Suffolk Libraries appoints a new IT Manager…me!!

Photo taken in the County Library in Ipswich

This week I started a new job as IT Manager for Suffolk Libraries. I will be working for the new Industrial and Provident Society (IPS) that took charge of Suffolk’s 44 libraries, mobile libraries and the schools and prison library services in August this year.

When nearly two years ago the Suffolk library consultation was launched and the campaign began I found myself one of the leading campaigners in a campaign that ended up with a petition with more than 35,000 signatures being presented to the County Council.

Since that time the threat of closures have thankfully lifted and a new chapter begun for Suffolk’s libraries with control of the service passing to the IPS. Suffolk County Council remain as the statutory library authority and fund the IPS.

They way libraries are now run in Suffolk may not be what everyone wanted but it has been my view for some time that the IPS offers the best future for Suffolk’s libraries. With a Board able to negotiate as good a deal as possible in funding and independance from some of the more annoying aspects of County Council control the IPS has an opportunity to make the most of the funding available.

My experience as a school governor has shown me the benefits that local autonomy can offer. The relationship with the council becomes more of working together and simply having a cheque book means schools can buy what they need without all the bureaucracy of a large organisation.

One area that can particularly benefit from this is IT. Public libraries offer access to computers and the Internet to many that might not have access elsewhere. The County Council’s IT service however is designed for an office environment needing much more security and with quite different requirements to a public service.

My job as IT Manager will include improving these services and making them more fit for purpose. So I will be looking to improve the services with more modern web browsers and the ability to use USB keys as well as back end IT systems for things like HR and Finance more suited to the smaller IPS than the large corporate systems a County Council needs.

Enhancements such as apps for mobile phones to search the catalogue and reserve books as well as wireless internet access are things that I will be looking into to see if they are viable.

There are many ways to support and improve a service including campaigning but now I feel I can best support the library service in a more practical way.

As an employee of the IPS clearly I will not be in a position to be one of those holding the service to account. I now become one of those accountable!

I am really looking forward to this new role. There is plenty to do and I am particularly looking forward to working with Suffolk Libraries staff. Some I know already and others I look forward to meeting over the next weeks and months.

Where are the conservatives when you need them to get tough on strikers, scroungers and shirkers?

Laughing and smirking on the green benches

As I grew up in the 70s and 80s in Middle Class England there were some strong and decent values that were taken for granted. If you worked hard you could “get on” in life, own your own home, save for a decent retirement and generally have a good life.

At least in public these were the stated values of conservatives.

Move on to 2012 and the world looks very different. Owning your own home is a dream for many including the “strivers” with banks that will not lend and property prices still out of reach of even well paid people in many areas.

Many have either no pension or pensions with uncertain benefits including many professionals and well paid employees.

Millions of people are struggling to get on despite often working hard and as a society we face an ever increasing benefits bill.

It is becoming clear that much of the money we spend on benefits ends up in the pockets of scroungers and shirkers as an excellent paper from left leaning think tank Compass explains.

Download the full compass paper

But these scroungers and shirkers are not who you might think.

To read the right-wing press you would imagine much of Britain had turned into the kind of place seen in the TV series Shameless where people live the life of riley scrounging on benefits partying whilst we work.

The facts however tell a different story with literally billions of pounds of the money we spend on benefits ending up in the pockets of buy to let landlords and in tax credits paid out to people actually in work as the paper explains:

So who are the real shirkers and scroungers? Big business is guilty of scrounging from the public purse on a monumental scale – often hidden behind a whole political economy rather than some drawn curtains. The billions of pounds in working tax credits paid out every year are not going to the unemployed but to workers to supplement their low income. It is making up the difference between low wages and the minimum necessary amount for families to live on – a living wage. As 29% of low-paid workers work in retail, this sector in particular is coming under intense scrutiny. A report by the Fair Pay Network found that despite collectively making billions of pounds worth of profits and paying their CEOs millions of pounds a year, none of the top four supermarkets were paying their workers a living wage. They could easily do this and still make huge profits at the same time. So why should they be able to scrounge off the rest of us?

The same is true in the housing market where a staggering one in five of all families depends on housing benefit to survive:

One in five households in the UK rely on housing benefit to put a roof over their heads. Out of these households 87% are low and middle-income families and pensioners – the so-called strivers that the government pretends to support. Why is it that working people need housing benefit? It's the same story: the cost of living is not in line with income. The market has failed. Successive governments have tried to correct this failure by moving from an emphasis on building houses that can be rented cheaply to paying landlords directly to cover tenants' rents. But as 32% of housing benefit claimants rent in the private sector, this means the hard-working striving taxpayer is paying their tax directly into the pockets of private landlords enabling them to expand their property portfolios. Last year this cost the taxpayer nearly £10bn.  

So where are the conservatives now? The supporters of home ownership and reward for those working hard?

Well Boris Johnson is actually amongst those calling for a living wage. Why is it that people are paid so little that they cannot afford to put a roof over their heads and food on the table without state benefits even when working full time? Sometimes even with two adults working full-time.

But Cameron and Osborne rather than grappling with this issue are playing party politics with the poor. Suggesting real terms cuts in benefits as a political trap for labour and literally lounging on the green benches of the Commons laughing and smirking at how “clever” they have been.