First cut is the deepest

Now that I have your attention, I'll expand further on what is actually happening in Devon libraries.

I spoke previously of a restructuring that amounted to a demolition of the library service from within but didn't elaborate. The demolition takes the form of staffing cuts, not unexpected in itself, but being implemented in such a way that library staff recongnise that its likely to be the prelude to library closures.

The initial announcement on 3rd March saw a cut of a third in senior library staff while the rest of the senior staff take significant paycuts. This may sound sensible, 'cut some overpaid managers' etc, but there are some serious implications to this move.

What doesn't seem to have been taken into account by the people making the decisions - who I hasten to add aren't library managers but managers for our directorate, Adult and Community Services - is that the staff in question are generally staff who spend at least 50% of their time on the frontline serving the public. It was asked whether the resulting cut in frontline staffing would be made up with more staff hours being provided by library assistants, something which was carefully hedged around by the managers who came to deliver the news of the restructuring. We take this careful avoidence to mean 'no'. The odd thing is that the amount of time spent on the frontline by the staff who are being cut is explicitly referred to in the restructuring document;

"However,this group of managers has tended to find themselves tied into the day-to-day
delivery of frontline services in their base library"

Well, yes of course they get 'tied up' in the day to day running of the service as all libraries have historically been chronically understaffed. The senior staff have to work the on the frontline regardless of what else they need to be doing as there is often no-one else available to do the job! And you're proposing we cut the senior staff down without replacing the time they spend on the frontline?! Actually, scratch that, not 'proposing', you are cutting the staff and not replacing them.

So this is the problem, the staffing at the senior levels is being cut down which actually means that the number of staff serving you over the counter is going down. This is just the beginning as the consultation document we have regarding a second phase of restructuring suggests that staffing at the lower levels, those staff who spend virtually all of their time on frontline work, is also likely to be cut. We have been losing staffing steadily over the last few years, with Exeter Central alone having 16% less staff than the exisiting structure claims we should have. Keeping libraries open is already a struggle with the staff we have, so with even less staff, they won't be able to stay open.

We don't know what will happen next as we're being kept in the dark. It's been insinuated that library opening hours will change - well they're going to have to if we have less staff. We also know that single manned libraries, that is libraries being kept open with only one staff member, are set to become more common again. The problems with both of these 'solutions' is that the service that you, the public, receive will deteriorate. You'll have a library that is open for less time, with less staff in it to serve you, less expertise avaiable (the specialist librarians are being axed as well, there is no longer a Performing Arts or Local Studies librarian and your specialist childrens, reference and lending staff in the bigger libraries also no longer exist) and it is likely to be less reliable. With single manned libraries there is the danger that opening hours will become unreliable as if the staff member is ill or wants to take a holiday, there is no guarantee that there will be a member of staff available from another library to open it instead, particualary with staff being cut back. If a library becomes unrealiable, people stop using it as much. With a drop in usage, the faceless managers beyond the library service have something that they would consider a solid reason to shut the library in question - "people aren't using it".