Barnet, Lambeth, Bromley, Manchester & Kent. (or selling the family silver by the ton!)

Barnet

Boy has it been an eventful couple of weeks in Capitaville; first we had this;

"Barnet Council's libraries consultation is 'unfit for purpose', according to report"
http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/11733760.Libraries_consultation_is__unfit_for_purpose___according_to_report/
"An investigation into Barnet Borough Council’s library consultation has revealed people find it “impossible" to respond in any meaningful way."
for full report see; http://www.pdf-archive.com/2015/01/16/barnetcouncillibraryconsultation16jan2015/barnetcouncillibraryconsultation16jan2015.pdf

then this response/demand;

The Libraries Consultation: a joint letter by the Barnet bloggers
http://wwwbrokenbarnet.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/the-libraries-consultation-joint-letter.html

Anyone who has tried to complete the consultation will already know that the consultation is loaded to the point were it's been re-named the 'nonconsultation', see; http://wwwbrokenbarnet.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/brought-to-book-barnets-nonsultation-on.html

And then the BIG one;

Exclusive: "So others can get a cut of the business": who is plotting to take over Barnet Libraries?
http://wwwbrokenbarnet.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/exclusive-so-others-can-get-cut-of.html

It appears that Barnet Council are planning to franchise their libraries to Starbucks et al and hope to sell the model to other boroughs!!! Shocking but not surprising considering that Tory Barnet councillors are at the forefront of the governments 'public bad private good' onslaught.

Lambeth

Shocking news from Lambeth where it looks as if the council is looking to cut libraries again. A public consultation has been launched which prompted local campaigners to tweet this yesterday;

	SaveLambethLibraries (@SaveLambthLibs)
31/01/2015 21:56 @VftL_UK Latest proposals for Lambeth Libraries lambeth.gov.uk/consultations/… 800k cut, 40%+ staff reduction, 2 libraries closed & sold off

So much for being the 'Co-op Council'.

Bromley

More tales of woe with proposals to hand libraries to volunteers and to privatise the rest of the service.
http://www.bromleytimes.co.uk/news/last_chance_to_have_say_on_libraries_1_3936998
"Consultation is also underway regarding the market testing of the core service in order to protect the service, keeping libraries open, while making savings. Subject to the outcome of the consultation, the core library service will be subject to a full outsourcing market testing exercise, which will be taken in line with any decisions taken regarding the Community Library management options."

I've heard that a 'Save Bromley Libraries' campaign group has been set up so good luck to them.

Manchester

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/manchester-library-visitor-numbers-fall-8491284
"Seven Manchester libraries have seen visitor numbers plummet by as much as 90per cent since funding cuts led to them being run by volunteers with drastically reduced opening hours."

A shocking indictment of the volunteer-led libraries model, with tumbling footfall and usage who would have thought it?

Kent

Kent CC are proposing to hand libraries over to a trust.

Should Kent County Council transfer responsibility for its libraries to a charitable trust?
http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/11737064.Should_Kent_County_Council_transfer_responsibility_for_its_libraries_to_a_charitable_trust_/
"Kent County Council is planning to transfer responsibility for its libraries to a charitable trust.
A consultation has begun on whether Kent County Council (KCC) should hand over responsibility for the library, registration and archive (LRA) services to a trust. Residents have until April 8 to make their views known."

But remember this from last year?

"In July last year, KCC confessed to a "mistake" when a job advert went out to oversee the transformation of the LRA services before publicly consulting on the change or having councillors agree to it.
The project manager role was advertised and then withdrawn when the blunder was spotted but Councillor Tom Maddison told News Shopper he was disappointed.
He said: "I don’t feel very happy about the council advertising the job before the elected members of the council have been consulted."

As pointed out recently by a local campaign group this makes a mockery of the consultation process;

Laughable “public consultation” to commence on Monday
https://clikent.wordpress.com/2015/01/08/consultation/
"Obviously, we must forget the fact that a job advert went up in June last year asking for candidates who can “ensure the implementation and delivery of a trust model for Kent Libraries, Registration and Archives” because, of course, that is simply a figment of our imaginations and will have no bearing whatsoever on the entirely fair process that Kent County Council is about to embark on.
We have full confidence that, unlike Lincolnshire County Council, the consultation will be entirely above board because, unlike Lincolnshire, Kent clearly haven’t already made their decision before launching the consultation."

Brent Council proposes to privatise the management of it's library service.

Martin Francis of Brent Green Party has just blogged about proposals by Brent Council to privatise the management of it's library service, see;

http://wembleymatters.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/will-privatisation-of-brent-councils.html

"This is the proposal (ENS18) in the documentation that went to Cabinet last month

To change the management of the library service to a trust arrangement. The exact arrangement will need to be determined. Within London, five authorities deliver their services in conjunction with other authorities, one delivers through a charitable trust established by the Council which also delivers other services such as leisure centres and seven have outsourced delivery to a social enterprise or a private sector provider. Elsewhere in the country, some library services have been outsourced to a staff-managed mutual or social enterprise, and larger library services have been commissioned to run smaller ones. Charitable organisations are eligible for an 80% rebate on NNDR. Changes to rules on business rates in 2013 mean that 70% of the cost of this rebate is borne by Central Government with the remainder being covered by the local authority. Therefore the saving to the Council on business rates of transferring a library service to the charitable sector is 56% of the total rates bill - in Brent this amounts to a saving of approximately £160K. The exact level of savings would depend on the tenders received.

