Lewisham Council are launching a consultation on our Library Service. We have concerns that the way it is worded may mislead residents into losing crucial parts of the service. And also that others cannot access the consultation at all

https://consultation.lewisham.gov.uk/library-and-information-service/re-engaging-our-audiences/?fbclid=IwAR1-t0T90Kx05vOUPl-4XClYzpsdHlE48VYbs8KbXZf7ZVwSjJxEk83yOXo

The council say that “the Library Service will be reducing its costs by £300,000 per year and will do so while looking at how best it uses staff.” and “We plan to maintain our building opening hours but may need to change the way we work, and we can do so by better understanding how your life has changed in the last year and what issues will be critical to your lives in the next few years. We welcome responses from all of our residents, visitors to Lewisham, services users and those who have never used a library before. We’d also like to hear from organisations that already work with the library service or would like to work with us in the future.”

But in this cosultationnstead of asking a straightforward question, “do you want library staff in your libraris?” which we feel most if not all residents would say yes to, the council asks:

“6. How important are the following activities to you?”

Browsing and borrowing books from the library on my own

Browsing and borrowing books from the library with help from staff

Browsing and borrowing online resources (e.g. eBooks) from the library on my own

Browsing and borrowing online (e.g. eBooks) from the library with help from staff

and

7. How important are the following?

Accessing computers in the library on my own

Accessing computers in the library with help from staffSo peoplw

Library staff in Lewisham (and everywhere) do far more than just assist with borrowing books and accessing computers – they give advice, discussion, social access, information, help with filling in job and benefit applications and other admin, assistance, supervision, activities, and many other things. We are very concerned at the reduction of what the library staff do to “accessing computers” and helping browse and borrow. Many people may complete these questions not realising what it seems it is actually asking is ‘do you want library workers in the library or not.’

And those library users who do need assistance or help in the library may not even be able to access this online form to fill it in and most people who use the internet in the library don’t have the internet at home so how are they going to be consulted?

There will be serious implications for Lewisham residents if the council moves to staffless self service at any time in the 4 Libraries it still runs, Lewisham has been relying on volunteer run “community” libraries to provide some sort of service in 8 of the borough’s libraries but because of Covid recruiting volunteers for a front line service is very difficult, Blackheath Village Library is re-opening for only for 8 hours a week, due to lack of volunteers. Lewisham should not be cutting council run libraries, staffing and staffed hours at a time while the community/volunteer model is struggling and reducing the service they provide.

At a time when we need investment in our community resources to support our residents, children and families in recovering from the effects of the pandemic, slashing library staff is not going to help (and in a year where Lewisham is going to be Borough of Culture)

As the council will not ask you if you want trained and experienced library staff whenever you visit a library and who will be there when you need them we recommend that Lewisham residents and library users answer questions 6 and 7 to say that you want help from staff with borrowing books, using online services and borrowing ebooks and with accessing computers. Library staff can help you with much more than this but if we don’t say we need this help then for much of the time staff will not be there and a library in Lewisham will just be a building with some books, some PCs and a security guard.

Our press release in response to threatened Lewisham library cuts.
 

Save Lewisham Libraries statement - 18th February 2021

 

Lewisham’s plan to cut up to £500,000 from the library service budget is very bad news for people in Lewisham.

After lockdown more people than ever will need access to Lewisham Public Libraries for resources,

literature, children’s books, computers, wifi, and the help library staff give them accessing library services, benefits, business loans, debt and housing advice - issues people will be struggling to cope with due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lewisham council is proposing that staffing in libraries be slashed by up to £500,000 (1, 2, & 3). In a crisis in which library workers have been designated as key workers,Lewisham residents should be asking what effects these proposed job cuts will have on opening hours,safety and access to our libraries.

These staffing cuts are likely to hit the poorest and most vulnerable groups hardest by falling on

Lewisham, Deptford, Catford and Downham libraries (the rest of Lewisham’s libraries are volunteer run as the council offloaded responsibility for staffing them in 2011 and 2016).

Lewisham residents will be asking if these proposed cuts are a reheat of the disastrous £450,000 budget

cut proposal 2018 that would have seen all staff cut from Downham and Deptford libraries, making the libraries self-service, or a severe reduction in staffed hours across Downham, Deptford and Lewisham libraries.

After protests, the 2018 plans were rejected by the council’s own committee, because vulnerable

people and protected groups would have been disproportionately affected in every option of the cut put forward (4).

