Public sector cuts have led to a rise in the number of social enterprises running library services, but sustainability is a problem.
The local library, along with schools and hospitals, used to form part of an unbreakable bond between citizen and state. Since austerity measures were enacted in 2010, however, that bond became much more fragile. Many local authorities have been quick to divest of library services, and their reasons for doing so are understandable. As Pete Gascoigne, executive director at Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust (WLCT) says, "No public libraries make a profit."
Much less understandable then, has been the subsequent eagerness of social enterprises to take them on.
Wigan Council were ahead of the curve when it outsourced its entire leisure and culture services in 2003. WLCT was created as a social enterprise spin-out to run everything from libraries to crematoria. But the money maker was always the leisure services, and Gascoigne informs that cross-subsidising is needed to support its library services. After ten years of experience, he says the Trust would be interested in bidding for library contracts in other boroughs, but primarily because "libraries may be part of a wider package... which would be our preference."
So if libraries are loss makers, how are some social enterprises able to make them self-sufficient?
The small computer recycling social enterprise Eco Computers for example won the contract to run three libraries in the borough of Lewisham in early 2011. Having never run a library before, it was a bold move. "We gave an expression of interest initially," explains Gavin Dunn, director of Eco Computers, "and went through a tendering process whereby we put our business case forward and Lewisham council looked at the range of applications... As far as I know, it was only local community projects that bid for it. I'm not sure it was a very attractive proposition for a private company, because there were no obvious ways to monetise the spaces."
It was attractive to Eco Computers, says Dunn, because, "It offered us a portal to expand our community projects, and at the same time we knew how well used the libraries were... we were already trying to address digital exclusion across the community, so it just seemed like a natural thing to do."
After re-branding the libraries as community hubs, and the company name to Eco Communities, the business plan mirrors that of all social enterprise-run libraries since – it diversified. "Obviously you don't generate money out of loaning books, or the use of computers – they are all free", says Dunn. "But we are installing cafés in all the libraries and the local housing associations are funding us to provide work experience and training for long-term unemployed residents, and we have a pot of funding from Defra... We also have the contract with the council to sell old library books... on Amazon, and at book fairs." And, of course, it continues to sell recycled electrical equipment, with the library buildings providing effective showrooms and depots.
Wigan understands the need to diversify too, Gascoigne says: "We've run everything from an emerging business working with adults with learning disabilities, to community cafés, to the citizens advice bureau."
In the borough of Kirklees, where Huddersfield-based social enterprise Fresh Horizons has taken on a single library contact, its managing director Mike McCusker explains, "The advantage we have over mainstream local authority services is our ability to embrace innovation and deliver a wide range of services." His library has even added a small cinema. However McCusker admits that "in the longer term we will need to be able to identify other income streams". An experiment to charge for internet access was short-lived, he says, because "we are serving a community which has little disposable income."
Even some of the biggest social enterprises are yet to crack the revenue model. London-based GLL took on its first library contract with Greenwich council in April last year, and has just been awarded the Wandsworth Libraries contract. Mark Sesnan, MD of GLL, says that it's still "early days. What we've got to decide is what we want the library service to look like for the next 30 years, and how that should be delivered... But in Greenwich we've made sure no libraries have closed, we've kept the opening hours the same, we've kept staff pay and conditions, and our guarantee is that things will be as good as they were before if not better."
There remains an element of experimentation around the social enterprise library model, but also an element of urgency. GLL has recently found itself competing against the private sector giant John Laing Intergrated Services (JLIS), which proudly boasts on its website to be "the first private sector company to specialise in the outsourcing of unique areas of public sector services that include libraries". Some fear that social enterprises may be unable to compete. McCusker talks of social benefits being "jettisoned in favour of imaginary cost effectiveness of the multi-nationals – here for short term gain and leaving the expensive complex issues to local providers who are committed for the long term." Indeed there was a messy fallout when a recent library contract in Croydon was said to have been awarded to JLIS – defeating GLL – only to fall through when pensions agreements were allegedly reneged on.
However, not all social enterprises are able to keep up local authority staffing structures either. In Lewisham, "we have one paid manager per library supported by a team of volunteers and some work placements – it's similar to a charity shop model," says Dunn. He says these are people who are already "very active in the local community and want to see their community prosper". But as an argument it is unlikely to hold much sway with trade unions. Meanwhile McCusker's experience is that a volunteers-based approach, "just won't work in deprived communities. Even in affluent areas I have heard examples where it takes 60 volunteers to keep a rural library open 21 hours a week. Volunteers are not free, they need support and co-ordination and many councils have found that the savings they imagined when taking this route have been far smaller than expected."
Social enterprises are, however, offering much more than books and computer access – the mixed-use community hub, argues Dunn, is the library model for the next 30 years: "We're open longer now than when the local council ran the libraries. I really believe that there's a wider range of services that we offer from our libraries now... There are things that the local council do well, no question. But they are unable to move quickly and introduce new services quickly when the community asks for it." The reason why social enterprises can, he says, "is that we are the local community – there is no them and us."
Posted by Tim Smedley
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