Dawn of the Unread, Merrick Cockell, Franchising libraries & Sieghart's message to the LGA.

Some stories that have recently caught my eye;

Dawn of the Unread

I was recently contacted by James Walker from 'Dawn of the Unread' who asked if I could help publicise the project and of course as it's a wonderful and creative idea I, and Voices for the Library, agreed.

see; http://www.voicesforthelibrary.org.uk/2014/06/dawn-of-the-unread/


Merrick Cockell

Sir Merrick Cockell, who served as Leader of the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea for 13 years and chaired London Councils for four, will be from July 2014 taking over as the Executive Chair, and Chair of the Board, of Cratus Communications. He's obviously delighted by this and by the appointment onto his board of Tim Grier, Nine years as Managing Director of John Laing Integrated Services. As you may remember JLIS ran Hounslow Libraries and then won the contract for Croydon, Harrow and Ealing libraries which they then very quickly sold on to Carillion.

“I am delighted to be joining Cratus at such an exciting time in their development. Having observed their work with John Laing pioneering contracted-out library services, I know that they are one of the few companies that truly understand how local government works. They know that elected members need to lead the revolution in local public services that is happening across the country and that the public and private sectors need to better understand and learn from each others’ strengths.”

Exciting times ahead then!!

(Thanks to me old mucker Ian Anstice for alerting me to this)


Franchising

I recently picked up from a Barnet source that they are considering 'franchising' their libraries and have got the idea from Lambeth and Staffordshire! Now this is the first time I've heard this term used in relation to public libraries and can only guess that it's another example of neo-liberal library speak and really means privatisation and/or the handing over of libraries to community groups, Social Enterprises etc. I asked campaigners in Lambeth and they hadn't heard of it and as for Staffordshire well as far as I can see they've just cut and volunteered like nearly everyone else!!

If anyone does know what the hell this is or has any info then please let me know.




William Sieghart's message to the LGA

The current edition of the LGA's 'First' magazine has a guest feature by William Sieghart, Chair of the panel commissioned by the Departments for Communities and Local Government and Culture, Media and Sport to produce an independent report on England's public library service.
It's worth reading as it gives a clear idea as to the direction that William and the panel think that public libraries should be moving and that is towards collocation, shared services and a more strategic national approach in relation to digital services and membership. I have serious reservations about collocation and shared services but depending on the detail could be persuaded on the national part.
And as for libraries in pubs, I wrote something about this last year;
http://dontprivatiselibraries.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/a-pint-and-book-please.html


I've met with William and have given oral evidence to his panel and although I can't yet discuss the detail I can say that he's very keen on what he/they see as 'pragmatic' solutions!
 

A Public Service Award for ignoring the public and privatising (and cutting) public services!

The Guardian have just awarded their Public Service Awards for 2013 and the one that immediately caught my eye was the winner of the 'Financial Excellence Award', Brent, Harrow and Ealing councils. They apparently won the award for;

"..combining their purchasing power and driving a hard bargain, three west London councils are turning loss-making leisure centres and libraries that were heading for closure into modern community hubs."

Now i can't really comment on the leisure centres part of this, won by all three councils, apart from saying that they should be managed in-house, but i can and will comment on the libraries part.

A short while ago Harrow and Ealing outsourced their libraries to John Laing Integrated Services (JLIS), who also ran Hounslow and Croydon Libraries, even though in Harrow 74% of those consulted said that they wanted the service to remain in-house and in Ealing, Unison and library users protested against the handover.
Then approx 4 weeks ago JLIS where bought-out by Carillion, the support services and construction firm who along with others where instigated in the blacklisting scandal, they have also been accused of bullying staff into accepting lower terms and conditions at a hospital in Swindon. This buyout was apparently done without consultation and apparently came as a surprise to the staff and service users effected.

I will also mention Brent, although they haven't outsourced their libraries they did close 6 of them despite huge public protest and according to recent CIPFA data the performance of the service has deteriorated considerably since then.

Whether you class outsourcing/privatising and cutting services as 'Financial Excellence' and thus worthy of an award really depends on what side of the political fence you sit on, something i wish the Guardian would make it's mind up about before making unsubstantiated statements such as;
"Contracting out the management of leisure centres and libraries to not-for-profit trusts through innovative, multi-borough contracts will create more modern and inclusive services, and save an estimated £30m over 10 years."

Harrow to make privatisation decision on 6/6/13

Harrow Council are holding a special cabinet meeting on Thursday 6/6/13 to make the decision about privatising their Library Service to JLIS.
For the agenda and cabinet reports see:
http://www.harrow.gov.uk/www2/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=249&MId=62202

My sources tell me that Harrow Unison are planning to hold a lobby of the Council outside the 
Town Hall on Thursday 6/6/13 between 5-6.30pm.