562 Public Library jobs lost in London since 2007/8

The following is just a very basic breakdown of the data relating to staffing and volunteers in London's Public Libraries, 2007/8 to 2011/12, from the latest Public Libraries Profiles sponsored by the DCMS and recently published by CIPFA. The City of London isn't included and i can only assume that they are one of the 4 authorities that CIPFA are hoping to release data on in the new year?

According to my calculations 562 full time library posts have been cut between 2007/8 and 2011/12, i can't tell from this how many cut were professional staff due the data not being broken down for 2007/8.
Funnily enough i was looking back over the London Library Change Programme documentation the other day specifically at the 'Workforce Benchmarking Study' which looked at ways (shared services, collaboration/partnerships) of cutting the 2006/7 London Libraries workforce of 3,900 FTE's by 10%, coincidence or hitting targets?

The authorities with the biggest cuts are Bromley with 54.5 staff lost and Bexley with 48.7 and the lowest are Waltham Forest with 2.9 and Hammersmith and Fulham with 4, believe it or not there are actually 6 authorities that report an increase and they are Camden, Hounslow, Lambeth, Barking & Dagenham, Havering and Lambeth with a whopping 46.7 increase!

Apart from the actual numbers lost the other thing that really jumps out from these figures is the deprofessionialisation of the service, Newham for 2011/12 record 2 professional staff and there are others with only 4/5! How can you run a comprehensive and efficient, statutory public service with only 2 professional staff?

 

In relation to volunteers no surprises that Merton, considering it is the flagship for the Mayor's Team London 'Library Champions' project, comes top with 539 closely followed by Lewisham with 336, three authorities Islington, Hammersmith & Fulham and Greenwich all record 0 figures for this! I'm not sure how this figure is calculated, do they include volunteers who assist (or run) the 'reading challenges', homework clubs, IT sessions etc or is it just purely volunteers who have replaced paid staff?

Obviously these are the figures up untill 2011/12 i would take an educated guess that the staffing levels will be even lower and volunteer levels even higher when the next set are published, if they are?

Brent
Staff 2007/8 133 2011/12 68 (20 professional, 48 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 0 2011/12 10

Camden
Staff 2007/8 135 2011/12 144.9 (16 prof, 128.9 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 0 2011/12 12

Ealing
Staff 2007/8 140 2011/12 123.4 (18.7 prof, 104.7 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 0 2011/12 29

Hackney
Staff 2007/8 123.5 2011/12 99.5 (18 prof, 81.5 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 38 2011/12 26

Haringey
Staff 2007/8 113.8 2011/12 79.9 (30.2 prof, 49.7 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 8 2011/12 63

Hounslow
Staff 2007/8 94.3 2011/12 96.5 (10.5 prof, 86 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 11 2011/12 14

Hammersith & Fulham
Staff 2007/8 90 2011/12 86 (5 prof, 81 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 0 2011/12 0

Greenwich
Staff 2007/8 101.2 2011/12 81.3 (7 prof, 74.3 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 0 2011/12 0

Lambeth
Staff 2007/8 109.8 2011/12 112 (9 prof, 103 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 1 2011/12 2

Lewisham
Staff 2007/8 105.3 2011/12 152 (27 prof, 125 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 3 2011/12 336

Merton
Staff 2007/8 61.5 2011/12 47 (4 prof, 43 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 31 2011/12 539

Bromley
Staff 2007/8 171.8 2011/12 117.3 (15.4 prof, 101.9 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 58 2011/12 167

Harrow
Staff 2007/8 111 2011/12 78.5 (20 prof, 58.5 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 29 2011/12 35

Islington
Staff 2007/8 124.4 2011/12 98.4 (26.7 prof, 71.7 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 0 2011/12 0

Kensington & Chelsea
Staff 2007/8 111.5 2011/12 84.8 (18.5 prof, 66.3 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 21 2011/12 40

Newham
Staff 2007/8 127 2011/12 103.4 (2 prof, 103.4 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 20 2011/12 181

Redbridge
Staff 2007/8 114.5 2011/12 108 (22 prof, 86 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 14 2011/12 55

Richmond
Staff 2007/8 110 2011/12 89.5 (15 prof, 74.5 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 156 2011/12 100

Sutton
Staff 2007/8 83.5 2011/12 69 (13 prof, 56 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 18 2011/12 105

Tower Hamlets
Staff 2007/8 131.4 2011/12 122.7 (4 prof, 118.7 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 20 2011/12 14

Wandsworth
Staff 2007/8 127.4 2011/12 110.8 (37.4 prof, 73.4 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 67 2011/12 79

Westminster
Staff 2007/8 145.1 2011/12 139.4 (31 prof, 108.4 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 88 2011/12 313

Southwark
Staff 2007/8 113.8 2011/12 108 (20 prof, 88 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 0 2011/12 14

Waltham Forest
Staff 2007/8 75.9 2011/12 73 (5.8 prof, 67.2 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 0 2011/12 4

Barking & Dagenham
Staff 2007/8 65.3 2011/12 71.2 (12.7 prof, 58.5 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 0 2011/12 41

Barnet
Staff 2007/8 157 2011/12 122.5 (48 prof, 74.5 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 38 2011/12 28

Bexley
Staff 2007/8 138 2011/12 89.3 (15.8 prof, 73.5 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 110 2011/12 184

Croydon
Staff 2007/8 134.5 2011/12 100.4 (22 prof, 78.4 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 25 2011/12 245

Enfield
Staff 2007/8 143 2011/12 128 (23 prof, 105 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 31 2011/12 117

Havering
Staff 2007/8 96 2011/12 104 (9 prof, 95 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 96 2011/12 200

Hillingdon
Staff 2007/8 125.5 2011/12 97.6 (10.6 prof, 87.1 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 17 2011/12 24