Agenda item

The Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services submits a report on the services available in libraries across the city of Leicester.

The Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services submitted a presentation update on the Library Services Provision – Support for employment and careers update. The update focused on the information and digital goal of the four Universal Offers developed by libraries. The goal was “To ensure local communities have access to quality information and digital services, to learn new skills and to feel safe online”

The Head of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services presented the item which included a brief overview of neighbourhood services; information around library employment support; key outcomes of the Arts Council England Report (June 2022); advice and support sessions in local libraries as well as a number of case studies and workforce development.

It was noted that:

• The Council’s Neighbourhood Services section delivered community and library services to people who lived and worked in Leicester City.
• Neighbourhood Services were committed to the four Universal Offers developed by Libraries Connected and supported by Arts Council England.
• Since the previous update a report had been produced by Arts Council England in June 2022. The report was titled ’Helping job seekers help themselves’ and focused specifically on the future for library provision.
• The report’s findings noted that 39% of library users were job seekers, nation-wide. 
• The following three recommendations were made in the report:

1.     Actively coordinate the support provided to jobseekers by library services with other forms of jobseeker support through a formal partnership between jobcentres and library services as critical social infrastructure.

2.     Invest in quality and consistency. Individual library services should consider how they can increase the benefit to jobseekers by making the resources and activities identified by the research more widely available and actively promote this support.

3.     Reinstate human help for jobseekers which been paused due to the pandemic. Individual services should use the evidence in this report to inform decisions about how to reinstate provision, in particular CV writing, careers advice and training courses.

• Leicester was already compliant in all 3 recommendations.
• The pilot commenced in autumn 2020, which trialled in three libraries. Following success, the service was rolled out to three further libraries in autumn 2021. A final two libraries were included in spring 2022.
• A customer survey was undertaken in February 2022, with 1,500 responses. The survey showed that purpose of the visits were as follows:

-       6% were job related.

-       19% were to get online

-       21% were answering a query

-       35% were studying or learning

• Neighbourhood Services provided government funded Kickstarter roles in libraries and community centres in 2022. The scheme was open to 18 – 25 year olds. Two customer facing roles in different areas of the city were available and both Kickstarters had now successfully applied for positions within the service.
• Neighbourhood services were working directly with colleges to offer three T-level placement opportunities for admin and business students to introduce them to the benefits of working for the council and to support young people in their career development.
• Apprenticeships were being offered to members of staff within the service, to support career development.
• Neighbourhoods Services were offering up to four apprenticeships in Library and Information Skills for front line staff.

In response to members questions, it was noted:

• Neighbourhoods Services had looked into extending further, following a recommendation at a previous meeting. Contact had been made with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), as it was a DWP resource and the council were currently fully utilizing that resource. The eight locations were picked because of the need requirements and easy accessibility.
• Regular monthly service meetings were held to ensure frontline staff within the Neighbourhoods and Customer Service Centres had access to the same source of information.
• Page 129 of the report showed the figures for those who had attended adult learning courses during the autumn term. Data for enrollments in the spring term were not currently available.
• The adult learning courses could be accessed via the adult learning brochure online. At the start of each term would be an enrolment day, where the doors are open and the adult learning staff would be available to discuss the courses at most locations.

RECOMMENDED TO AGREE:

That an update report on the adult learning courses be provided to the commission in six months.