List of outsourced and prospective outsourced library authorities

State of play

Two councils have outsourced their libraries to a for-profit company.  These are Hounslow and Croydon, both to Laing (JLIS).  Further details below:

• Hounslow. Laing gained the Hounslow contract due to the collapse of another earlier outsourcing (to a Trust) attempt.  In the two years since taking over the system, the Council states that Laing has made £1.25m of efficiencies in Hounslow, with overall library attendance improving by 7%.  The methods used include introducing new financial management systems, outsourcing backroom tasks like recruitment, introducing new computer systems and installing WiFi. However, Hounslow council (not Laing itself) provided £5 million specifically for library improvements during this period and so the private company cannot claim unique responsibility for this. More importantly, though, Laing has not made Hounslow immune to the current cuts. Far from it.  17 staff have left due to compulsory redundancies, 4 due to voluntary redundancies, 3 through ill health/early retirement, 6 through retirement and 2 for other reasons. Apart from the six retirees, all of these losses were December 2010 and thus before the cuts started in earnest.  This is a very high ratio in comparison to similar situations in the public sector where early retirement and voluntary redundancies remain the preferred options.  This year, more significantly, it was only due to a strong reaction from a public consultation that halted the closure of eightof its eleven branches. This was the second highest ratio of closures to remaining branches in the UK during this period. Being forced to back down on the closures, the service instead has decided on a 100% cut to the bookfund (that is, no new books will be bought this year), with plans for a reduction in opening hours and a reduction in skilled staff in 2012.  The coverage of these cuts in the local media also shows the fallacy of a (suspected) political reason for outsourcing, in that newspapers clearly attributed the cuts to the council and none of the blame was affixed to the private company.

• Wokingham. Some councils have seen privatisation as a way out of the difficulties of the current financial situation.   Richard Alexander, libraries and information manager, Wokingham, which has announced that its libraries may be privatised from 2012, has said “we continually see news concerning library closures in the press and on TV, but it is a different story altogether here in Wokingham. We are pleased the council’s decision-making executive will consider these proposals next week which would, we believe, help secure the continued future of the community’s library service, and enable us to undertake improvements we would otherwise struggle to achieve.”.  Wokingham is not definitely going to privatise its libraries but rather is asking all interested parties to tender for the job:

“What we have agreed is to use a European process called “Competitive Dialogue”. What this is is to ask interested parties to suggest ways of improving our library service within a given framework (including libraries cannot close). At the end of the response period the replies will be analysed and used to produce 2 key documents 1) Requirements Specification and 2) Business Case. Those documents will be reviewed and if not acceptable by the Executive then nothing will change. If they are then, and only then, will the normal tendering process start with a view to outsourcing the operation only (i.e. all assets will be retained by the Council).” Cllr Keith Baker, Executive Member for Transport, Wokingham (email to PLN 16 June 2011)

“Competitive Dialogue” is used for the “award of complex contracts, where there is a need for contracting authorities to discuss all aspects of the proposed contract with candidates” (OGC Guidance).  Barnet UNISON has produced some guidelines on how to proceed with this system.

The decision by Wokingham Council to outsource its libraries led to a 2300 name petition that forced the first ever petition-caused council debate there in history.  During that debate, the controlling Conservatives accused the Lib Dems (who backed the petition) of scaremongering, denied that it was privatising services and said that the petition was causing unnecessary worry to library staff, who the Lib Dems suggest would bear the brunt of the expected 10% cut in budget (plus, presumably, the extra cut caused by the unspecified profit for private company concerned). It was decided to continue with the outsourcing policy.

Further, in February 2012, the Council moved closer to privatisation for a five year term when they “voted in favour yesterday of moving to the tendering stage of the process after more than 20 companies submitted bids in June last year to take control.”

Wokingham eventually decided not to go ahead with the outsourcing, saying:

“We’ve done quite a lot of work with bidders but there’s not much to be had. We decided the risks outweighed the benefits to the service. It is very important to keep the service stable and it could have been unsettling to some users of the library… especially when commercial factors come into it.” BBC 29/10/12

•  Croydon decided to outsource its libraries to Laing (November 2012), giving them their second library authority.The tests that Croydon consider important for the tendering process in their council paper on the subject are important enough to quote in full:

• Cornwall. (31/7/12) Approved moves towards outsourcing libraries as well as other services.  “Two companies, BT and CSC, are in the running for the work, which the unitary authority said would be part of a “new strategic partnership”. In December, it was decided that while most behind-the-scenes council services would be outsourced to BT but that “libraries, benefits and council tax collection; procurement, which is the buying of services and goods; One Stop Shops, which offer advice on council services” would continue to be run in-house (12/12/12).

• Ealing and Harrow. Ealing announced in a committee paper that it is considering privatising/outsourcing as it considers the Trust route is too dangerous due to likely changes to the charitable relief.  Ealing Council then reduced the number of tenders to run its service down to two (11/2/13). Harrow, which Ealing manages, was also considering the move.  An article in May 2013 appears to indicate that both authorities will move to be controlled by Laing (JLIS). Laing described apparently as a “not for profit trust” which could save £600k per year (May 2013),  5 year contract to be arranged.

“The Council believe that the new contracts will help them meet their annual savings targets of £250,000 per annum for leisure and £233,000 for libraries. There is no definite indication that the new contract will involve library closures although the report to be presented to the Council on the proposals states, “officers have continued to explore alternative delivery models for all static libraries in an effort to continue to provide a comprehensive library service that achieves value for money.” Ealing Today, 16th May 2013.

“Contracts for managing up to 25 libraries are available for five-years including an optional five-year extension, reportedly worth £90,000-£100,000 for 10 years.” This is Local London, May 2013.