Corporate report

Minutes of the fourth meeting of the Leadership for Libraries Taskforce

Published 20 October 2015

This was published under the 2015 to 2016 Cameron Conservative government

Meeting date: Thursday 10 September 2015: 14.00 to 17.00 Location: The British Library, 96 Euston Rd, London NW1 2DB

Attendees

• Dr Paul Blantern (Chair) – Chief Executive: Northamptonshire County Council
• Kathy Settle (Chief Executive) – Director, Government Digital Service & Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)
• Mike Cooke – Chief Executive: London Borough of Camden
• Laura Caton – Senior Adviser: Local Government Association (LGA)
• Dominic Lake – Deputy Director of Arts, Libraries & Cultural Property: DCMS
• Simon Richardson – Head of Libraries: DCMS
• Brian Ashley – Director, Libraries: Arts Council England (ACE)
• Jane Ellison – Commissioning Editor: BBC
• Roly Keating – Chief Executive: British Library
• Nick Poole – Chief Executive: Chartered Institute of Librarians and Information Professionals (CILIP)
• Charlotte Lane – Taskforce Programme and Project Manager: DCMS
• Julia Chandler – Taskforce Communications Lead: DCMS
• Sue Wilkinson – Chief Executive: The Reading Agency
• Ciara Eastell – President: Society of Chief Librarians (SCL)
• Iain Varah – Chief Executive: Vision Redbridge Culture and Leisure and Immediate & Past Chair: Chief Cultural & Leisure Officers Association (CLOA)
• Anna Wadsworth – Secretariat: DCMS
• Sue Wills - Taskforce Library Secondee: Poole
• Sharon Kirkpatrick - Taskforce Library Secondee: Dorset

Apologies

• Pat Ritchie – Chief Executive: Newcastle upon Tyne City Council
• Rebecca Cox – Principal Policy Adviser: LGA
• Felix Greaves – Deputy Director of Science: Public Health England

Reminder of Taskforce priorities for 2015/16

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. Building sustainable long-term models for libraries/community hubs

Workforce – 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 and the work of the taskforce

1. Introduction

Thanks to Roly and Liz for hosting the meeting and for the tour of the British Library.

The Chief Executive introduced the staff in the Taskforce Team:

• Anna Wadsworth: Full time secondment from Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) - Secretariat
• Julia Chandler: Full time - Taskforce Communications Lead
• Charlotte Lane: Full time - Programme / Project Manager
• Sue Willis: Part time Library Secondee from Poole
• Sharon Kirkpatrick: Part time Library Secondee from Dorset

The Chair and Chief Executive provided an update on the SCL-hosted meeting with library campaigners held on 10 September.

2. Minutes and actions from the last meeting

An update was provided on outstanding actions from third meeting (29 July):

Chief Executive: To invite a representative from the Publishers Association to attend future meetings in relation to e-lending issues. This will be picked up when e-lending is on agenda or through attendance at related sub-group meetings

Chief Executive, SCL and British Library: to follow up how to increase awareness of possible funding schemes and bidding for these from library services. This is being picked up as part of the work on guidance packages and workforce development

Chief Executive and Chair: to send formal response to BBC consultation on behalf of the Taskforce

ACTION: Taskforce members to send details of issues to be included in the response to the BBC Consultation

3. Presentation on Best Practice

Ciara Eastell introduced Darren Smart (West Sussex) and Tabitha Witherwick (Somerset) from the SCL Digital Leadership Programme. With colleagues, they have been piloting how public library services can better simulate sharing and adoption of best practice in the subject of health and well-being.

Darren and Tabitha presented on their work in this area setting out what they did, the key lessons learned, thoughts on the checklist tested during the pilot, and suggested next steps.

It was flagged that the checklist would be updated in light of the feedback and then shared widely for information.

SCL also highlighted that:

• Two more cohorts will go through the (ACE funded) Digital Leadership Programme before the end of year. Nominations are currently being sought for the next round
• With ACE funding, SCL are developing an innovation network to grow capacity incrementally

Follow up questions

Q. How can members taking part in the programme engage with partners outside libraries? A. In this pilot they only worked with library cohorts to adapt existing information. However in future they could open up discussions to a wider circle to help test assumptions and outcomes.

Q. How do we best get people to sign up to sharing best practice and using the checklist? A. There should be a national focus, and encouragement to share and adopt best practice. A communication campaign with toolkit will also help to make adoption as easy as possible.

Q. What size of group works well when looking to share best practice through this action learning set approach? A. It depends on how it is facilitated. If face-to-face, then 10-12 is probably the limit to make the discussion manageable, but it can have wider on-line presence.

Q. Is there going to be a general methodology for best practice sharing that will be made more widely available? A. SCL will reflect on the findings of the pilot and consider how to maximize impact of a wider rollout.

4. Dashboard and Roadmap

Taskforce members provided an update on key developments:

Arts Council England

The WiFi funding portal closed on 10 September. ACE will provide an update following assessment of the applications.

Kathy Settle noted that the Tinder Foundation application process had also completed on 10 September and an update would be provided once the bids had been assessed.

The Reading Agency

The Reading Agency secured a second year of funding from the Peter Sowerby Foundation for the creation of an outcomes based evaluation framework. The framework is being developed in partnership with ACE, SCL, Association of Senior Children’s and Education Librarians (ASCEL), CILIP, Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC), Book Trust, The National Literacy Trust, and a wide range of other partners.

