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October 29, 2011
5 years of the Hillingdon Library project
It is 5 years this month since 2 councillors in London called and asked if we could look at how to improve the library service in Hillingdon, for which one of them had been made responsible.
With some difficulty over the next few months we assembled all the information about how the service operated and all the places that money was spent. We talked to front line staff, office staff, the public and also senior officers from all parts of the council.
We drew up a private plan and the councillor gave directions as to what he wanted to be done.
We had learned that - contrary to almost all of the advice received from elsewhere- what really mattered to the public are the stock of reading material; the design of the buildings to make them attractive, interesting, convivial and useful; the opening hours and the ability of the staff to be helpful, friendly and knowledgeable. It was clear that if those were done properly an awful lot of people would use the service, more than were using the rather desolate library buildkings that existed at the time
By and large these were not the things that most of the money in the service was spent on at all. Most of it went on an outdated management strcuture, both in the library service and in the council itself, an extraordinary distribution set up and a host of other activities of marginal interest or relevance to the public.
The councillor - and increasingly his officers- were unflinching in their pursuit of giving the public what they want - and so, library by library- starting with the smallest community libraries,- they have managed a programme of transformation that has both saved money and made the libraries far more useful, used and popular.
It is a model. There are, of course, other places around the country where good things have been done, but none that I have seen have concentrated so hard on those basics of the service that the public really want - as opposed to concentrating on political theories about what libraries ought to do. None has so totally restructured to provide proper management and leadership
With success has come growing approval and support within the council itself. The councillors have realised that a good library service is actually a vote winner- it has become one of the most talked about achievements of Hillingdon council Last year The Bookseller awarded a new prize for the best public library service to the London Borough of Hillingdon The project has been well publicised and applauded as it deserves to be. The councillors and officers have done a wonderful job- especially if you know how difficult it is to do things well in local councils
Early into the regime of budget cuts, Hillingdon announced that far from cut its library service, it would contine to pursue the improvement programme
Yet here finally is a note of bitterness.- I know that if what was done in Hillingdon were done elsewhere there would never have been a question of closing a library service anywhere. There is no problem of cost - and when libraries are good, they are widely used and represent fabulous value for money.
Yet all those who have authority over libraries have, for 5 long years, ignored this project, simply because it did not fit the agenda - agendas - that they wished to pursue. It hasn't had a PFI for large amounts of money; it hasn't been about trusts or outsourcing; it hasn't been about healthcare; it hasn't been about co-location; it hasn't been about having volunteers replace paid staff-- it has just been about plain honest simple good management, by a council, of a public service.
In the whole of 5 years not one officer or politician has called and said 'What did you do in Hillingdon that has worked so well ?' - not the DCMS, not the MLA, not Arts Council England; not CILIP; not the SCL; not the LGA; not the Mayor of London; no Minister, no MP - no councillor- none-of them, although the project has been well and frequently reported in the newspapers. I have never received that request from one person. Only members of the public campaigning to save libraries have called and I have been happy to give freely of my time to explain what was done and why it works so well as it does.
I imagine that the councillor in Hillingdon feels the same - he, too should have been feted and used as a resource by other councils and central bodies - but he has not. It is bizarre and makes one angry
Yet here, totally ignored- is the answer to the entire public library service- at no cost to anyone.
Amazing That, I guess, is what Philip Pullman meant when he said we are dealing with people who are just completely stupid. And if he did, he was right.
My deduction has been for a long time that the enormously expensive structures of local councils and our state are not about improving publkic service, they are about maintaining and exhalting the structures themselves.. and that is corruption of a kind that is most insidious and dangerous.
Posted by Perkins at October 29, 2011 12:14 PM
Comments
I think I'd have to agree with Philip Pullman. I saw it with South Lanarkshire Council and I've just seen it again with the NHS. All they do is mess things up (I could use another term but this is a family blog...) and then blame everybody else. I've felt recently that such corrupt attitudes truly cannot be reasoned with, and that the only answer is a root-and-branch clearout, plus a few public floggings, but I must also ask what's the point if the whole structure is so rotten.
Where have all the grown-ups gone?
Posted by: James Christie at October 30, 2011 12:26 AM