National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal: A Framework for Consultation

http://www.cabinet-office.gov.uk/seu/index/national_strategy.htm

The Response of The Library Association

Introduction

1) The Library Association welcomes the opportunity to comment on the National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal. We are impressed by the amount of work that has been put into developing the strategy and believe that the results provide a firm basis on which to move forward with the regeneration process. We also believe that library and information services of all types have much to contribute to the regeneration process. Libraries are only mentioned in one or two places in the report, specifically to do with skills. However we believe that they can and do contribute to all the four areas of action identified in the Strategy: reviving economies, reviving communities, providing decent core services and leadership and joint working.

2) The most important development within the National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal is the recognition that renewal is about much more than bricks and mortar and that the people factor is critical. A recent policy statement from the Library and Information Commission (now part of Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries) - Libraries: the essence of inclusion1 - shows that inclusion must be encouraged on three levels: the individual level promoting confident, enterprising and responsible people; the social level with groups celebrating diversity and enjoying equal opportunities; and at an infrastructural level where institutions and the services they provide should be of high quality and accessible. Libraries are able to operate at all these levels. This holistic approach to regeneration, which is evident in the National strategy, is long overdue but nevertheless very welcome. 

Key Areas for Development

3) There remain key areas which are not covered by the National Neighbourhood Strategy. Equality issues covering ethnic and cultural groups, those with disabilities or sexual orientation, for instance, are lacking. The Framework has a distinctly urban bias and the rural dimension gets no coverage at all. Therefore it is important that the strategy is seen as but one of the building blocks necessary to tackle social exclusion.

4) Ethnic and Cultural Minorities - Although accepting that there can be up to four times as many people from ethnic minorities in deprived neighbourhoods as in society at large, racial discrimination is clearly not limited to such areas and is in itself a powerful force for disenfranchisement. We welcome the commitment of the Social Exclusion Unit to publish the findings and recommendations of the 18 Policy Action Teams in regard to ethnic and cultural minorities. But we would wish to see future work of the Government, and the Social Exclusion Unit in particular, address this issue. Many library services - in Further Education and Higher Education institutions, schools, health and the voluntary sector as well as public libraries - seek to meet the needs of such communities, but it is clear much more needs to be done. 

5) Rural Areas - The absence of recommendations of relevance to rural areas is equally serious. Current deprivation indexes do not adequately reflect the needs of rural areas as problems of deprivation are dispersed across wide areas rather than concentrated in neighbourhoods. A separate index of rural deprivation is required. Different strategies will be necessary as well. In rural areas the loss of just one shop, post office or library can leave a community without any centre or social outlet. Partnerships will be key to delivering services of all types in rural areas. The public library service has one of the most extensive networks within the country, covering every community. It includes over 3000 branches and 465 mobile libraries in England. Many of these serve rural areas, and libraries must be included with schools, post offices, pubs, shops and other facilities as potential partners in ensuring that rural communities receive the services they need. We trust that the white paper on rural areas will cover these concerns. If not, the strategy to tackle deprivation will not only be incomplete but may actually worsen the position of deprived people in rural areas, as funding may be redirected towards priority deprived neighbourhoods in urban areas.

Reviving Local Economies

6) We welcome the recognition that PAT 2 (Skills for Neighbourhood Renewal) and PAT 15 (Information Technology) gives to libraries as possible places for learning centres or community-based ICT facilities. This builds on the current strengths of the public library service. A MORI poll for the National Campaign for Learning2 showed that libraries were the most popular place for study after the home and experience in Sunderland, the UfI pilot site, has confirmed this. Libraries benefit from having always been informal centres of learning - many people may not actually appreciate that they are "learning" when they research something in a library, even if it is discovering the answer to a relatively simple question. The neutrality, informality and, unlike school, the voluntary nature of library use mean that many adults may be encouraged to cross the boundaries between informal learning and more formal accredited learning opportunities resulting in a recognised qualification. 

