Corporate report

Minutes of the twelfth meeting of the Libraries Taskforce

Published 24 February 2017

This was published under the 2016 to 2019 May Conservative government

Meeting date: Thursday 9 February 2017: 13.00 to 16.00

Location: South Woodford Library & Gym, 116 High Road, London, E18 2QS

Attendees

• Dr Paul Blantern (Chair) – Chief Executive, Northamptonshire County Council
• Kathy Settle – Chief Executive, Libraries Taskforce
• Brian Ashley – Director, Libraries, Arts Council England
• Rebecca Cox – Principal Policy Adviser, Local Government Association (LGA)
• Jane Ellison – Head of Creative Partnerships, BBC
• Felix Greaves – Deputy Director of Science, Public Health England (PHE)
• Dominic Lake – Deputy Director of Arts, Libraries & Cultural Property, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)
• Ian Leete – Senior Policy Adviser, LGA
• Neil MacInnes – President, Society of Chief Librarians; Strategic Lead – Libraries, Galleries and Culture, Manchester
• Nick Poole – Chief Executive, Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP)
• Liz White - Head of Strategy Development, British Library
• Sue Wilkinson – Chief Executive, The Reading Agency
• Simon Richardson – Head of Libraries, DCMS
• Sheila Bennett – Policy and Secretariat Manager, Libraries Taskforce
• Julia Chandler – Communications Lead, Libraries Taskforce
• Charlotte Lane – Programme and Project Manager, Libraries Taskforce
• Foluke Oshin – Business Support, Libraries Taskforce

Observers/presenters

• Rob Field, Public Policy Manager, British Library
• Isabel Oswell, Head of Business Audiences, British Library

Apologies

• Roly Keating – Chief Executive, British Library
• Iain Varah – Chief Executive, Vision Redbridge Culture and Leisure; Immediate Past Chair, Chief Cultural & Leisure Officers Association

1. Introduction

Prior to the meeting, Taskforce members had a tour of the South Woodford Library and Gym. They also had a presentation by Gareth Morley and Anita Lubby on library innovation and Vision Redbridge’s response to the Ambition document. Gareth and Anita shared their experiences of re-shaping library services in Redbridge, including co-location (with the gym, children’s centres and a school library) and linking and integrating library services with a range of other services.

The chair thanked Vision Redbridge for hosting the meeting and for the very interesting presentation over lunch. The Taskforce congratulated the service on their achievement in maintaining high borrowing levels, especially in the children’s libraries, and on their advocacy work with council decision-makers and other partners.

2. Libraries Deliver: Ambition - Outcome 6 discussion on greater prosperity

The Taskforce has decided to focus each meeting on one or more of the 7 Outcomes. The third of these sessions, led by the British Library, focussed on Outcome 6: Greater Prosperity.

The aim of the session was for the Taskforce to gain a shared understanding of what the Outcome covers, and the opportunities and challenges involved in meeting the ambitions set out for 2021; learn about some of the different facets of work involved in taking this forward; and to consider how members could contribute to and support this work over the coming year.

The Taskforce received a presentation from Liz White, Rob Field and Isabel Oswell from the British Library. It covered the breadth of activity under this Outcome, including where public libraries can (and do) work with partners to deliver joint contributions to further this Outcome. For example, they talked about the British Library Business and IP Centre network and gave an update on their plans to develop it still further. Whilst many libraries around the country already offer a wide range of services to business and those seeking work, the BIPC brand brings an additional degree of consistency to the offer alongside the power of a network to bring benefits to a wider group, regardless of where particular expertise is situated.

There was general discussion about the other organisations active in supporting business, including growth hubs, enterprise agencies, Chambers of Commerce and local enterprise partnerships (LEPs). Library services, particularly those in the BIPC network, link into and signpost to these organisations, but libraries can be particularly useful as the initial front door for all businesses, in particular SMEs and micro businesses, or potential start-ups. There was also discussion about how library services joined with partners to support those seeking work, both to help them gain the skills needed to gain employment, and then to operate successfully within the world of work.

Major themes or issues emerging during the session were:

The desirability of creating some ‘light touch’ business development support that might be made universally accessible through libraries across the country (beyond the existing and planned BIPC centres in city centres) and a plan to clearly brand and implement this.

