Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council: Best Value Review of the Library Service

The library service review was the Council’s first best value review to be completed and inspected.  It took eight months to complete. 

The service has a long track record of high visibility at member level, and has established a relationship of trust between members and officers.  The role of elected members - and the relationship between the review team and members - was key to the success of the review; “what we did right was that we stuck scrupulously to the principle that members would make decisions on options.  It was the job of the review team to look at the uncomfortable options, and to put the difficult options and spell out all the implications to members for them to take a view … we didn’t put preferred models to them for them to rubber stamp … my advice is that you need to put objective options to members rather than try to steer it”.  Among the options considered - and rejected - by members was a reduction in levels of spending and a corresponding lowering of performance against the then proposed library standards. 

Also key to the success of the review was the time spent in engaging and reassuring staff.  As the library service had been stable for a number of years, senior managers prepared staff for the review - and other changes - over a long period of time.  Staff seminars, involving members, were held well in advance of the review, to reassure staff that the period of major change they were entering was not something to be worried about, and to enable staff to understand where the organisation as a whole was going, and why.  The seminars were followed by “rapid fire” engagement with staff during the review.  This investment of time and effort was seen as crucial to delivering an effective review; “it won’t work if you leave it until the review starts … if the staff aren’t presupposed to support it before it starts then you’ve got a problem”. 

Underlying the review was the principle that it was a service review and not a management review; the Council’s corporate guidelines made clear that “other people’s views are more important than those of senior management in the service”.  It soon became apparent that some important issues facing the service would not emerge through this approach, for example, use of volunteers and a review of opening hours; “we knew at the outset that we would end up doing a review of our opening hours but we couldn’t input that … so it was left as an outcome of the best value review … we should have done it as part of the review”.  Whilst the underlying principle remains, the Council has since revised its guidelines to incorporate management views through the review team. 

Service improvements and outcomes expected from the review include:

In the light of their experience, the authority would advise others to:

Best value inspection was seen initially by the authority as “extremely daunting”.  Efforts were made “to get into the mindset that you’re going to be helpful rather than adversarial, but still assertive … if you build a good relationship with the inspectors it can but help … they are only human”. 

Overall they found the inspection experience “very fair”.  The inspectors were “very pleasant and personable”, had “done their homework” and were “prepared to be positive in their approach … Any negative comments they made I thought were fair … I recognised them as shortcomings”. 

Managers briefed and reassured staff both before and during the inspection process; “we said they’re not to be daunted by the inspectors … as long as they treat them like library users, they’ll be fine”.  The outcome of inspection was “a good boost for staff morale … staff were on a real high by the time it was over even before they heard the result”. 

The service was judged by the inspectors as being an ‘excellent’ (3 star) service that is probably going to improve.

Contact: t.durcan@library.gatesheadmbc.gov.uk; b.macnaught@libarts.gatesheadmbc.gov.uk