7) The user profile of public libraries is also impressive. Sixty per cent of the population use public libraries at least once during the year and half of those (30% of the population) are regular users visiting libraries once every two weeks or more. More importantly users are taken from every social class more or less equally to their presence in the general population, but with a slight bias to the A's and B's. This inclusivity of public libraries is one reason the Government has been keen to invest in public libraries, mainly through the New Opportunities Fund of the National lottery, and promote the roll-out of the People's Network, a network that will connect every public library (and museum and archive) to the information superhighway. Importantly, as well as providing funding for the infrastructure, there is also funding for the training of all library staff in ICT skills and the development of educational content for the network. Public libraries and their staff, therefore, are rapidly developing facilities and skills that could form the foundation of local learning centres. Many already operate open learning centres, with basic skills, ICT skills, business studies and languages forming the most popular courses stocked. Even where the local public library is not used as the neighbourhood learning centre they should work in partnership with the centre. Where schools or Further Education campuses become learning centres, then they will usually have their own library specialists and facilities but even then there is great scope for libraries collaborating to provide learning resources and learner support within a cross-sectoral learning network.

8) As well as contributing to the re-skilling of the adult population, public libraries also have a role supporting and promoting business. The Review of the Public Library Service, the most comprehensively researched of recent studies on the public library service, concluded:

"A key finding is that people who run businesses or otherwise work from their homes are very frequent users of public libraries"3.

Many public library services already run business information services and a number work in close cooperation with Business Links and Chambers of Commerce. They will be in a good position to target such services onto deprived neighbourhoods. Naturally the local franchises of the Small Business Service, when awarded, will have a crucial role in developing this part of the framework.

Reviving Communities

9) There have been a number of research reports recently which have illustrated the role public libraries can play in reviving communities. These can be summarised as:

a) A meetings place - a public library may be one of the few remaining "public places" which people can visit of right and where no charges are made for entrance or core use. For many the visit to the library is the tonic that helps overcome loneliness and isolation. Often there are rooms which can be used for the meetings of local groups and, outside opening hours, the library itself can be used as a meetings space or venue for a cultural event.

b) A symbol of a civilised society - Even those who do not use the library will normally support its existence.

c) A reputation for impartiality and as a "safe place", which can be especially significant for people from ethnic and cultural minorities.

e) A source of information as well as a provider of reading material and supporter of learning - information will cover all areas of life including social responsibility and the importance of an informed citizenry.

10) Similarly there is evidence to suggest that public libraries particularly support the carers in society and that the personal confidence and self-esteem many individuals gain through library use does often reflect itself positively within the community. Some library services are also trying to actively engage marginalized groups, not only to extend library use but to empower these groups to participate more effectively within society. One group, perhaps not highlighted enough in the Framework, is the elderly. There importance as mentors should be recognised and there are examples in both schools and public libraries of inter-generational projects bringing the young and elderly together - in public libraries it is often based on a local history project. Libraries are therefore part of the social glue of communities. However this reflects best practice and as one commentator puts it: " the positive evidence presented here [of the social impact of public libraries] is like the report of a scouting party, well in advance of the main convoy, though some might argue that even this represents just a glimpse of the impact libraries could have"4.

Decent Services

11) We fully support the contention that core services should be adequately funded in deprived neighbourhoods. In addition to those services instanced in the report we would also include the public library service. This is a national service, but locally delivered. The importance the Government attaches to the public library service is shown by the requirement put on local authorities to submit annual library plans to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and the set of national standards for the service which are being developed by the Government in collaboration with The Library Association and others. Social inclusion ranks high in the priorities and the Government sees libraries contributing to this "by helping to bridge the gap between those who can afford access to information and those who can't"5. 

12) We believe that public libraries contribute to all the outcomes proposed in the Framework: more jobs; better educational attainment; less crime and better health. However, in common with other core services, the measurement of outcomes or impact is not sophisticated enough to determine the extent of the library contribution. But some evidence does exist. In education it has been demonstrated that the National Bookstart scheme, for instance, in which local libraries collaborate with their local Health Centre to promote the pleasures of parents or carers reading with babies and young children, has improved reading and overall performance standards of the children involved at primary schools. More generally libraries support of literacy at all levels was demonstrated by their powerful contribution to the National Year of Reading and the many developments in reader development and promotion of reading that now take place in libraries.

