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A successful improvement programme needs to be underpinned
by appropriate management commitment, as shown below:
- The Vital Link is written into the library service plan
and into the local authority's Annual Learning Plan. Click
here to see Croydon
Libraries' basic skills policy.
- An identified member of staff is responsible for coordination
of this work across the authority, linking reader development
with lifelong learning/social inclusion activity.
- There is a Skills for Life partnership at authority level,
at a minimum with Adult & Community Education and/or
main local colleges, with steering group to plan, monitor
and review a work plan. This should be replicated in partnerships
with local providers at branch level. Click here
to see a sample workplan from the West Sussex Libraries
Vital link partnership.
- The library service is represented on local and regional
basic skills/lifelong learning partnerships.
- The Vital Link evaluation framework
is used for monitoring impact on learners and the quality
of offer.
- There is a specific budget allocation for staff training,
e.g. partnership building, customer care, basic skills awareness,
stock awareness, reader development.
- There is a specific budget allocation for stock and reader
development activities for emergent readers.
- Library staff are aware of and involved in regional and
national initiatives in support of this audience, e.g. BBC
RaW Campaign, World Book Day.
- The Vital Link self-assessment checklist and appropriate
quality assurance frameworks are used, e.g. peer and partnership
review.
 Click
here for a checklist developed by the London Borough
of Bromley to enable London libraries to assess their services
for Skills for Life learners and determine a baseline for
measuring improvements
- A range of strategies is used to reach new learners (e.g.
partnerships with agencies working with families).
Check your library's commitment to the
Vital Link improvement programme
Download management
commitment checklist
Library staff working with basic skills tutors and learners
have identified the following additional issues as keys to
improving library services to this group.
Work with basic skills students cuts across traditional "adult"
and "children's" divisions in the library service;
basic skills students may be adults, teenagers or parents
with young children, so that staff from all sections of the
service need to be trained and prepared to deal with basic
skills needs.
A key barrier to library use by this group is the perceived
difficulty of library joining procedures. Removing barriers
by simplifying these procedures across the service - removing
the requirement for two forms of identification for new members
for instance, or taking personal details orally - helps make
it easier for basic skills students to join; it also assists
the library service to tackle social exclusion more generally.
You will need an earmarked budget for the purchase of resources
and for staging events and activities; also for providing
a crèche whenever any learning is available for parents
or carers of young children.
Basic skills awareness training should be a regular feature
of the library training programme for staff at all levels.
It should form a specific part of the induction programme
for new staff. Some staff will wish to build on awareness
training and go on to Adult learner support training or even
to the C&G 7307 Adult basic skills tutor course; suitable
support should be available for those who wish to do so.
Further details of Basic Skills
training available to library staff.
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