Library staffing review and organisation of Library User Groups The Council has been conducting a management and back office review as part of managing reduced budgets from central government. Each directorate has had savings targets to achieve. Although we are a high performing council compared with other authorities, we did have more managerial posts than other comparable authorities, hence the review. The results for our section are being implemented between now and December. This is a cut of 120 staffing hours per week across the library service. There are no reductions in library opening hours. It is being achieved by the following changes: The 18.5hr librarian post at Hanham is being deleted and the library is being grouped with Kingswood with Julie managing both branches as part of her current 37hr post. The Special Services twin -racking role currently at Kingswood is being transferred to the Librarian post at Emersons Green. Emma, who is the librarian at Hanham, has been appointed to the role of Children and Young People’s Librarian, as Wendy Nicholls has retired. Bradley Stoke and Winterbourne are being merged into one post at 37 hrs. This will be taken up by the current librarian at Winterbourne as the librarian at Bradley Stoke has taken up a job offer at The Ridings International Academy in Winterbourne. The current Bibliographic Services posts – two job-share posts at 18.5hrs each - are being reduced to one 18.5hr post. Yate is the only library with an assistant librarian post currently; this is being deleted and the post holder moving to Thornbury as the current librarian is taking voluntary redundancy. This post is being reduced from 37hrs to 27 per week. Anne’s 18.5hr post at Cadbury Heath, including the marketing twin-tracking role, remains unchanged. There are currently two Team Leader roles – Michael covering the libraries in the south and John Abraham for the libraries in the north. These posts are being reduced to one, and Michael is taking redundancy from 21 December 2011. John Abraham will take on the new 37hr post from January 2012. Members asked how detrimental to the service these cuts will be, especially as we are already one of the lowest staffed authorities in the country. There will inevitably be an impact, which will be reviewed in terms of the work we do and how we deliver services; staff will continue to make the most of what resources we have. Members queried how the decisions for cuts were made, and whether library usage was taken into account. Michael explained that it was more by looking at the number of hours that had to be cut and how libraries could be grouped together sensibly taking proximity and size into account to try and leave a reasonably balanced set of roles. There now will follow a service review of the libraries as a whole, rather than as part of the management and back office review. However, no work can be done on this until the budgets for next year are announced as we don’t know how much will need to be made in savings. The Members thanked Michael for all his contributions and work over the years and wished him well for the future. John will attend Library User Group meetings from January but as they will be part of a substantial additional workload, how this will be managed will be discussed then. |