13) Yet, as with other services, there has been a steady decline in the availability of the public library service - opening hours have been cut, staff reduced and bookfunds cut back over the last ten years and more. In some cases branches have been closed, and these tend to be small branches often serving deprived or isolated areas. As core funding has been reduced so, perversely, services have been more reliant on bidding for challenge funding to make up for lost core funding. We agree that that area-based funding, such as the New Deal for Communities, should not be used to prop up core services. However it is important, correspondingly, that core services receive the funding necessary to do the job effectively. The recent Select Committee report on Public Libraries6 recommended that local authorities should pay more attention to the funding requirements of the public library service and also that there should be a designated National lottery Fund for public libraries to help clear the backlog of capital work needed on buildings. The proposed national public library standards are also being introduced to reverse some of the current downward trends in library provision.

14) Schools are rightly identified as core services. However the wide disparity in levels of library provision within schools - at both primary and secondary level - has been of long-standing concern to The Library Association. Nevertheless there are many examples of schools with highly proactive library services, which are an essential part of the learning and teaching process of the school. A key recommendation of the Library and Information Services Council (England) report - Investing in Children7 - is that children should experience a seamless library service across all sectors. This partnership between public library, school library and school library service (a central support service normally provided by the local education authority), is often illustrated by class visits to the public library and promotional reading activities arranged in concert between the sectors. More recently there has been cooperation in the provision of homework clubs, family literacy schemes and the joint development of the National Grid for Learning between schools and public libraries on a local level. These are the type of activities which are rightly encouraged in the Schools Plus PAT report and which are part of a much wider picture of learning networks being developed in local areas crossing all sectors - there are, for instance, a number of areas with library agreements allowing access by students of all types to library facilities managed by further and higher education institutions, private libraries, school libraries and, of course, public libraries.

Leadership and Joint Working

15) The Library Association fully endorses the observation (paragraph 8.6 in the report) that "as they proliferate, partnerships can start to become part of the problem rather than the solution". It is not only the confusion, which may have the perverse effect of disenfranchising the residents, but it is the relentless round that many librarians find themselves engaged in of constantly bidding for challenge type funding where each scheme has its own slightly different criteria and forms to fill in. It certainly takes people away from service planning and development. Therefore we would support attempts at rationalisation and better coordination between the various initiatives. We believe a central focus in Whitehall for area initiatives to be a positive idea and also support the proposals for management at the neighbourhood level. We are more concerned at the proposal for Local Strategic Partnerships and would not wish these to undermine the community leadership role of local authorities and the responsibilities they will soon have of preparing community plans. Similarly at a regional level we would not wish to see responsibilities that might be best exercised by Regional Development Agencies and Regional Chambers unnecessarily undermined. Subject to an agreed understanding as to roles between organisations at local and regional level we agree with the basic approach being suggested.

16) We also support the need for better information and the wider dissemination of best practice. We would want all library staff who work in deprived areas to receive the proposed training on meeting the challenges of working in a deprived area.

Conclusion

17) The Library Association welcomes the many positive ideas that are contained in the National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal. We believe that the analysis of the problems found in the strategy is correct and that a viable strategy has been put forward which should help such neighbourhoods turn the corner to prosperity and a higher quality of life. However we are concerned that the strategy should be seen as one part of a wider overall strategy designed to tackle marginalisation wherever it occurs. Other key elements of the wider strategy would be rural deprivation and those groups who suffer discrimination irrespective of their postal address. 


References

1. Library and Information Commission. Libraries: the essence of inclusion. Library and Information Commission, 2000.

2. Campaign for Learning. Attitudes to learning '98:MORI state of the nation survey: summary report. Campaign for Learning, 1998. ISBN: 0 901 469 32 7

3. Aslib. Review of the public library service in England and Wales for the Department of National Heritage. Aslib, 1995. ISBN: 0 85142 353 1

4. Matarasso, Francois. Learning development: an introduction to the social impact of public libraries. Comedia, 1998. ISBN: 1 873667 72 8

5. Department for Culture, Media and Sport. New Library: The People's Network: the Government's response. (Cm 3887). Stationery Office, 1998. 

6. Culture, Media and Sport Committee. Sixth report: public libraries. Stationery Office, 2000. ISBN: 0 10 237000 1

7. Library and Information Services Council (England). Investing in children: the future of library services for children and young people. (Library Information Series; No 22). HMSO, 1995. ISBN: 0 11 701994 1

July 2000 
The Library Association