Buckinghamshire Libraries – Proposed Changes to Library Service staffing structures
Buckinghamshire Libraries are proposing wide changes to their internal structure which will undoubtedly have a considerable effect on the staffing and management of Wendover Library. David Jones, head of the Library Services has sent us an update of the proposals (which are under consulation until the beginning of May) and I have copied this below.
Wendover Community Library is covered by Bullet Point 2 with the suggestion that the present ‘Area Manager’ and the ‘Library Manager’ (Susan) are replaced by a ‘Cluster Manager’ who will be responsible for Wendover and Princes Risborough Libraries as well as part of the the Home Library Service.
These are obviously major changes to the staffing at Wendover which will effect both volunteers and our library users. We will keep you informed as and when we receive more information.
Best wishes
Ron Melville, Friends of Wendover Library
Proposed Changes to Library Service staffing structures
The proposals for the library service re-organisation have been informed by several factors.
Changing the way that we work
The retirement of three of the most senior and experienced managers has created an opportunity to consider how we might change our staffing arrangements and ways of working. We have an opportunity to design a service that adopts a more flexible and collaborative approach and with our operational management arrangements we can also enable a more dynamic and empowered way of working.
The commitment to changing our ways of working and fostering a culture of staff empowerment requires the modelling of values and behaviours that encourage initiative and innovation and challenge risk aversion and blame culture. It is important that all staff model these behaviours, and it is particularly important that senior managers are committed to this approach. The requirement to foster staff empowerment was at the centre of the recent recruitment process for the new Operations Manager and Support and Development Manager posts and all candidates were asked to present on the contribution that they could make towards developing a more empowered service
Our front-line staff and volunteers are close to our customers and well-positioned to identify opportunities to improve our service and solve problems. Throughout our service we have staff with innovative ideas and creative energies and so an important focus for staff in management and development roles will be to find ways of harnessing these energies and ensuring that staff at all levels across our service have the opportunity to shape the way that our service is delivered.
Creating capacity and clarity for our future
Buckinghamshire Libraries is continually and successfully modernising and transforming and if we consider the breadth of our service offer, we can see how we have been developing in new areas such as culture, health, and wellbeing. We have also made great progress with our digital offer and we have extended our reach to the public through social media.
However, our staffing structures do not properly reflect or support our future ambition and so changes are proposed to try and strengthen our development capacity.
Generating efficiencies and strengthening resilience
The library service has a savings target of £330,000 over the next three years and we will also have the additional challenge of addressing budget pressures caused by reduced income in some areas.
Key proposals
1 An increase in senior management capacity
Throughout these proposals there is a concern to try and reduce management tiers and capacity but at the senior management level there is a real need to strengthen and increase capacity. The current arrangement with two senior managers has driven great success in many areas but it is possible to see how the breadth of management responsibility and workloads of the two posts has resulted in some areas receiving less focus and support.
In going forward, it is proposed to create an additional senior management role to address overload of the two current roles. There will also be a very clear expectation and emphasis on collaborative and flexible working and a move away from any silo mentality. This expectation will extend to all posts in the new structure.
2 New operational management structure
Our current operational structure has three tiers of management
- Operations Manager
- Area Manager
- Local Manager
There is a benefit in having a dedicated library manager because customers and staff are clear as to who manages the library but one of the consequences of these three tiers of operational management is that we can at times be overly hierarchical and decision-making is slowed. Our experience on Microsoft Teams, during Covid, has demonstrated that we can still deliver effective management remotely and we do not have to have a dedicated manager available at each site all the time.
If we remove the Area Manager and Library Manager tiers and create a number of cluster managers (typically managing two or three sites) reporting to the Operations Manager, then we can operate a leaner structure with improved responsiveness and decision-making.
There will be a challenge as we move to this new way of working but a model where a local manager has responsibility for more than one site is not unusual The timetables that have been created are built around dedicated teams for each site but the new Group Manager will need to review these timetables in order to deliver a way of working that ensures that the manager is able to spread their time evenly across all sites in the group.
These proposals, if implemented, will deliver a more streamlined operational structure and help us develop a service where decisions can be made more quickly with the potential to improve opportunities for the initiative staff to be realised and for more service activity to be owned locally rather than being managed and controlled centrally.
