Agenda item

Following concerns expressed by some Members, it was agreed at the Overview and Scrutiny Performance Board (OSPB) on 25 October 2018, that the Panel would invite the Assistant Director of Families, Communities and Partnerships to its meeting to discuss and clarify the detail of the Officer Executive Decision relating to the School Library Service (SLS).

The Assistant Director explained that an Officer Executive decision had been taken on 4 October 2018 to discontinue the SLS. The Panel were referred to the three Member Briefings included in the Agenda which provided details of the history of the service and the process leading up to this decision being made. The SLS had always been a traded service and because of the lack of usage, it was currently being run at a deficit. Previously, 216 schools had bought the service but only 22 schools were now buying it.

The Panel was informed of the many initiatives that had been tried to stimulate business, including raising the profile of the service and attempting to move into new markets. All schools had been written to several times, including encouraging further use of the service and formally consulting them on the future of the service. All this had had very little impact on demand. 

The Assistant Director explained that the formal process of de-commissioning the Service had been paused, to allow for the Panel meeting and the consideration of the Notice of Motion to Council the following day to be dealt with.

Discussion points:

·       Schools' lack of interest in the service was mainly due to the significant financial pressures they were facing and as a consequence some schools had sought to provide their own libraries or on a shared basis. Many schools also made effective use of digital technology. The Assistant Director confirmed that discussions had taken place with other local authorities and Babcock to gauge whether there was any interest in providing the service to the remaining schools.

• 5 members of staff would be affected by the change to the Service.

• Some schools had indicated that they would interested in buying the book stock of the SLS.

• A Member highlighted that in some local authority areas, the SLS was able to be provided on a profitable basis.  The Assistant Director acknowledged that there were lessons to be learnt from this in terms of looking at opportunities for a commercial approach for service delivery.

• A Member asked why the decision on the SLS had not been included in the Libraries Re-modelling Consultation process. The Assistant Director explained to the Panel that as the SLS was not a statutory service, the Officer Executive Decision making process had been followed, all options had been explored and as the service was losing money, it was important to avoid delays in making the decision.

·       The total cost of the SLS budget was £182,000, which included five members of staff. The service had been losing money and despite best efforts the level of demand had not been able to be increased.

It was agreed that:

• The Assistant Director would supply details to the Panel of which schools were affected by the decision to cease the service.
• As income generation was being considered by the Panel at the next meeting in January, the SLS would be discussed further in terms of a possible future income generation opportunity.