Developing a blueprint that would work for supporting job seekers (the supply side of the equation), in the same way as the BIPC offer is being developed for growing businesses (the demand side). As part of this, to include volunteering in libraries themselves as this is a valuable way for people to develop skills.

As part of this thinking, to capture best practice in libraries across England (various places were already looking at whether they could do more. For example Redbridge had mentioned this in their presentation before the meeting, and Manchester and Liverpool were similarly exploring work with partners to do this).

The importance of continuing to engage with other work which is underway (for example the Government’s Industrial and Digital Strategies, and the review of the Job Centre Plus estates contracts.) To encourage decision-makers in all sectors to think ‘Libraries First’ in implementing business and skills development work and to look for opportunities for co-location of related services where appropriate.

The move to local authority retention of business rates was an even greater incentive for councils to support the creation and growth of businesses, and libraries needed to promote themselves as part of the solution to this.

The extent to which libraries needed to find ways to move beyond current work with government, Chambers of Commerce and Local Economic Partnerships to also engage more directly with other business institutions and individual businesses. (Examples raised were banks, the Confederation of British Industry, Federation of Small Business, and organisations representing specific sectors, eg. retail, the Creative Industries Federation, etc). As well as with universities, business schools and higher education institutions who were increasingly looking for ways to evidence their role in developing economic growth. (Via programmes such as the next phase of the Leading Places initiative which had recently been launched by the LGA.)

The importance of communicating more strongly the successes already being achieved through library support (for example job creation rates). This advocacy could be supported through evidence derived from a robust Gross Value Added (GVA) analysis, building on Arts Council work undertaken in 2014; or studies similar to recent research undertaken by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) on the industrial benefits of research by Higher Education institutions. The BEIS/PHE/DH Accelerated Service Review was also cited as a useful source of information on healthcare research. Universities UK and the Research Councils were flagged as key links in this area which the Taskforce could tap into, as was the network that had originally been created through the Inspire initiative (Information Sharing Partners in Resources for Education, an initiative led by SCONUL in partnership with the British Library, SCL, the National Libraries of Scotland and Wales and the Scottish Library & Information Council).

The Taskforce also discussed ways to market and promote the business offer more widely to those not already aware of it (public and decision makers):

• by linking into business events (eg promoting entrepreneurship and volunteering)
• by exploiting connections with business people with established media profiles (eg those successful through ‘The Apprentice’)
• through major libraries initiatives such as building a strong theme into future National Libraries Week work

The potential to learn from experience in Birmingham, where new businesses are being encouraged to invest in local infrastructure, to encourage wider business contributions and support for local libraries.

The Taskforce thanked the presenters for their contribution to a stimulating and valuable session, and for stepping forward to lead the Taskforce’s debate on this Outcome.

The Taskforce agreed that Liz White and Rob Field should draw together the ideas that emerged during the discussion and propose the top 3-4 priority actions for agreement, (together with thoughts on how actions and consequent impacts can be tracked), to be put to the Taskforce for sign-off at its next meeting.

3. Libraries Deliver: Ambition - Follow-up on Outcome 4 discussion on helping everyone achieve their full potential

At its previous meeting, the Taskforce discussed Outcome 4: Helping everyone achieve their full potential. Based on that discussion, Nick Poole had drawn together proposals for further action over the next 12 months or so.

The Taskforce agreed to support the following main activities and the suggested actions in each area:

Facilitate engagement and collaboration between libraries and formal/informal education and learning providers, encouraging a culture of collaboration and information-sharing in the development of services.

Develop a platform and resources which facilitate the sharing of good practice across the library sector in partnership with learning providers.

Actions:

• build a stakeholder engagement plan for these audiences, both locally and nationally, building on existing work on reading for pleasure
• consider whether this could be built into future development thinking for the Single Library Digital Presence, to provide library staff and other educators with one prime source to use

Explore the development of a formal ‘Learning Outcomes Framework’ (possibly drawing on the Generic Learning and Social Outcomes and the Outcomes of Reading for Pleasure Framework) for libraries to use when planning, implementing, evaluating and advocating for their learning-based activities.

