More Or Less?
Delivering A Best Value Library Service For Children
The Best Value review process is probably the most rigorous performance
framework that any library service will have to face. Best Value
will apply to every local authority in the country over the next
four years and is likely to involve at least some part of every
service in some way.
What I want to do in this talk is to give a brief background
of the Best Value process — its framework and parameters,
tell you something about the review in Hampshire and finally something
about the inspection which has recently been completed.
Background
Best Value (BV) is in essence the successor to Compulsory Competitive
Tendering (CCT) which, as you may remember, introduced the concept
of contracting out some parts of local authority services. It
is important to remember this because that competition element
is a key part of BV and as we know, the whole debate about public
and private partnerships is still a very lively one.
The government’s drive in introducing BV is "to ensure
that local authorities deliver services to clear standards —
of cost and quality — by the most economic, efficient and
effective means available". (BV Inspection Report)
The framework by which this is achieved is to apply the 4Cs to
all reviews:
challenging why and how a service is being
provided
comparing their performance
with others’ (including organisations in the private and
voluntary sectors)
embracing fair competition
as a means of securing efficient and effective services
consulting with local taxpayers,
customers and the wider business community
Hampshire review
The BV process started in Hampshire last year and the County
Council like many authorities identified a number of services,
or parts of services to be reviewed. In our case the whole library
service was identified for review. Even now, in the second year
of BV, there is a move away from whole service reviews to more
strategic or what are called cross-cutting reviews ie looking
at services delivered across departments eg youth, transport etc,
so that the benefits of the 4Cs can be realised. I think because
of this move you are unlikely to be involved in a review of children’s
library services as such, more likely as part of an authority-wide
review of children’s services.
In our review of the library service we started the process by
gathering a team together, mainly senior managers and began the
process of grappling with the 4Cs. In hindsight, we should have
had more external representation on our team but these were early
days and not many people know what exactly the process was.
4Cs
Our first task was to address the 4Cs and apply then to the review
and this was not an easy task in every case. The concept of challenging
your own service, and why you are the best people to provide that
service was a new experience for many of us. As you know, under
the 1964 Libraries and Museums Act, libraries are empowered to
provide a "comprehensive and efficient service" and
that has been the guiding framework ever since. We have always
thought that we were the obvious people to provide this service
but this is now being challenged.
Similarly, when we came to competition, the question of addressing
the elements of the service which are, or should be, open to competition
was not an easy one.
Scoping
Our next task was to scope the review ie to identify which particular
parts of the service we wanted to concentrate on and also, which
parts might be excluded. For the latter we excluded the School
Library Service (SLS) because it is funded by Education, is partly
delegated (to secondaries) and we felt there were more benefits
in it being done as part of the education service reviews. The
SLS is being reviewed this year and Anne Marley, who is leading
the review, can tell you more about it.
Having looked at the strengths and weakness of the service we
decided to focus on three main areas:
access — implications
of the Disability Discrimination
opening hours — including
Sunday opening; cost of mobiles (District Audit)
efficiency — applying
the Public Library Standards ;service planning (District Audit)
new developments — the
NOF training and infrastructure — EDI ordering
As you can see, we tried to be cross-cutting in our approach
and for that reason did not look at the traditional services such
as children’s, reference and lending. As far as we were concerned
they were integral to the issues we had scoped.
Members’ Panel
The next stage of the review was the involvement of elected Members
(Councillors) in the form of a Members’ Best Value Panel.
Our scoping report, which also included a number of background
documents, as well as more specific documents for the review,
was presented to the Panel.
They accepted the areas we had scoped but added a number of other
items concerning Access eg housebound services, the whole mobile
service etc.
Three working groups were set up to reflect the areas being scoped
and the groups were led by a Member from each political party
(Labour — Access, Conservatives — Efficiency and Liberal
Democrats — New Developments).
Each group then met, reconsidered the 4Cs and set up the consultation
for their area. Consultation is an important part of the BV process
and needs to include stakeholders, staff and non-users. One of
the public consultation groups focussed on the access needs of
young parents and teenagers, as well as those of the elderly.
Various methods were used, eg questionnaires, focus groups, telephone
sampling. The Public Library User Survey (PLUS) material was also
used as part of this work.
The results of the feedback from all the different consultation
methods was then distilled into a series of actions and this in
turn become the action plan, which is a major part of the final
documentation. The key elements of the whole BV process are the
outcomes, ie what are the actions, as identified in the plan,
which will drive improvement? In our case the action plan has
four outcomes:
- to improve equality of access to services especially by those
who are disabled or isolated, ie hard to reach
- to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of services to
the public
- to provide better IT access and support to the public
- to evaluate the range of resources and speed of supply
- In addition to this work, there was a corporate requirement
to apply the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM)
framework to all BV reviews and this was undertaken by the BV
team. The EFQM is a sophisticated management tool to identify
the strengths and weaknesses of an organisation and was very
useful in identifying those elements for us.
