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December 19, 2009
The London Libraries Change Programme
The publicly available information about the London Libraries Change Programme tells us only that options are being considered for a new way of managing the service. It doesn't say what those options are or what the implications of any of them might be. Nor does it, therefore, say how any of them would bring improvement.
There has been a story that the council library authorities will be amalgamated into 5 London areas, but no answers offered why that would provide better service- or how those 5 would be publicly accountable.
The LLCP has gone on even longer than the DCMS libraries review and now moves into its third year. It has a confused agenda being uncertain whether it is about actually changing things to address a public need, or simply about rearranging the management deck chairs. The studies have cost over £300,000 and revealed nothing of which anyone wasn't aware: there is a lot of wasted money and the service in most places is poor. There has been little improvement in the past ten years and every performance figure continues to go down. Expenditure on books for libraries in the capital is now less than 6% of the public library budget.
The biggest problem though is that it is impeding improvement work that should be being done in individual boroughs. Because it is now unclear whether councils will continue to operate their own libraries and who will be responsible for them, work to improve opening hours, supply chains, cooperative working, book collections, buildings, management training, has largely stopped. Every council has the ideal excuse for doing nothing "We are waiting to see the outcome of the LLCP" . Such procrastination is normal in Local Government where any excuse will do for doing nothing.
I suspect that those on the programme board would say that, somehow, the muddle is not their fault- but they are the programme board, after all--
For the avoidance of doubt they are (according to their own website)
Andrew Holden, MLA London
David Brownlee, London Councils
Rosemary Doyle, Islington
Diana Edmonds, Haringey
Lucy Ivimy, Hammersmith and Fulham
Sue Mackenzie, Brent
Geraldine Reardon, Waltham Forest
Flick Rea, Camden
David Ruse, Westminster
Caroline Stranger, 'Capital Ambition'
You can throw in Roy Clare who is the chief exec of MLA.
What will happen next?
Posted by Perkins at December 19, 2009 4:48 PM