3 Support and Development
The proposals relating to the support and development area of our service have been developed in order to enable the Support and Development Manager to invest more time in development work, to increase staff capacity around supporting our systems and technology and to also provide clarity in the new roles around important areas of service.
New roles
Digital Services Officer
The new Digital Services Officer (DSO) posts are based on the existing Library Systems Officer, but the role has been expanded to work across all digital technologies and will involve a greater degree of developmental work.
Development, Quality and Performance Officer
The Development, Quality and Performance Officer (DQPO) post has been created to provide generic support to projects across the service and this post will also have an important role in driving an improved performance focus with a greater emphasis on developing local performance measures and objectives for staff. This post will also generate management information etc. and provide support to our marketing and engagement work.
Universal Library Offer Manager (S&D)
The Universal Library Offer Manager (S&D) post is a re-modelling of the existing Information and Learning Services Manager role and it has been created to ensure that we have capacity and clarity in developing our service in line with the four Universal Offers.
The Universal Offers were launched in 2013 to demonstrate the power of public libraries to enrich the lives of individuals and their communities
This post will lead on the Information and Digital and Health and Wellbeing Offers and an equivalent new role in the Culture and Outreach team will lead on the Reading and Culture and Creativity offers (see below)
4 Culture and Outreach
The increase in senior management capacity has provided the opportunity to create a new service grouping of Culture and Outreach. The creation of this group has enabled the reduction in responsibilities for the other two senior manager posts and offers positive opportunities for realigning and re-modelling services.
The development of libraries as cultural venues and the positioning of Buckinghamshire Libraries at the centre of Buckinghamshire’s Cultural strategy is central to the focus of the new Culture and Outreach Services Manager and the work of the C&O team. Cultural activity promotes health and wellbeing, inclusion and economic growth and this new group will have a key strategic purpose in developing our cultural offer.
The creation of this group also offers an opportunity to integrate the Reading Services and Schools Library Services team functions to create a more cost effective and resilient services.
Finally, additional capacity has been created to support service-wide organisational development and this post will sit within the Culture and Outreach team
Organisational Development Officer
Given the future challenge and scale of change for our service there is a need to move to a more structured and consistent approach towards training and development. One of the new posts proposed through this review is the Organisational Development Officer
The post holder will not be directly responsible for the delivery of all in house training but will, instead, work with colleagues across the service to develop a cohort of local trainers to ensure that trainer capacity is increased and training and development effectively cascaded. Importantly, the remit of the post holder extends to volunteers and community partners.
Universal Library Offer Manager (C&O)
The Universal Library Offer Manager (C&O) is a new post that mirrors the post of Universal Library Offer Manager (S&D) and these two posts will, together, provide capacity to enable our service to develop in line with these offers. This post will provide growth in important areas where we have lacked capacity (Reader Development and Services to CYP) and will also provide a resource to help our emerging priority of developing libraries as cultural venues.
5 Courier Services Team
A review of the courier service has been undertaken and it is proposed to reduce the frequency of deliveries and re-model the way that we provide resources to residential homes to reduce the cost of the service.
Frequency of deliveries
The library delivery schedule has been revised and the majority of branches have dropped one delivery per week It is understood that there is a concern around the impact of reducing delivery frequency generally and on the responsiveness of our reservations service in particular and so we will continue to test and review this schedule and try to address areas where there are particular concerns.
For example, it will be possible, over a period, to try and integrate the school deliveries in to the two-week schedule in a way that by allowing deliveries to libraries and schools on the same day could increase capacity
Re-modelling services to residential homes
It is clear that the lack of any personal contact or engagement with residential homes means that the collections that we deliver often remain unused. Over the last year we have been trialling a new approach whereby we have been setting up one of their staff members on a Group card or a staff member has been registering as the Library Buddy for individual residents at their home. This seems to be a more effective and personalised way of providing a service to residential homes and so we will now develop this as a long-term solution
6 Prison Libraries Team
Up until April 2019 Buckinghamshire Libraries delivered services to three prisons but the contract for HMP Aylesbury was not renewed. One member of library service staff was transferred to the new provider (Milton Keynes College) but elements of the HMP Aylesbury staff overhead remained with Buckinghamshire Libraries and this has created a financial pressure.
The available budget is fixed by the Ministry of Justice and as there is currently more staff in post than budget available it will be necessary to reduce the staff team to address the pressure.
David Jones
Head of Buckinghamshire Libraries Service