Embedding the Universal Offers

Nick Stopforth

Head of Doncaster Libraries and Culture

Society of Chief Librarians Digital Offer Lead

ContextThe National Picture

• The Deficit- The public sector became 25% smaller in financial terms by April 2014.

-Potentially a further 25% by April 2018.

•Localism-Devolution to Councils and Society-Local political leadership ‘member-led’

•Accountability-Accountable to communities, not Central Government

ContextLibraries

In England since 2006…

•Book issues have fallen by 9.3%•Visits have fallen by 11%•Net expenditure has fallen by 6.4%•Total fte staff reduced by 20.5%•Since April 2013 – 491 service points reported closed, likely to close or move to community management

What’s the size of the challenge?

“… our model shows a likely funding gap of £16.5 billion a year by 2019/2020, or a 29% shortfall between revenue and spending pressures. We have also modelled the funding available for individual services within the projected resource constraint. On the assumption that demand in social care and waste are fully funded, other services face cash cuts of more than 66% by the end of the decade. Assuming that capital financing and concessionary fares are also funded in full, the modelled cash cut for remaining services rises to over 90% ... Reductions on this scale would be highly likely to leave councils vulnerable to legal challenge. Many of these service blocks have statutory elements which may not necessarily be prescriptive but have already proven to be highly-contested, such as spending on libraries and road maintenance.“

Local Government Association

Libraries: Part of the Solution, not the Problem

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‘LGA Funding Outlook for Councils 2010/11 – 2020’

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Knowing the future7. Where do you fit on the dashboard?

Are we facing a biblioclasm?19th-century imagining of the burning of the Library of Alexandria.

Image courtesy Ambrose Dudley/The Stapleton Collection/The Bridgeman Art Library

And the good news…..• At least 24 people visit a library and 17 books are borrowed every second

• We are the top rated service in the public sector for satisfaction.

• We supported 2 million people online.

• There are 22,000+ volunteers within the public library network

• Flagship investments in 2013-14

• Many more will be re-furbished, re-sited and their service extended.

Knowing the future

Richard Watson’s Future files: five trends that will shape the next 50 years

1 Ageing2 Power shifts Eastward3 Global connectivity4 GRIN Technologies5 The Environment

So what do our communities want?

Communities want to be:

•Healthy and well enough to enjoy life.•To be ‘connected’ to friends and family•To be able to afford the lifestyle that they believe they and their family deserve.

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Libraries: Part of the Solution, not the Problem

The Universal Offers‘Think innovatively, acting collaboratively and managing creatively to ensure the sustainability and future development of our services’.

•The Universal Reading Offer•The Public Information Offer•The Digital Offer•The Health Offer•Funding for a fifth Universal Offer announced September 2014 – The Learning Offer

N.B Also ASCEL Children’s Promise

The Universal OffersWhat they do for us:

• A vision for the future

• Demonstrate our contribution to those wider public policy objectives

• Develop strong advocacy messages

• Provide a shared platform for developing new initiatives

• Share costs and resources

Digital Offer

Information Offer

Reading Offer

Health Offer

Advocacy

Did we know the future 10 years ago?

Is this a future?

Photo by Tom Rossiter from the book Building Ideas: An Architectural Guide to the University of Chicago; Photo courtesy Bexar Bibliotech/Facebook; Photo courtesy Mitch Altman/Flickr; Photo courtesy Marc Hall/NC State University

Universal OffersAiming for consistency, quality, efficiency

Strategic partnerships,

Future-ready

‘Think innovatively, acting collaboratively and managing creatively to ensure the sustainability and future development of our services’

Universal Offers

Contact:

Nick Stopforth,Society of Chief Librarians Executive Committee, Digital Lead

email: nick.stopforth@doncaster.gov.uk

twitter: @nickstopforth