Hounslow has had a private company running its library services for longer than any council in the UK. Carillion purchased the Hounslow contract from Laing as part of a £65m deal to take over John Laing Integrated Services (JLIS) in 2013. Before that, the service was run by JLIS as a trailblazer for private running of libraries since 2008. I looked at the experience of Hounslow in a piece for CILIP Update way back in 2011.

Carillion ran the service as part of its non-profit arm “Cultural Community Solutions” (CCS) which also operates library services for Croydon, Ealing and Harrow. However, some question how non-profit CCS really is…

CCS is a non profit distributing company. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t extract its margin via contracts, directors etc. It is for profit.

— Cllr Timothy Godfrey (@timothygodfrey) July 7, 2017

You will have noticed that I am using the past tense about Carillion and Hounslow.  This is because I have just received, after checking up on rumours , the following message from Hounslow council:

“Contract with Carillion for library services

Councillor Samia Chaudhary, Cabinet Member for Green Policy and Leisure, Hounslow Council said: “The council is ending the contract for library services by mutual agreement with Carillion. Responsibility for the library service will transfer back to the Council on Tuesday 1 August. We believe that by bringing this back in-house, we can further improve what is a very valuable service for our residents and integrate this across our wider leisure and cultural services. Over the next three weeks, the Leisure team will work closely with HR, ICT, FM and Finance to transfer the service in-house. It will be challenging to complete the process quickly, primarily relating to the IT infrastructure, but our ICT team is confident that the necessary systems will be in place by 1 August.Our intention is that the service to the public will not change, and there are no plans to close any of the libraries during the transfer.” Official response from London Borough of Hounslow (received direct via email). Councillor Samia Chaudhary, Cabinet Member for Green Policy and Leisure, Hounslow Council.

It’s unclear as to what is behind the ending of the contract in such haste. One would normally expect such contracts to end at the same time as the financial year at the end of March. The last definite news in the public realm I noted was news of a new Marylebone Library and a move for Hounslow Library in February. The council has been Labour controlled since 2010.

I am sure the full story will eventually be heard but, for now, this has to weaken the case for privately run companies taking over library services.

More information on Carillion:

• Carillion and libraries – Public Libraries News
• What next for Croydon libraries – Croydon Citizen. A look at CCS in Croydon.
• Carillion’s Curse – Save Croydon Libraries. A critical look at CCS in Croydon, 2014
• Lego Libraries – A year on…… – Libraries Taskforce. The CCS lego project, 2016
• Cultural Community Solutions – The official website

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Editorial

I took a couple of days off work in order to be able to attend and speak at the CILIP Conference. The stand-out moment for me was, and was always going to be, listening to the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden. A truly inspirational librarian. Then there was the chance to hear about what else was going on in the country (you’d think I’d know all that, but there’s nothing better than hearing the people themselves), a chance to think deep thoughts (on future trends and on the nature of information), actually consider ethics for one of the few times in my life and, of course, meet a whole ton of people who I’d seen on the internet for years but never actually met. And, of course, it was great that the conference was in Manchester, which benefits from some beautiful libraries, and whose ten-year-plus long-term library strategy seems to be paying off. There were a few announcements, such as on ethics and the public library skills strategy that I will doubtless cover separately later.

Outside of the conference bubble, this was the week that Lancashire promised to bring back 14 libraries (albeit with 5 run by community groups). It was also the week that Shropshire announced a long-term plan that will cut its libraries fro a respectable 28 in 2015 to a handful in five years. The Conservative LGA chief also warned that there may be no libraries by 2020, which to me sounds like major scare-mongering and as an opening negotiation position but was still downright gob-smacking to see in print.

Changes

• Durham – Peterlee may move as part of supermarket proposals.
• Hampshire – Hamble High Street (Eastleigh) considered for new library by borough council.
• Lancashire – 14 libraries to reopen (9 run by council, 5 by community groups/volunteers.
• Shropshire – 8 libraries to no longer have council funding, followed by 7 more in 5 years time.
• Wiltshire – Devizes Community Hub and Library closed two weeks for refurbishment/increased co-location.

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Changes

• Aberdeen – Library to be part of colocation at Tillydrone Community Hub.
• Shropshire – Ellesmere Library now moved to Day Centre.
• Walsall – 9 libraries (Beechdale, Blakenall, New Invention, Pelsall, Pleck, Pheasey, Rushall, South Walsall and Walsall Wood) closed. Streetly to be volunteer. Central Library to have £4m “revamp”.
• Wigan – Leigh Library has council face-to-face services co-located into it.

