A mutual approach to services – York City Council

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The below excerpt from Cllr Magazine outlines City of York Council’s development of a mutual approach to its library and archive service, and the core services of emergency response and equipment hire for independent living.

Mutually Inclusive

City of York Council’s two new mutual organisations have been celebrated at Downing Street. Launched within a month of each other, the core services of emergency response and equipment hire for independent living, and libraries and archives, are being delivered for the community and by the community with professional support. What inspired this shift from council to mutual?

York has been committed to the Co-operative Council movement since 2011, which has underpinned the mutuals’ launch. Councillor James Alexander, Labour Leader of City of York Council has long been a fervent supporter. “In York we recognise that a ‘one size fits all approach’ no longer fulfils the diverse needs of our communities. We want to empower residents and staff to come up with innovative ideas for service delivery, whilst also trying to protect essential services for the most vulnerable people in our communities, all with reduced resources.

“By looking at how other leading local authorities are working with their local communities, we have found even better, more cost effective and community-focussed ways of delivering services for people in York.”

Having developed the Explore library concept back in 2008, the authority’s highly-regarded libraries and nationally-important archive broadened its services while boosting footfall by a third and creating new income streams. The next step, in the face of funding pressures, was to ensure its future.

“We saw library closures happening across the country and we wanted to avoid this in York,” said Councillor Sonja Crisp, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Culture and Tourism.

“A sustainable and mutual approach was the most sensible option to protect our library service for residents through a professionally-led service, supported by the community, for the community it serves.”

Following extensive community consultation, £100,000 Cabinet Office Mutual Support Programme support was secured in January last year to develop a business case demonstrating the feasibility of the proposal. Sustainability and a high quality service through improvement and development were paramount, as were having professional librarians and archivists leading a comprehensive and efficient service.

Launched on 1 May 2014, York Libraries and Archives Mutual Ltd is now a staff-led Industrial and Provident Society with exempt charitable status – the first single library of its kind in the UK. All staff previously employed by City of York Council have transferred to the new organisation which is committed to not only keeping all 14 libraries, two reading cafés and a mobile library open, but also improving and building the service.

Now, closer than ever to the communities it serves, the organisation is accountable to its members and a board and is about to launch a recruitment campaign for Community Members and is considering new library services as part of a new Community Stadium.

The council’s former Community Equipment Loan Store and Telecare Service provided social care equipment, Warden Call and telecare support to vulnerable residents across the city.

An essential, growing service with a client base of over 3,000 people, it was recognised to have potential to compete with private providers and be self funding on a not-for-profit basis. It backed the agenda to support people in their homes for as long as possible and, as a well-delivered service with a discrete identity, it began to plan a commercially-viable future alongside a bank of expert staff, also provided by the Cabinet Office Mutual Support Programme.

Launched on 1 April, Be Independent now provides health and social care equipment, telecare and emergency response across York. This Community Interest Company, limited by guarantee, has six directors on the board, of which three are employed by the company giving majority staff ownership, and one represents the council. With the vision ‘promoting lifelong independence’ it aims to create new opportunities, expand service lines, innovate and develop partnerships to further improve the quality of service and outcomes for users. It also plans to deliver savings of £200,000 over four years by introducing more revenue generating services.

Cabinet Member for Health and Community Engagement, Councillor Linsay Cunningham-Cross, said: “This innovative approach to service delivery is part of a wider initiative to look at the best, and most cost effective, ways of delivering services against a backdrop of continued funding pressures.”