The Council is in a mess over Libraries – again!

Derby News published many articles in 2017-18 on the failings and flaws of the Community Managed Libraries (CML) strategy. One of the most significant issues that I reported on, which has now resulted in the downfall of the strategy, was the poor funding arrangement between Derby City Council and Direct Help and Advice ( DHA – charity running the CMLs).

£130,000 “black hole” the Council hasn’t declared to prospective Library Volunteers ( Sept 14th 2017)

In summary:

• In 2017 the Council set a budget of £120k pa to be paid to DHA for running all 10 CMLs
• Derby News investigation, in 2017, showed that the running costs would be around £250kpa – a £130k pa shortfall.
• In 2022, DHA declared their wish to pull out of the agreement. In order to keep the CMLs running, and until an alternative model is established, DHA have been paid £314k pa. – an increase of £194k pa! This overspend has actually been paid since November 2021 ( NB: This has never been shown as an overspend in the quarterly financial forecasts).

In 2017 the Council was opaque on the true operating costs of running the libraries and assumed that there would be a high level of fee paying “tenants” in the libraries which was always unrealistic.

What’s happening now..?

On the 13th July 2022, the Council Cabinet approved further funding to DHA until 30 November 2022 and stated that it would:

“…use the period 1 September 2022 to 30 November 2022 to manage the transfer of services back to the Council by 30 November 2022.”

And more specifically:

“To note that a further report is to be brought to Cabinet providing an outcome and appraisal of the Community Action Derby review of community library provision. The report will aim to provide recommendations for future delivery options and/or use of the 10 assets including setting out next steps, a financial plan and risk register.”

The deadline of 30 November 2022 was missed.

At the Cabinet Meeting on 16th November 2022 a paper was submitted to request further funding until the end of March 2023 of £105k.

The report contained a number of calculation errors around the Cost/visit statistics.

The recommedation was :

“To note that a further report will be brought to Cabinet that will seek approval for recommendations for post-March delivery that come from understanding the implications of the current financial position, and outcomes of the CML review”

Community Managed Libraries has not been on the agenda of the subsequent 3 Cabinet Meetings – the latest one being 11th January 2023.

On 13th January the Council published an article on its website, now re-branding libraries as “spaces”

Ideas invited for city community spaces

This was an appeal for existing organisations to “express an interest” in running a Library/Space; the deadline for the submission is 3rd February 2023 ( just 3 weeks).

“…detailed business plans are not required. Interested groups should initially outline their experience and ideas in an email”.

This action has not been approved by Cabinet, or been subject to the Council’s Executive Scrutiny process. In that respect it is unconstitutional.

Comment

In the Derby News article July 6th 2018 “Time to Pause the failing Library Strategy; there is a better way forward, for everyone!” I concluded by saying:

“A review should be undertaken that identifies how the positive qualities of community involvement can be continued and developed without the damaging negative consequences on the Council library staff who, in reality, will be critical to the success of any version of the strategy. The fact that the Council has not recognised this, is its single biggest mistake in this whole strategy and why it needs to be reviewed.”

4 years later the Strategy has failed.

The Council should learn from its mistakes. Rushing through an unconstitutional and poorly thought through call for Expressions of Interest is reckless. Expecting that any independent organisation, run by responsible people, would be able to construct a professional level of detail to back up a high-level submission, in 3 weeks, is naive in the extreme.

The experience from the last Library strategy is that Council Officers will take a simple idea, complicate it, embed it in byzantine bureaucracy and grind out any goodwill and motivation…and miss the obvious issues e.g. GDPR/Data Protection.

The Tory Administration should do what it said it would do in November. They should develop a strategy and plan on the back of the Community Action review, learn from its mistakes, and submit it for Scrutiny and Cabinet approval. This unconstitutional behaviour reflects badly on Derby City Council and is not helpful to all those residents who are concerned about the longevity of their local library and community groups.