Based on this Outcomes Framework, work together to strengthen the evidence base for the impact of libraries on formal and informal learning.

Action:

• undertake work to identify and marshal existing evidence of the impact libraries have on formal and informal learning

Share examples of good practice and their impact on achieving local authority priorities, and actively promote of the Universal Learning Offer, as part of the promotion of the ‘Libraries first’ approach to councillors and commissioners, and more general promotion to the public (users and non-users).

Action:

• consider the best channels and frequencies to reach different audiences (decision-makers, existing users and, possibly most importantly, current non-users) and to articulate what a library has to offer on this Outcome. Build on existing events, channels (such as local authority council tax communications, media aimed at councils, etc) and networks (including library membership communications) where possible.

The Taskforce then considered how these actions could be progressed, and agreed that:

• Nick Poole would work with the Taskforce team to develop a way to track progress and consequent impact against these actions, and to consider how best to promote work on this Outcome to decision-makers (through conferences, correspondence, etc)
• all Taskforce members would inform Nick Poole if they came across further projects that could be incorporated into work to progress the successful achievement of this Outcome

4. Libraries Deliver: Ambition - Taking forward the action plan

The Taskforce noted the action plan, roadmap and risk assessment documents which had been circulated, and the new formats which had been introduced. It also noted progress with the actions.

The Taskforce agreed:

• to feed in any further comments on the next steps for the actions direct to the Taskforce Team Project Manager
• the suggested risk mitigations
• that, at a future meeting, it would devote more time to working through the monitoring documents in greater detail

5. Communications update (Ambition Action 6)

The Taskforce noted the 4 Libraries Deliver: Ambition sector forums (held in Newcastle, London, Bristol and Birmingham) which were attended by around 350 people. It thanked the Taskforce Team for all their work in making these a success. It also thanked the various people who had led presentations or served on Panels during the events and, in particular, the communications volunteers who had provided superb back up in each venue. It also noted ongoing activity around Ambition, within the Communications sub-group, and on the various communications channels.

It reviewed the papers that had been circulated on communications activity, and proposals to tailor materials such as the summary flyers on the Ambition document to different target audiences (frontline staff, health professionals, etc).

It also considered ways to improve current practices to get the most impact from the efforts made on communications and advocacy. In particular, they reaffirmed the importance of close collaboration and information sharing between Taskforce member organisations. It urged all Taskforce members to work within their own organisations to encourage communications leads to better coordinate work to amplify each others’ messages, and to achieve a common approach to planning and disseminating campaigns and messages. It also asked for specific work to go into developing proposals for a shared process to respond to breaking libraries news stories.

LGA mentioned the opportunity to showcase some innovative library practice at its annual conference for leaders and chief executives on 4-6 July. This would involve competitive bidding for an hour-long slot in the Innovation Zone by the end of February. Successful bids would need to demonstrate strong evidence that these are services that are really doing something different and are relevant to other councils. Taskforce members were asked to let Ian have ideas and evidence to support projects’ innovation and impact as soon as possible.

The Taskforce agreed:

• to record its thanks to all involved in making the recent sector forums a success
• to reaffirm the importance of close collaboration and information sharing between Taskforce member organisations and asked all Taskforce members to work with their communications teams to improve coordination of work to promote and advocate for libraries
• to undertake further work on developing shared processes to better coordinate and handle reactive work when libraries news stories break
• to let LGA have information on library-based projects that might support a bid for inclusion in the Innovation Zone at the LGA annual conference in July

6. Ongoing changes by library authorities

The Taskforce discussed the current proposals under consideration by library authorities. It noted that DCMS was considering formal complaints under the 1964 Act that Lancashire, Lambeth and Southampton may be failing to meet their statutory libraries duties. DCMS was also considering whether representations received from individuals about other library authorities such as Swindon and Barnet should be treated as formal complaints.

The team was increasingly engaging at an early stage with library authorities who appeared to be considering significant service reductions, to encourage them to explore a wide range of options to mitigate their plans.