It will take approximately 12 months to complete this work and switch to a new management arrangement.

How would this affect users of this service?

•There would have to be public consultation and a full impact assessment before proceeding.

•There would be no direct impact on service users as there will be no reduction or significant change in service levels or quality. "

Privatising the City of Culture (or can we trust trusts?)

Only a year after being awarded the accolade of the 2017 'City of Culture' Hull City Council are proposing to set up a "leisure company" to take over the running of their leisure facilities, libraries, museums, park ranger and catering services. Now one thing strikes me straight away about this; why are libraries part of the bundle, after all they are statutory and they aren't in my opinion solely a leisure service?
The answer to the above question probably lies in the fact that most councils place their library services in 'Culure & Leisure' directorates, that someone including the LGA has been perpetrating the myth that libraries are non-statutory, that we have a government and a Sec of Sate who fail to intervene to stop library cuts and closures and that we have a chasm in the leadership and promotion of the national service. Libraries have become easy to offload.

So what is a 'leisure company' or 'leisure trust' and what are some of the issues with this model of privatisation?

"What a Leisure Trust means in practice:

Leisure services are outsourced to a separate organisation/company. The Council

retains ownership of the facilities, which are leased to the Trust.

Virtually all the savings come from rate reductions and VAT savings, which are much

smaller initially because of the high set up costs.

Direct democratic control of the service will cease - elected member representation on

a trust is limited to less than 20% of the board. Company law requires that Board

members must put the interests of the leisure trust before those of the local authority.

After a year the Trust will usually cease to use council services and will be responsible

its own procurement and contracting or corporate and other services."

http://www.european-services-strategy.org.uk/news/2008/leisure-trusts-briefing/leisure-trusts-briefing.pdf

Unison Scotland have also raised concerns;

"UNISON is concerned that large sections of public service delivery are

being shifted off to arms length bodies with very little research into the

effectiveness of such change."
http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/response/CultureTrusts_ResponsetoSPEducation+CultureCttee_Sep2012%20.pdf

Recently in Renfrewshire there have been protests against plans to pass the running of similar services to Renfrewshire Leisure Limited (RLL).
http://www.the-gazette.co.uk/news/roundup/articles/2014/12/30/520090-hundreds-opposed-to-leisure-trust-transfer-/

And there are similar plans being proposed by Angus Council and Unison have yet again raised concerns;
http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/local/angus-the-mearns/angus-council-warns-of-cuts-if-leisure-and-culture-services-don-t-move-to-trust-control-1.760954
“Unison is not convinced that farming out leisure facilities to arm’s-length trusts improves the service for the public or the staff.
“They are not an alternative means of community ownership of public assets. In fact the policy tends to be used to save local authorities tax.
“Our experience so far is some trusts perform satisfactorily after the initial separation but the promised savings, extra funding and other benefits tend not to materialise.
“There is no evidence the public see an improvement in the service nor will the trust see a higher rate of private donations, which are often the reasons put forward.”
 

For more on leisure trusts see;

http://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/campaigning/trusts/trusts-con 

Winckworth Sherwood!

As you may know Public Libraries are being closed down, hollowed out and divested! Apart from private library firms seemingly willing to take on long term contracts for a relatively small profit you wouldn't think that there was much money to be made out of the sector at the moment, well that's were you would be wrong!

Winckworth Sherwood, Solicitors and Parliamentary Agents, have according to their website  "wide-ranging expertise" in procurement, shared services and alternative delivery options, and acts for over 100 local authorities in relation to transfers of services."

One of the firms' partners, Joanna Bussell, recently posted a comment on the South Wales Evening Post website and on the Huddersfield Examiner site proposing that libraries should be handed over to charities! What she forgot to do is mention her interest in the subject, must have been an oversight?

"Joanna specialises in public/private projects and in particular public sector outsourcing. She also advises both central and local government on a wide range of initiatives with particular regard to improving public sector service delivery through innovative work with public, private and voluntary sector partners.
Joanna is widely acknowledged as one of the UK's leading experts in relation to leisure and culture outsourcing projects. Described as the "best in the business", she has particular expertise advising on the establishment of new 'not for profit' organisations to work in partnership with local authorities.
Joanna and her team are also at the forefront of the new “localism” agenda working with local and regional public sector bodies to deliver more efficient and effective services to local communities through joint working and shared services."

In fact I'm surprised that Joanna has time to take a 'personal' interest in Public Libraries, she has been very busy submitting evidence to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Library Closures and co-writing books!

Keep up the good work Joanna, but next time you post a comment please make sure you mention who you work for!