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Editorial

The existence of “National Portfolio Organisations” (NPOs) will come as surprise to many of us but they’re a big deal. Arts Council England provides £1.6 billion (yes, billion) over four years to them. This year is the first that libraries became eligible to apply and today it was announced that there were seven successful candidates. While an insignificant part (1/118th) of the total number of NPOs and an even smaller proportion of the funds (1/255th), the £6.27m given should be enough to make a significant impact. I’m hopeful this will especially be the case with the (normally cash-strapped) Society of Chief Librarians who get £2 million as a “Sector Support Organisation”. That’s £500k per year to advocate for public libraries and it should be a game changer for them and, hopefully, for marketing for public libraries generally.

It’s also great to see the Reading Agency keeping its funding (£475k per year – yes, SCL will get more than the TRA). Overall, £30m is going to non-library literature based groups. It’s interesting to see that 3 out of the 6 library services to get the funding, by the way, are non-profit trusts. This is proportionately way higher than one would expect. The bids were also not public so it’s unclear, apart from what can be gained from press releases, as yet, as to what they will mean.

However, it’s not a good day for everyone. Bury has confirmed that 10 out of 14 of its libraries will cease with only one previously under threat saved and no “extra” money found to help the library service to provide for it. There’s also reductions in staffed hours in North Somerset, although overall hours may increase as Open technology is being installed there. There is obviously a structural issue with extra Arts funding on one hand and library services not being able to keep libraries open on the other but that problem lies with central government and not with those services who have quite rightly bid for the money.

Changes

• Barking and Dagenham – £720k ACE funding over four years.
• Bury – Confirmed 10 out of 14 libraries will close: Radcliffe Library (previously threatened) saved due to public response but no extra money found.
• Cambridgeshire – Brampton volunteer library opens (this seems to be entirely new); £695k ACE funding over four years.
• Derby – Central Library to move into Council HQ in 2018.
• Devon – £680k ACE funding over four years.
• North Somerset – Opening hours with paid staff to be reduced in 3 libraries, 6 branches will have Open+ introduced.
• Nottinghamshire – £1m ACE funding over four years.
• St Helens – £440k ACE funding over four years.
• Suffolk – £704k ACE funding over four years.

Ideas

• Beat the street – Team up with NHS: schools compete to see who can do best, collect card from libraries: could be a good one for a bid to Engaging Libraries?
• Eclipse glasses to be given out free in libraries.

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Editorial

I was asked about the closing library in Kensington yesterday. You may remember the emotional interview Channel Four did with people near Grenfell, which started with a local complaining that the council had sold the library to a private school. There was a challenge about whether it was correct or not? I also noticed a claim by the council that they were building a new library. So, let’s do some fact-checking:

– Yes, the council is planning to sell a library – North Kensington Library – to a prep school, although it looks like it’s a lease rather than a straight sale. This report from last year suggests that the school (Notting Hill Prep) will be given the first year free to pay for refurbishments. It will then pay c. 365k per year to the council.

– The library is described by the council as “spread over three floors making it difficult for those with mobility issues and young children to navigate. Added to this the building is poorly insulated, expensive to heat and is also listed, which makes it hard to renovate to meet modern library requirements.”. The library has been used for 125 years.

– The Friends of North Kensington Library have different views. They’re concerned about the loss of the building for public use and worry about the reduction of council provision in the area. A 3000 name petition has been collected to support this. The campaign suggests the move of the library to a new site would cost £11m.

– The council wants to move the library to the site of the nearby (50 metres away) Lancaster Youth Centre. It promises larger floor space, an improved range of books, magazines and newspapers as well as e-books to borrow, excellent Wi-Fi and IT facilities, space for children’s activities, quiet study areas and meeting rooms for groups, public toilets with baby change facilities..

So it’s a bit more nuanced than the fat-cat council simply selling off a public library but there’s more going on than simply a move to a more modern building. The local community clearly feels very strongly about the move but the council clearly also thinks it is improving matters. I don’t even live in London and can’t claim to know who is right but the one thing clear about this is how much people care about public libraries, the numbers that can be mobilised (3000 in this case, to some extent or another) and how councils need to tread carefully.

If you know more about this issue and you’d like to give a view, please email me via ianlibrarian@live.co.uk. Thank you.

Ideas

• Card swaps – Display with pocket for each trading card, on a take one / leave one principle.

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