Agenda item

Before the item, a minute’s silence was observed for Councillor David Dovey.

Richard Drinkwater and Cheryl Haskell presented the report and answered the members’ questions.

Challenge:

What is the precise shortfall in expenditure and staff employed? What could be done to make the service even better, if there were more money?

The budgets were cut as part of a service reduction 4 years ago, in which the book budget was cut 50%. This is reflective of most of the local authorities in Wales. We try to circulate as much material as we can: previously, we might have bought several copies of a book per library but now we buy one or two copies and circulate them. We have become thriftier, therefore, but also more creative, and the customer doesn’t miss out. If there is a specific request for a book, in most cases, we can obtain the book for them and then shelve it for other customers. With more money, we would do so many things, so it is hard to be specific. We have invested more money each year into digital, reflecting the changing trends that we see.

In terms of staffing, the report marks us down because we are community hubs, not purely libraries, and Welsh Government doesn’t count the council hours that our colleagues work – we can only count a portion of their time towards the library hours. That won’t change as long as we are a community hub. Again, this is reflective of other local authorities. Abergavenny is a little different because the service is offered across two floors; therefore, the flow is different from what it would be in the other community hubs. But our colleagues all work through the services – we don’t separate them into council and library.

Has the initial advice to keep books quarantined for 72 hours been updated?

The guidance remains that books should be quarantined for 72 hours. Books are issued via Requested and Collect. Customers return them to the hub or the One Stop shop in Abergavenny, where they are put in a box and taken out of circulation for 72 hours. Welsh Government is not advising anything different. It hasn’t caused us any difficulty throughout the pandemic, and customers have been very understanding.

Could the charging structure be explained further, specifically regarding Digital?

It would be more constructive to send the figures out to members after the meeting.

Those who are more housebound, and are receiving book deliveries, are presumably less able to complete the census?

Currently, Abergavenny, Usk and Chepstow are Census Support centres. On an appointment basis, we are able to support users over the phone to fill in their census paper. Matthew Gatehouse has asked the company if we can do some support face-to-face, as this is what some people prefer; our hubs are set up very safely for this to happen. We hope to have an answer to that later today. The number for people to call is the usual contact centre number. We have two Welsh speakers, if the customer would prefer to speak in Welsh.

One of the key issues for disabled people is digital exclusion. How has this been overcome in the libraries, including relating to the pre-pandemic use of hubs for training?

Digital exclusion has been on our radar for a long time. Monmouthshire has suffered from being – until this academic year – one of the poorest funded areas in Wales, regarding provision of community education. This year, due to a new funding structure within Welsh Government, our funding for community education for our direct delivery has skyrocketed from just over £2k to over £55,000k, allowing us to bid for further funding, partly to address digital exclusion in the county. Previously, due to the level of funding we had, we were excluded from applying for more. We were awarded £15k this year. Part of the grant application process, we have worked with colleagues in Newport to map where digital exclusion exists in Monmouthshire. It has highlighted areas like the Magor-Caldicot corridor, and some outlying areas of Abergavenny. We used that intelligence to prioritise where/how to spend the £15k. We suffer from poor connectivity in Monmouthshire, so we largely invested the grant in My-Fi devices, which are – essentially – standalone broadband emitters.

A key thing is also digital competency – we need to tutor people to use the devices, which has created its own set of problems. Through some work with Coleg Gwent, we have set up digital mentors in each of the counties in the five counties partnership, who set up socially distanced teaching aids and walkthrough guides. We recognise that this doesn’t necessarily replace what someone would get from attending a class in person – they can engage over a digital platform but it’s not quite the same as being in a room with other people. We see it as a small step towards digital enablement and arresting social isolation.

The lift to the first floor in the Abergavenny hub is a problem for many disabled people because of fire risks.

We are not aware that there will be any alterations made in Abergavenny. The point about accessibility is certainly noted. The space that we now have, and the facilities we can offer, far exceed what we offered in the previous location in Baker Street. It might not be perfect but it is a great improvement: there is more room to manoeuvre, better toilet facilities, etc. There was a question a little while ago about scooter access in the lift – we worked with someone who uses a scooter, who came to try it for us. They thought that everything was well set up, and we have acquired our own scooter for the first floor for anyone who needs it. We are open to further suggestions but we don’t envisage making any further additions at this time.

How well are the other hubs adapted to disabled access, particularly in Chepstow?

In 2020, just prior to lockdown, the ground floor disabled toilets in Chepstow hub were completely refurbished. We are happy that all facilities there are open access to all. We also have disabled facilities on the first floor and a DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) compliant lift.

£15k doesn’t seem like a lot to get people online – what is that money able to pay for?

We use scale of markets for our purchasing. We also looked at a lower monetary value per unit for devices. Working initially with Welsh Government, we sourced 30 devices but there were supply chain issues, so we went to market and obtained 32 Netbooks (of which 20 are now out in the community) and the 18 My-Fi devices. We also purchased and refreshed 11 iPads for our digital classes in the hubs, and bought 4 Facebook Portal devices. These look like tablets but have a fish eye lens and run with Zoom, which we use for digital delivery to communities. We have been able to lend these out to our tutors for delivery of, for example, parent and child cookery classes. The tutor puts the portal on the kitchen worktop; those dialling in from home have a very clear picture of the preparation and cooking via the fish eye lens, and can participate in the session almost as if they were there in person. This has allowed us to transcend geographical problems. Covid has encouraged us to accelerate some of our wishes using digital means.

Cheryl and Fiona Ashley in the Library Service successfully bid for £15k from Welsh Government for all digital tech to go out to our communities. Also, we are currently working with Miranda Thomason from GAVO, who is heading up a partnership – they have successfully bid for £30k, with which we are creating a digital loaning library. Between us, we therefore have quite good resources going into digital equipment – we are going out now to purchase that equipment.

Chair’s Summary:

The members commended the team for its work, and the quality of services in the hubs.

Tony Crowhurst noted that the designs for the new Abergavenny Hub were perhaps made before the Equality Impact Assessment was done – this should therefore be a lesson to the council for future planning.

Councillor Brown suggested that isolated constituents be targeted on a proactive basis when it comes to the census, to ensure that they are fully engaged.

Cheryl Haskell will send figures relating to the charging structure to the members after the meeting.