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By the book

Penny Rinta-Suksi and Claire Green examine the opportunities that await authorities taking part in the Future Libraries Programme and the wider challenges in the brave new world of providing “more for less” for key community services.

On 1 July 2010, Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, launched a new programme for the reform of libraries, which is being led by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (“MLA”) and the LG Group. Ten authorities/groups of authorities were selected to benefit from the MLA funding offer. Bevan Brittan was selected as a supplier to support some of the ten authorities looking at shared services, governance models and community engagement.

The key question for all library authorities at this challenging time is: how can we take advantage of the support available to deliver high quality and cost effective provision as part of the Big Society model?

The challenge

The coalition government has launched a radical programme of public spending cuts in response to the parlous state of public finances. The aggressive and much publicised tightening of fiscal policy has encouraged all government bodies to explore sustainable cost cutting and income generation without loss of quality in front line services. The libraries sector is no exception.

The scale of the reduction of public expenditure over the next few years forces a radical re-consideration of the role and the manner of service delivery for libraries. Cultural services are perceived as not being essential services, and libraries are particularly vulnerable because of the absence of any readily measurable definition of the statutory duty under the Libraries and Museums Act 1964 to provide a “comprehensive and efficient library service”.

At the same time, many library services have already begun the restructuring process to get away from the strict cultural service role to provide a much wider range of services and place themselves at the centre of their authorities’ wider service delivery and public contact.

The process of re-structuring an authority’s library services is made more difficult by the importance which an articulate customer base place on this local facility, and by the success with which library services have developed to support more vulnerable groups in the community.

Support offered

The recent launch of the Future Libraries Programme allows the ten pathfinder authorities to:

  • benefit from funding
  • share experiences
  • work with other authorities, public and private sector organisations, and
  • develop new models of delivery.

It provides authorities with the opportunity to take further their strategic approach to reviewing their libraries provision and exploring innovative solutions.

The pathfinder authorities represent a broad geographical spread of authorities that are looking to develop an extensive range of programmes. The programme provides them with an intensive support package up until December 2010, which includes access to the services of four professional advisers that have been appointed to the MLA framework panel. Bevan Brittan are the only firm of lawyers to have been appointed to the panel. The other framework advisers are Shared Intelligence, Red Quadrant and Local Government Improvement & Development (LGID).

Authorities working within their groups will:

  • identify the challenges and the options available
  • undertake options appraisals
  • collate data about local needs and best practice
  • develop partnering models, and then
  • develop case studies and share best practice with other authorities.

A second stage of the programme will involve the provision of support to a significant number of  Stage 2 authorities.

Observations from our experience on this initiative

We have found that whilst the solution for each library authority will be slightly different, the process is similar and involves each authority undertaking a needs assessment, an options appraisal and reviewing alternative delivery structures. Governance, shared services, effective consultation and community engagement are all common themes.

Authorities need appropriate support to enable them to navigate through each of these steps to ensure that the authority’s decision-making, as well as its decision, provides a sound base for future service delivery and is also robust enough to face external challenge.

We are finding that the authorities are working closely together to develop and share methodology, which is in line with the stage that their programme of reform has reached. However, there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution, and a number of options need to be reviewed, to include outsourcing.

What are the options?

Through the consultation and options appraisals process, a library authority can explore different options available to make efficiency savings at the same time as discharging their statutory duty to provide “a comprehensive and efficient library service”.

There are also several models of delivery that library authorities can then take forward that can be  grouped together:

  • collaboration with other authorities, volunteer groups and third parties. This has been of interest to all authorities and many have already embarked on this work. We have found through working with Buckinghamshire CC that there is an extensive range of models that authorities may adopt and that engagement with the community requires careful planning and documenting
  • outsourcing of all or part of their library provision. Although this model was not of interest to all authorities, it is attractive to authorities seeking the transfer of risk to a robust entity to deliver savings. For example, we recently worked with John Laing Integrated Services on such an outsourcing project in Hounslow, which meant that the Authority had contractual certainty that certain savings would be achieved by a robust third party, and
  • joint venture and shared services arrangements. This was of most interest to many authorities and much of our planned work will be looking at effective governance models. In a joint venture project that we are currently working on for four authorities in Hertfordshire, we have found that such arrangements can lead to the potential for income generation for authorities.

Penny Rinta-Suksi is a partner and Claire Green is an associate in the Major Projects team at Bevan Brittan (www.bevanbrittan.com). Penny can be contacted on 0870 194 5064 or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Claire can be contacted on 0870 194 5414 or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..