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March 26, 2007
MLA abandons Impact Measures
The following quite amazing statement trickled across the airwaves this evening, closely followed by a long report from Price Waterhouse Cooper explaining that "Framework for the Future", the famous library policy of New Labour has now been abandoned.
Here it is
"Work is progressing on the nuts and bolts of enabling a ‘community-centred’ service, as set out in the white paper (above).
Last summer MLA and DCMS (Department for Culture, Media & Sport) contracted PricewaterhouseCoopers to carry out a review of the Public Library Service Standards (PLSSs).
This included consulting with all library authorities and the public (via analysis of current market research, an online questionnaire and focus groups with young people and the Library Campaign users’ umbrella group).
When the white paper came out it became clear, says Andrew Stevens, MLA Framework for the Future Manager, that ‘there would be a new relationship between central and local government and therefore a new approach to measuring local authority performance.
‘Standards, as we currently know them, would not fit within this system.’ So instead there is now a draft new ‘performance management framework’.
‘The new framework will be a useful tool for authorities in understanding and managing their library services,’ says Andrew. ‘It fits in well with the proposed new ways that local authorities will be assessed as set out in the white paper, and is part of a package that will be developed to demonstrate libraries’ contributions to communities and local authority priorities.’
Further consultation should finish at the end of April. The new framework should be in place in April 2008.
There will be only one measure for public libraries.
Posted by Tim Coates at March 26, 2007 10:41 PM