They were successful in a competitive tender process run by the Department for Education to support Chatterbooks children’s reading groups in primary schools.

BBC

BBC 6 Music broadcast from Manchester Central Library on 6 September. The BBC will be connecting libraries to its Make it Digital campaign and will present on this at the sixth Taskforce meeting in January 2016.

Society of Chief Librarians

SCL will launch their Universal Learning Offer on 5 November. A workshop on a Unifying Digital Presence for libraries will be held on 15 September. The Taskforce will look at recommendations at the next meeting on 19 November.

SCL and The Reading Agency now have a partnership and additional funding with the Wellcome Trust to further develop the Reading Well: Books on Prescription Scheme. They will be running a health roundtable meeting on 12 October.

Public Health England

Public Health England are seeking funding to help review evidence concerning the health and wellbeing benefits of interventions that can be offered through libraries.

Local Government Association

The LGA have had a number of expressions of interest for peer reviews. They will be taking some forward and looking at options for other work.

Chief Cultural and Leisure Officers Association

The CLOA are receiving positive feedback on Taskforce’s initiatives.

DCMS

DCMS provided an update on the Spending Review and the Culture white paper.

Chartered Institute of Librarians and Information Professionals

CILIP will be consulting soon on their Strategic Plan. They are looking at workforce development and how to encourage use of Continuing Professional Development (CPD). They are planning future work on how to equip apprentices with the right skills.

Taskforce

The Taskforce had a positive meeting with Lord Freud, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and a follow up meeting will take place with officials. They have held discussions held with a range of local authorities.

5. British Library: Presentation on Living Knowledge Network and expansion of Business and Intellectual Property Centres (BIPCs)

Roly Keating gave a presentation on the British Library’s Living Knowledge ambitions and their plans for the expansion of the BIPCs.

Follow up questions

Q. How do we co-ordinate Taskforce member asks for trusts, foundations and other potential funders? A. The Taskforce team is co-ordinating the list of areas where further investment / support had been requested. Paul and Kathy met with foundations and trusts in July to consider how best to work with them in future and this will be followed up.

Q. What consideration is there on EU funding streams? A. An initial conversation was held with EU partners but they need to look at it in more detail.

6. Update on surveys and user research

An update was provided on various library surveys and user research undertaken by CILIP, Taskforce and SCL.

Nick Poole (CILIP) provided an update on the interim findings of the recent CILIP survey on their skills / workforce mapping exercise. CILIP are considering how frequently to refresh the data.

Cassie Robinson (independent researcher) provided an update on her visits, surveys and user research in libraries to better understand why people currently do or don’t use libraries and what they could do to increase usage.

Ciara Eastell (SCL) provided an update on recent surveys and will send through to the Taskforce, as appropriate, once they’ve been considered by the SCL Executive.

Kathy Settle emphasised the importance of timely data to support decision making. The Taskforce will be holding a workshop with Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy and other key partners to discuss what data is needed in future to support delivery and improvement of library services and how this can be provided in a timely, efficient and consistent manner.

7. The National Framework for Public Libraries in England

The six monthly progress report sets out individual and collective achievements of the Taskforce against five priorities. The report will be made widely available and the Taskforce team will co-ordinate any media announcements for publication. In the report, the Taskforce will be recommending to Ministers / LGA that there should be a National Framework for Public Libraries in England. The Taskforce is looking forward to getting feedback on the proposals.

8. Communication Strategy

The Communications lead talked through the draft communications strategy for the Taskforce. She highlighted that it would be important to recognise individual and collective successes from Taskforce members to provide a full description of all the work being delivered.

ACTION: Taskforce to comment on the draft Communications Strategy.

9. A.O.B.

It was acknowledged that the work the Taskforce had done to date has primarily focussed on immediate actions to get the delivery workstreams up and running. Now is the time to take a longer term strategic view on some of the key themes.

This is why the upcoming workshops, eg on health and well-being, workforce development and data, are so important. They provide an opportunity to take stock, to think about where we need to get to, to map continuing and planned work, and to check that will take us where we want to go.

10. Date of next meeting

The date of the next meeting is Thursday 19 November 2015 from 11.00 to 16.00 in Newcastle upon Tyne.

ACTION Secretariat to circulate timings and suggested agenda

The dates of future Taskforce meetings are:

• 21 January 2016 from 13.00 to 17.00 - BBC, London
• March 2016 - Northamptonshire (exact date and time TBC)

11. Summary of key messages from fourth meeting

The Taskforce:

• noted that the chair and chief executive had met with library campaigners and they summarised issues discussed
• noted the chair and chief executive had held positive engagements with a number of local authority chief executives and portfolio holders
• noted that the chief executive was meeting with government ministers and, in particular, had recently held a positive discussion with Lord Freud, DWP
• welcomed the work by cohorts from the SCL Digital Leadership Programme on best practice for health and wellbeing
• reviewed the delivery programme, noting that it was on track, and each member updated the Taskforce on key highlights against the programme
• supported the proposals by the British Library on developing a Living Knowledge Network and the expansion of BIPCs
• noted the work on surveys and user research including workforce profiling
• recognised the importance of data
• agreed the six month progress report to be published
• noted that the recommendation for a National Framework for Public Libraries in England had been sent to ministers and LGA
• has a communication strategy, and emphasised it was important that all members feed into this and consider opportunities for future shared communications