How will cuts of an even greater amount, result in what one councillor describes as a “new and greater

service in terms of outreach and inclusivity” (5)? Lewisham councillors say they want libraries to be community hubs, support digital inclusion and give advice and support; but with libraries already doing this, it is difficult to see how drastically cutting library workers’ jobs and the library budget will help deliver these aims. Despite the disproportionate harm COVID-19 has had on particular communities in the borough in terms of age, ethnicity, gender, and deprivation, it is these groups who are already dealing with pre-existing inequalities that these proposed cuts will likely affect.

The only “non-traditional” model Lewisham has consistently been interested in, is in replacing

paid council workers with volunteers.

It would be patronising to the public to suggest that a new model could offer “non-traditional” services

such as help with IT skills when libraries have always offered this, all the more effectively when provided by trained professionals in properly funded models. If by saying that “libraries will accommodate a range of staff who have not traditionally worked in libraries” (5), the council means to propose to use library space for other council workers to do their jobs and use them as indirect supervisors for the space, then this could be setting up self-service, staff-less libraries by stealth, potentially resulting in even more volunteer-run libraries.

Lewisham residents deserve a properly funded service run by paid professional library workers.

What they don’t deserve is the managed decline of a hollowed out library service and loss of trained staff, disguised as ‘innovation’ and ‘transformation’.

If Lewisham council are serious about these things then discussion needs to be about long term

investment and in depth consultation, which doesn’t just get wheeled out when budget cuts are on the table. Lewisham council has said that they will review the service and engage residents and library users soon, but they are running out of time for any meaningful public consultation.

The timetable for decisions on these proposals says that public consultation will be completed  by March 2021 but that staff reorganisation will then begin in April 2021, with restructuring completed by August 2021.

For library users, staff and unions to have any real impact on the formative stages of this plan - a say in

the future of their jobs and services, and not to just be part of a box ticking exercise - then wide ranging consultation, including equalities impact assessments, need to begin urgently.

The definition of a ‘comprehensive and efficient’ library service, which councils have a legal duty

to provide, continues to be stretched and tested in Lewisham.

Currently the council only funds staffing in 4 out of 13 libraries in the borough. What do Lewisham

residents envision, want, and deserve: a minimum, staffless, cut to the bone "service"; or professionally staffed, properly funded, well maintained and fully open libraries that fully meet residents’ current and future needs?

We believe that Lewisham’s libraries must be kept fully staffed, fully open, and that cuts must be resisted.

Libraries are vital to recovery after COVID-19 but the proposed cuts seem to go against the council’s

own principles for this recovery, “which will be at the heart of all decision-making, planning and actions”, of “tackling widening social, economic and health inequalities” and “protecting and empowering our most vulnerable residents”(6). Instead of library cuts and inflicting a total of £40 million cuts, Lewisham council should stand with people in Lewisham to demand more resources not less to help us through this disaster, and protect their residents’ jobs and vital services.

Please support your libraries, sign our petition, email your councillor, email your MP, raise it in

your ward meetings, raise it with your union and join our campaign to save our libraries and services.

Follow us on Facebook: @SaveLewishamLibraries

References:

(1) News Shopper. “​Lewisham libraries could be cut by £500K”​. 13th January 2021.

https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/19008089.lewisham-libraries-cut-500k/

(2) Lewisham Council. Scrutiny Committees Report: “Budget Cuts Report”. January 2021.

https://councilmeetings.lewisham.gov.uk/documents/s76785/Scrutiny%20Report%20second%20 round%20budget%20cuts%20Jan%202021.pdf

(3) Lewisham Council. “Cuts proposal template 2021/22”. January 2021.

https://councilmeetings.lewisham.gov.uk/documents/s76802/Scrutiny%20Report%20second%20 round%20budget%20cuts%20Jan%202021%20Appendix%202.pdf

(4) Save Lewisham Libraries. “​The Unfeasible Study Rumbled! Demand better and take action”. 8th April 2019. 

http://savelewishamlibraries.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-unfeasible-study-our-demands-and.html

(5) News Shopper. “​Lewisham libraries could offer more services after remodel”​. 15th January 2021.

https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/19014797.lewisham-libraries-offer-services-remodel/

(6) Lewisham Council. Mayor and Cabinet Report: “Budget Cuts Report”. 3rd February 2021.

“​https://councilmeetings.lewisham.gov.uk/documents/s77135/Budget%20Cuts.pdf