015/16:

Taskforce priorities for 2015/16 are:

• digital enablement – including the provision of universal WiFi access, e-lending, digital shared network and quality content
• libraries adding value – making stronger, strategic links between libraries and other policies such as health and wellbeing and business and economic growth
• best practice – helping local authorities and library services through sharing and linking to existing/new best practice and Building sustainable long-term models for libraries/community hubs
• workforce Development – building the skills needed to help the library workforce deliver these priorities and to take on new roles as part of wider service provision
• communications – promoting the value of libraries, highlighting innovation and good ideas

1. Introduction

The chair thanked Jane Ellison and the BBC team for the tour and for hosting the meeting.

He also welcomed Darren Smart - a new secondee to the Taskforce from West Sussex Library Authority who is supporting the digital workstream.

The chair reiterated the core importance of books and reading to the overall libraries agenda.

The minutes of the 5th Taskforce meeting (19 November 2015) were published on 4 December 2015 and all actions from that meeting were completed.

2. Spending Review

The implications of the 2015 Spending Review for the Leadership for Libraries Taskforce, individual member organisations and the library sector as a whole were discussed. It was noted that the local government finance settlements will be confirmed in early 2016.

Discussion points included:

• the provisional local government finance settlement and its likely impacts on library services
• opportunities arising from decentralisation and devolution
• how the scale of challenge is driving radical thinking on wider service planning and libraries could be part of the solution
• opportunities to link with new funding mechanisms for health
• the need for a clear picture of the impact for public libraries in England
• welcoming the 4 year funding for the Taskforce

ACTIONS:

• the LGA to report back on local government plans for libraries in the context of councils’ overall budget plans for this Parliament
• secretariat to include an agenda item at the next meeting (March) on how libraries can link with new funding mechanisms for health
• need for further discussion on decentralisation opportunities

3. Dashboard and Roadmap

This set out the key developments for the Taskforce as a dashboard and updated roadmap.

Discussion points included:

• the likely priorities for the Taskforce in 2016/17
• an update on the publication of the Bibliocommons report on the unifying digital presence
• an update from DCMS on the WiFi rollout
• an update from DCMS on the Cultural white paper
• reflections on how we could turn some of the deliverables from amber to green where dependency or funding was now sitting with others

ACTIONS:

• secretariat to include an agenda item at the next meeting (March) to discuss and agree the priorities for the Taskforce for 2016/17
• all to ensure roadmap is kept up to date

4. Libraries business case

This set out the proposed areas for further targeted investment in libraries against ministerial/ Taskforce priorities with costs and benefits. This work is in an initial scoping stage.

The business case will consider 5 key areas:

• strategic case
• economic case
• finance case
• commercial case
• programme case

Discussion points included:

• link with Budget 2016
• how it fits into remit of Taskforce
• confirmation that any funding arising from this process will be additional and not replacing that in place for existing work

5. Communications update

Background papers provided information on current channels in use and their performance, and an update on plans for National Libraries Day on 6 February.

National Libraries Day (NLD)

Ministers are very supportive of this event. Ed Vaizey has written out to all MPs highlighting the event and asking them to get involved. He and Baroness Neville-Rolfe will be visiting libraries on the day.

Members were encouraged to get involved in the event to celebrate libraries and to continue to demonstrate their support for, and highlight the importance of, reading and books.

ACE also updated its contribution to NLD noting information circulated to Taskforce in December and further information was sent on 22 January.

A verbal update was given on the communications workshop held on the morning of 21 January and the next steps.

ACTIONS:

• communications lead to send taskforce members a written summary of the communications workshop held on 21 January 2016
• all taskforce members asked to play an active role on National Libraries Day and use the hashtag #LibrariesDay

6. Retrospective on toolkit

This reflected on the lessons identified by the Taskforce team from the production of the good practice toolkit for local authority chief executives and portfolio holders.

Taskforce members provided additional feedback based on their reflections of the process. The collated feedback will be used to inform the other toolkits in preparation.

