Reports are emerging that Labour Councillors have decided to abandon the direct management of Library facilities in York.
They are claiming to have persuaded the Cabinet Office Mutuals Support Programme http://mutuals.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/ to provide “practical assistance” to establish the Library Service as a “social enterprise” organisation.
The scale of any support has not been revealed nor have the results of the consultation undertaken with residents about the future of library services in York.
Our view has always been that the Library service in York has been an outstanding success in recent years. We would be extremely cautious about making any changes. We recognise that “social enterprise” is very much a “buzz” concept at present but there is little evidence from the rest of the country that it is an appropriate way of managing a public service like libraries.
Some may point to the success of the York Museums and Art Galley since it became a “Trust” independent from the Council. It does, however, continue to receive over £1 million a year in taxpayers subsidies and, of course, depends for some of its income on charges.
Currently charges form only a small part of the income streams of the libraries.
The traditional definition of a social enterprise is “a business that trades for a social and/or environmental purpose. It will have a clear sense of its ‘social mission’: which means it will know what difference it is trying to make, who it aims to help, and how it plans to do it. It will bring in most or all of its income through selling goods or services. And it will also have clear rules about what it does with its profits, reinvesting these to further the ‘social mission’”
Time for a full public debate we think before any changes are made to our libraries.