The Taskforce debated the current position on significant planned or proposed changes to library service provision in a number of local authorities and noted actions being undertaken by the DCMS Libraries team. It supported the promotion of any positive outcomes achieved through these discussions with councils; and it also emphasised the usefulness of sharing intelligence on possible upcoming changes, and working together to increase impact.

7. Evidence-based, long-term, sustainable planning (Ambition Action 10)

The LGA was leading on developing a needs-based mapping toolkit to help inform councils’ decisions about service investment, including potential redesign and prioritisation of resources. The Taskforce considered initial proposals for the toolkit; these had been developed based on responses to the Spring 2016 Ambition consultation process and feedback from seven workshops run during the January 2017 Ambition sector forums in London and Bristol.

The Taskforce were broadly supportive, but asked that the toolkit incorporated a strong initial section targeted at councillors and senior officials making a positive case for the advantages of undertaking the process. It also requested that the toolkit should contain a section covering the overall sequencing, resourcing and timing of this sort of exercise so councils can approach the process realistically and meaningfully, rather than treating each of the steps or data resources highlighted in isolation.

The Taskforce provided pointers to other work that might be useful (for example, data mapping work undertaken by Experian with the National Literacy Trust, and learning. PHE were happy to share on similar work it had undertaken). It also requested that the toolkit should include signposting to information on trends and projections (eg. on demographic changes), to help councils plan ahead more effectively.

It noted that the proposal to put the toolkit into private beta would allow it to be published as a prototype within the Action Plan deadline, whilst allowing robust user testing before making it fully publicly available on GOV.UK. Ian would be invited to blog about the process as it moves forward so that expectations can be managed, and it is clear what activity is taking place prior to the public beta launch in April.

The Taskforce agreed that:

• LGA would incorporate content suggestions made by the Taskforce at the meeting
• a prototype toolkit will be published in February initially as a private beta, to enable iterative testing with a wide range of invited users; followed by a move to public beta by April 2017
• LGA would blog on progress as the toolkit was developed

8. Sector-led benchmarking framework (Ambition Action 13)

The Taskforce had committed to producing a sector-led benchmarking framework that library services could choose to use to support self-assessment, planning and improvement, and stimulate libraries decision-makers (both councillors and senior officials) to consider how the service could best be developed to meet broader local strategic needs. The LGA was leading on this and had started to draw on existing benchmarking frameworks, both within specific sectors and across other administrations. The Taskforce highlighted other work that it might be useful to draw on (such as the quality mark work underway with school libraries).

The Taskforce agreed that this work logically followed on from the planning toolkit debated earlier, since benchmarking would need to be undertaken in the context of local area-based aspirations and strategies.

The Taskforce agreed:

• that publication of the benchmarking framework would be delayed until May 2017 (from the original deadline of March 2017) as a consequence of prioritising the needs-mapping toolkit (to allow for both tools to be developed to their full extent), and that LGA would blog to explain the changes to the original plans
• that the benchmarking framework should adopt some of the thematic approaches, particularly from the 2001 library standards, to provide some continuity for staff familiar with those approaches, whilst also extending beyond these to reflect Ambition aspirations
• to share any further information on benchmarking frameworks used elsewhere that they felt should be considered to align with this work

9. Single Library Digital Presence - next steps (Ambition Action 2)

Following the roundtable in December convened by the Arts Council and facilitated by the Carnegie UK Trust, it was agreed that Carnegie and ACE would prepare a public position paper for January/February and, having discussed levels of interest with the attendees, develop a proposition for moving towards an ‘alpha’ style development process. ACE had just received the first draft of this paper and would be sharing with relevant Taskforce partners before publication.

Discussions would be taking place with the Government Digital Service on the process to commission a team to progress an alpha; and also with various organisations to discuss potential investment contributions, to take the work forward to the next stage.

The Taskforce agreed that Arts Council England would provide a further update when the alpha phase was due to commence.

10. Oral updates

The Taskforce received brief updates on the following:

10.1 Libraries: Opportunities for Everyone Fund (Ambition Action 12)

The DCMS fund, managed by Arts Council England, was launched on 1 December, alongside the Ambition document, and had been open for bids from 5 December to 6 January. Over 100 bids had been received. The Balancing Panel was being held on 13 February, which would recommend a portfolio of fundable projects to the ACE National Investment Panel’s meeting on 1 March. Successful bids would be announced in mid-March.