After months of work and the equivalent of 150 days of staff
time, the final report was presented to the Members’ Best
Value Panel. While they were happy with the report, it was felt
that too many of our specific actions were investigative and these
overbalanced the actions which needed to be achieved. In addition,
the Corporate BV Steering Group, led by the Chief Executive, wanted
all reviews to look at management structures and so an extra report
was drawn up.
The review was given a four month extension to achieve these
requirements and the final report was presented in May (this year).
Benefits to Library Service
What were the benefits of the review for the library service
of all this work? I think the review allowed us to look at some
of the key issues which affect the way we organise and deliver
our services. Under Access for example, we have looked at and
are undertaking more work on the users and non-users of the housebound
service. As part of the social inclusion agenda, and as part of
BV, we have addressed this as one of the weaker parts of our service
(in our minds, although we perform well nationally).
The staff involvement in consultation has been an area where
we have, for the first time, asked them what they think about
the service. They have been very positive and have also come up
with good ideas. The public consultation has been particularly
successful, with a real appreciation and enthusiasm for the service
being expressed, as well as some ideas to make the service even
better.
The involvement with elected Members has been another successful
feature of the review. Given that with few exceptions, they were
Members with no previous experience of library services, they
supported and challenged the process from start to finish.
On the downside, the requirement to review the whole library
service in less than a year was over ambitious. It would have
been much better to look at one particular part of the service
and do it properly. The timetable was also much too tight and
caused frustration in not being able to look at things properly.
Best Value Inspection
The next part of the process for us was inspection. Not all BV
reviews will be inspected and not all will get full inspections.
However, in our case, as a whole service review, we got a full
inspection.
Best Value Inspections (BVIs) are undertaken by the Audit Commission
and are part of the Government’s requirement "that each
authority be scrutinised by an independent inspectorate, so that
the public will know whether best value is achieved" (BV
Inspection Report). The purpose of the inspection is to:
- enable the public to see whether best value is being delivered
- enable the inspected body to see how well it is doing
- enable the Government to see how well its policies are working
on the ground
- identify failing services where remedial action may be necessary
- identify and disseminate best practice
Our inspection was undertaken in June by two inspectors, one
a generalist and one a library specialist. The process was very
similar to an Ofsted inspection — prior documentation on
the service, followed by on-site work and feedback, and then draft
and final reports.
The on-site work included interviews with senior politicians,
the Chief Executive, the library service senior management, the
review team etc. Focus groups with staff and public were set up,
numerous libraries were visited and a number of stakeholders were
contacted by telephone.
Outcome of the Inspection
The specific focus of this work addressed two issues and these
formed the framework for draft reports:
- how good is the exercise?
- will the service improve in the way that Best Value requires?
The final report is not completed yet but at the interim challenge
stage, which is the first draft stage, indications are that on
the first question we are a good service with a two star rating
(ie two out of three stars).
On the question, will the service improve in the way that Best
Value requires, the judgement will be ‘unlikely’.
Our approach to two of the 4Cs, challenge and competition was
not considered rigorous enough, and on the other two of the 4Cs,
compare and consult, we did not do enough, eg we should have consulted
more non-users.
A lot of what we included in our Action Plan was considered to
include areas we would have had to look at anyway eg implications
of the Disability Discrimination Act, Public Library Standards
etc.
What we are told is that we did not look ‘outside the box’
or implement ‘step change’ in relation to our service.
I think there are lessons here for everyone and if you look at
the Audit Commission website, the reports on library services
to date have been critical in the main.
I think this is more about the weakness in the past, at Government
level, of the role libraries play in society. This weakness has
been replicated at local authority level, and library services
have not been seen as core to the council’s objectives. This
is changing as a result of the NOF monies for staff training and
IT infrastructures but there is still a long way to go.
Conclusion
The BV review process is going to be a key part of the Government’s
drive to improve services for the foreseeable future. There is
no doubt that in some authorities this process is going to lead
to radical changes in the way that library services operate, especially
if they are seen to be a poor performing service. However, on
the positive side, it can lead to a number of improvements in
services at little additional cost.
As librarians, you need to make yourself aware of what is happening
in your authority as far as BV is concerned. Where is the library
service in the authority’s Performance Plan and what parts
of the service are being considered? Also, find out what cost-cutting
reviews are taking place and whether you, or someone else should
be involved. Don’t assume the library service will be included
automatically, eg youth services in our case.
Put yourself forward for the review team, consultation groups
or whatever. Volunteers are usually welcomed for most things and
it is always better to be involved than looking in from the outside.
As part of your continuous professional development, go to any
appropriate training courses and read your professional press.
BV is not going to go away, it is here to stay, and it is potentially
the most significant driver for change that will affect our library
services for many years to come.
John Dunne Assistant County Librarian (Hampshire)
Other Conference items
Social Inclusion
— Targeting Social Need
One Fragile World Beverley
Naidoo
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