7. BBC presentation

The BBC gave excellent presentations on:

• the Get Reading campaign including the launch of the Year of Reading and the Shakespeare Festival
• the work of the BBC Regions
• Make it Digital
• the Ideas Service

Libraries are already involved with a number of these activities (Get Reading and Make it Digital) and the Taskforce was very supportive, and acknowledged the potential, of closer working in the other areas. These offer significant opportunities that libraries could get involved in, within their existing aims and offers.

ACTIONS:

• SCL and relevant partners to discuss these initiatives and agree an action plan
• Taskforce to send a letter to chief executives to highlight how libraries link up with BBC projects

8. Ambition for public libraries in England: making it happen

This provided an update on the consultation document for the ‘Ambition for public libraries in England: making it happen’ and the plans for engaging on this.

The Taskforce agreed to make this a bold vision for the future, building on previous consultations/ reports, and discussed the key messages to be brought out.

ACTION: secretariat to share the revised document with the Taskforce for comment

9. Terms of reference including ways of working

The Taskforce agreed a revised terms of reference including ways of working.

ACTION: revised terms of reference to be published on GOV.UK and reviewed on a regular basis

10. Access to Research journals

This provided an update on the Access to Research journals initiative which is being extended. This was welcomed by the Taskforce.

ACTION: Taskforce to publish a blog and any case studies identified, on the Access to Research journals initiative

11. Data

This set out the work to date and future proposals on public library service data.

The Taskforce discussed the learning from public health about publishing data which was known to show significant variation across the sector. This had driven up public debate and awareness of the issues involved in data collection and analysis and, therefore, raised confidence in the value of the data to inform individual decision making.

12. A.O.B.

Date of next meeting is Thursday 10 March 9.30 to 13.30 at the central library in Northamptonshire (Abington St, Northampton NN1 2BA).

Note that the following agenda items have already been suggested for this meeting:

• dashboard and roadmap
• priorities and resourcing for 2016/17
• decentralisation/ devolution
• apprentices
• ambition for libraries
• six month report
• communications

Summary of key messages from 6th meeting

The Taskforce:

• thanked the BBC for the tour and for hosting the meeting
• they welcomed the exciting opportunities highlighted in the presentation on the ongoing BBC work with libraries, particularly the Year of Reading in 2016 (including the Shakespeare Festival launched earlier that day) and the Make it Digital programme
• discussed plans for National Libraries Day on 6 February, including how members will personally be involved in the event to celebrate libraries and demonstrate their support for, and highlight the importance of, reading and books
• welcomed updates from members on the following:
  • publication of the unifying digital presence report
  • WiFi rollout
  • production of the DCMS Cultural white paper
  • continuation of the availability of the Access to Research journals
• discussed the:
  • ongoing work on data, including the recent data workshop
  • learning from public health about publishing data which was known to show significant variation across the sector, this had driven up public debate and awareness of the issues involved in data collection and analysis and, therefore, raised confidence in the value of the data to inform individual decision making
• noted the publication of the beta version of the good practice toolkit for chief executives and portfolio holders and the associated communications.
• feedback on the toolkit is being collected and will be used to revise this and to inform the other toolkits in preparation
• agreed the revision to the terms of reference to include ways of working, this will be updated on GOV.UK and reviewed on a regular basis

The Taskforce discussed the implications of the Spending Review settlement on the library sector. They acknowledged that, if the local government settlement was finalised in line with the current draft, the potential for negative impacts on library services would continue to be considerable, particularly in the first few years. The LGA were asked to report back on local government plans for libraries in the context of councils’ overall budget plans for this parliament.

Within this context, the Taskforce:

• discussed the draft consultation version of the Ambition document, they agreed to make this a bold vision for the future and discussed the key messages to be brought out
• also considered the likely Taskforce priorities for 2016/17, these would be discussed again and finalised at the seventh meeting in March following confirmation of the local government funding settlement