The Taskforce supported the suggestion that, where possible, any unsuccessful bids of high quality should be pointed towards other potential sources of funding.

Bids to Arts Council England for National Portfolio Organisation status had now closed. There had been the expected level of interest from library services. Successful bids would be announced in early July.

10.2 Workforce Skills Strategy (Ambition Action 19)

SCL and CILIP confirmed that work on this was progressing well, and the group was on track to produce a strategy by the March date mentioned in the Ambition action plan.

10.3 Core dataset (Action 2)

Workshops had been held on data at the sector forums, which had been used to start talking with the sector about what should go in the core dataset. These conversations would be opened up more widely through a blog which would be published in the next few weeks. Discussions would also be started with CIPFA, who had expressed an interest in aligning their approach more closely with Taskforce data sets and definitions. It was hoped that the basic data set would be published shortly.

10.4 Phase 1 mutuals - programme update (Ambition Action 18 and Challenge CG5).

The 4 existing library service mutuals, plus Mutual Ventures, had formed a consortium (Optimo) to bid for a DCMS-funded commission to provide peer support for library services considering exploring this route. Having been successful, the consortium was now working on producing a toolkit for the Taskforce designed to help those exploring this route, and would be running 2 masterclasses (24 March in London and 28 March in York).

10.5 Progress Indicators (Action 3)

Nick Partridge (the Taskforce secondee leading on this Action) had already had some useful discussions with Taskforce members leading on specific Outcomes prior to developing proposals for consideration at the March Taskforce meeting. Other discussions were scheduled over the coming weeks.

10.6 E-lending - update (Challenge CG3)

Following urgent discussions last week, agreement had been reached between representatives of authors, publishers, booksellers, CILIP and SCL on a proposal for DCMS to consider on amendments to the Digital Economy Bill, to extend the Public Lending Right to include remote e-lending. The DCMS Libraries Team is working with Parliamentary Counsel to reflect the policy position in a draft amendment. It was on track to table this in mid-February, in time for the Lords’ Report stage of the Bill.

The Taskforce noted the current position and progress on all these issues.

11. Taskforce meetings and governance

11.1 Taskforce minutes

The Taskforce noted that the minutes from the last Taskforce meeting (8 December) had been cleared by correspondence and published on GOV.UK.

11.2 Action log

The only outstanding actions were:

• publishing the basic dataset - as discussed earlier in the meeting, options for doing so are under consideration
• drawing up proposals to take forward agreed actions on Outcome 5: Healthier and happier lives - this had been held back due to the lead Taskforce member being on paternity leave
• determining replacement local government representatives to serve on the Taskforce - discussions were underway (see paragraph 11.4)

The Taskforce noted outstanding actions and work underway to address them.

11.3 Forward programme

The forward programme lists the proposed dates and venues for future Taskforce meetings. The Taskforce noted that the next 3 meetings would be held on:

• 29 March 2017 at the Hive in Worcestershire
• 25 May at the Free Word Centre, The Reading Agency offices in London
• 13 July in Leeds Central Library

The Taskforce agreed that members would send suggestions for potential venues for future meetings from September 2017 onwards, or any further items to be programmed for future meetings, to the Policy and Secretariat Manager

11.4 Membership

The chair reported that he was talking to a number of local authority chief executives about serving on the Taskforce. LGA were also in the process of considering possible councillor representation. Candidates would need to be shared with the Minister for Civil Society as joint sponsor of the Taskforce. Details of future representatives would be notified to the Taskforce as soon as appointed.

The Taskforce noted the current position.

12. AOB

12.1 All-Party Parliamentary Group (Ambition Actions 6 and 7)

CILIP had been working with SCL and the Taskforce to co-ordinate a Libraries All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG Libraries) event at the House of Lords. It had an excellent turnout at the first meeting of the reconstituted group on 31 January. The Group will probably hold events 4 times a year and would be meeting shortly to determine their future programme, and CILIP would try to achieve alignment with Taskforce work. Initial focus was likely to be on the Health, Learning, Business and Community Outcomes.