Agenda and minutes

The minutes of a meeting of the Cabinet Member, Education, Culture and Leisure Services held on 16^th November, 2004 were agreed as a correct record.

The Cabinet Member, Education, Culture and Leisure Services reported on the recent success of Jeremy Deller, the winner of this year’s Turner Prize.

Jeremy Deller was known to this Authority through his work and involvement in the reconstruction of the Battle of Orgreave at RotherValley CountryPark.

- to comment on the outcome of the assessment of this year’s statement

Consideration was given to a report of the Libraries, Museums and Arts Manager outlining this year’s assessment and scoring by the Department for Culture Media and Sport following the submission of the Public Library Position Statement to DCMS at the end of September.

This year’s score is as follows:-

The Authority’s approach to ‘Framework for the Future’ – 3 (good)

The Authority’s performance in relation to Public Library Standards – 3 (good)

This compares to scores of 3 and 1 last year.

The score is used as part of the calculation of the Comprehensive Performance Assessment score within the Authority.

The assessment of the Position Statement is made against two main criteria:

• The quality of the evidence that authorities are providing excellent policies and practice to implement ‘Framework for the Future’* in line with local needs
• The authority’s response to the Public Library Standards at March 31^st 2004 (taking into account progress since January 2001).

(*’Framework for the Future’ is the Government’s ten year strategy for public libraries)

In view of the Public Library Service Standards being revised for 2005, a report on this matter is being prepared for future consideration.

Resolved:-  (1)  That the report be received.

(2)  That the achievement in meeting Standards be welcomed.

(3)     That the Manager, Libraries, Museums and Arts pass on the congratulations of this Committee to all Library staff for the work being undertaken in the achievement of this year’s scoring.

(4) That the positive impact the achievement will have on improving the Council’s Comprehensive Performance Assessment rating be noted.

- to note the introduction of the new Standards and impact measures, and the implications on the Library and Information Service

Consideration was given to a report of the Libraries, Museums and Arts Manager which informed of the new Public Library Service Standards as published by the Department for Media, Culture and Sport. 

In support of this work a set of impact measures are being developed, aimed at highlighting the contributions made by library services to the communities they serve and to corporate agendas.  These should be in place for 1^st April, 2005.

The report set out the background on the matter.

The DCMS have reviewed the existing Standards and following consultation announced that from 1^st April 2005 the existing 26 Standards are to be replaced by 10.  The majority of these are already included in the 26, but some changes have been made to definitions and clarification in terms of what and how to measure performance against particular Standards.  The DCMS see these as the ‘challenging’ Standards.

Currently this Authority met 6 of the new Standards:

PLS 2              Opening Hours

PLS 3              Access to electronic information

PLS 4              Number of electronic workstations

PLS 7              % of library users (adults) who view their Service as good/very good (if rounded up target – 94% our performance 93.9%)

PLS 9              Annual number of items added to stock

PLS 10            Time taken to replenish lending stock

Standards not met:

PLS 1              Households within specified distance of a static library

PLS 5              Requests met within 7, 15 and 30 days (currently only meet 7 day standard) – this measures how quickly a book is supplied to a customer that is not in stock)

PLS 6              Number of visits per 1,000 population

PLS 8              % of library users (children) who view their Service as good/very good

Of those not met, the meeting recognised that PLS1 could only be met if libraries are built in or relocated to the Bramley/Wickersley and Thorpe Hesley areas and that therefore long term planning was needed.

The other three are areas for the Service to target over the next year through ongoing planned improvements.  The number of requests is influenced by an ability to purchase books quickly and the numbers of requests received.  The latter has increased as free requests has been introduced.  However, if the funding for materials is sustained, there should be progress made against this Standard.

PLS6 has been a Standard that the Service has improved against, but the Council is unlikely to meet the target (6000 visits per 1,000 population) in 2005-06.  The current figure is 5177 which is up from 3960 in 2000-01.  Again, the meeting acknowledged that with two additional libraries in Rotherham, the target would be achievable.

A promotional campaign will commence early 2005, together with continued improvements at the Community Libraries, programmes of events and activities, new book stock and a continued emphasis on the free internet access/free e-mail availability which it was hoped will see the upward trend continue.

PLS 8 is a revised Standard.  The Service’s focus on children will continue to be a priority.  It  ...  view the full minutes text for item 114.

- to note the forecast outturn for 2004/05

Consideration was given to the fifth Budget Monitoring report of the Strategic Finance Officer for the Programme Area in 2004/05.  The report set out a current forecast to overspend against budget for the financial year by £397k (0.25%).

This relates to budget pressures in both Culture and Leisure Services (£330k) and Education Services (£67k).

The Culture and Leisure Services overspend primarily relates to continued pressure on sport and recreational facility budgets, as experienced in previous years (£380k).  This is partly offset by a saving on the Library Service budget resulting from a moratorium on procurement spending and slippage in staff recruitment (£50k).

The Education Services forecast overspend relates to the under-recovery of income on the schools’ HR contract with RBT (£70k), Strategic Management costs relating to clarification of ICT support service arrangements (£137k) and increased costs from revised transport contracts (£10k).  This is partly offset by slippage on the implementation of the new Greasborough PRU (£150k) due to difficulties in staff recruitment, and which will now be operational from January, 2005.

The forecast outturn as at October (£397k) is an increase of £387k from the overspend shown in the September report (£10k).  All possible action, as detailed in the report submitted, is being taken with a view to returning the Programme Area budget to a balanced position by the end of the financial year.

In addition, the report outlined underlying risks which are presently identified and under evaluation.

The Cabinet Member, Education, Culture and Leisure Services referred to the need for a re-examination of the Human Resources (Schools Traded Service) as part of on-going contract discussions with RBT.

Resolved:-  That the forecast outturn for 2004/05 based on actual costs to 31^st October and forecast costs to the end of March 2005 be noted.