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An introduction to our services and the way we do

thingsCath Anley – April 2012

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Welcome to Kent County Council’s Libraries, Registration and Archives Service. I hope that this brief introduction sets the context for the rest of this training programme and gives you a sense of the organisational culture we believe is best fitted to help us deliver excellent services to the public.

Cath Anley – Head of Libraries, Registration and Archives

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Most of this section of the training is relevant to all parts of the Libraries, Registration and Archives Group. However, we have yet to agree overarching priorities for the Group, so some parts will focus more on Libraries and Archives. Progressively more Registration content will be added so watch this space for more information as the integration process rolls out.

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This presentation will cover:

• Kent County Council’s overarching objectives.

• How Libraries and Archives are supporting these objectives.

• The organisational culture that we all need to work within to enable us to deliver excellent services to the public.

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Bold Steps for Kent - The County Council has agreed three overarching priorities which we are all tasked to support in our work:

• Helping the Kent economy grow.

• Tackling disadvantage.

• Putting the citizen in control.

We have used these objectives to set key priorities for our services.

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The Libraries, Registration and Archives Service works with all the people of Kent to deliver services that support them throughout their lives.

Our services are:

• open to everyone, for example through universal offers like book lending, birth and death registration, and access to IT; and also

• targeted to help those who most need our offer, for example the summer reading challenge, the nationality checking service and the making a difference work with adults with learning disabilities.

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Libraries and Archives have identified three priorities that we need to pursue to enable us to meet our statutory obligations and support Bold Steps for Kent:

• To help people improve their literacy and enjoy a wide range of reading experiences.

• To ensure people have the information they need to live full and active lives.

• To bring people together to build communities and engage in shared experiences.

Now we are part of the Libraries, Registration and Archives Group we will need to review these priorities to include Registration Services.

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Reading and literacyOur objective is to help people improve their literacy and enjoy a wide range of reading experiences.

Helping the Kent economy grow by:

• supporting people to develop a key life skill that employers describe as essential for employees in 95% of UK based jobs.

Tackling a significant factor that prevents people from helping themselves out of disadvantage by:

• giving children the best possible start in life; and

• helping to raise their confidence and their aspirations.

Putting people in control of their own lives by:

• helping them make links in their communities through shared reading experiences;

• helping them broaden their knowledge base through reading; and

• supporting their learning.

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Information and digital inclusionOur objectives are to ensure people have the information they need to live full and active lives; to help

people develop skills and become confident using the Internet; and to provide access to broadband connectivity and computer hardware for those who do not have access elsewhere.

Helping the Kent economy grow by:

• supporting people to develop digital literacy skills, essential in virtually all working lives;

• giving wide access to accurate, neutral and timely information to individuals and businesses; and

• enabling public agencies and others to save money by delivering more services online, because more of their customers have access to online services.

Ensuring that the disadvantaged in society have:

• equal access to information; and

• the opportunities to develop digital skills and bridge the digital divide.

Putting people in control of their own lives by:

• enabling them and supporting them in engaging fully with public agencies through online channels; and

• giving them supported access to the world of information and learning.

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Bringing people together

Our objective is to give people opportunities to engage in shared experiences (reading groups, author talks, local history events, Talk Time, Baby Rhyme Time etc.) and content (books, audio books, information, archival material etc.). Through such experiences, which can take place in almost any location, and also virtually via the Web or telephone, communities: raise awareness of their shared history; develop community ties; and start to build the skills and capacity to take control their own lives.

Helping the Kent economy grow by:

• encouraging volunteering to enable people to develop work skills and add value to their communities; and

• developing new models of public service delivery in partnership with local people.

Tackling disadvantage by:

• bringing people together;

• helping them develop a sense of pride in their community through access to their shared history; and

• giving them opportunities to support each other.

Putting people in control of their own lives by:

• supporting the development of community ties through a range of opportunities and experiences;

• helping communities develop the skills and capacity to take community action; and

• acting as a hub for the dissemination of local information.

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These slides have been about what we do and will link to further modules that you will see later in the training programme.

Next I would like to talk a bit about the way we do things – often called the organisational culture.

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We believe that only by developing a strong organisational culture can we hope to deliver the excellent services our customers want in what is a very challenging economic environment for KCC and our customers.

In a strong culture:

• everyone knows what the organisation is trying to achieve and supports these objectives;

• everyone is working to help deliver these outcomes; and

• everyone buys in to a common set of values and a shared belief system.

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Kent County Council has worked with staff at all levels to agree a set of values, competencies and behaviours which describe what it expects from all its staff. These values also reflect the way you should expect to be treated by the organisation.

This thinking is based on the belief that the excellence of our services comes both from what we offer our customers, but as importantly the way we interact with them and each other to deliver these services.

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KCC Values

Value Explanation Kent competence link

Open Acting with integrity, honesty and transparency, willing to learn and treating people fairly and with respect

Truth and judgement: character and courage; conversation and compassion

Invite contribution and challenge

Working collaboratively to find new solutions that put the interests and wellbeing of Kent people 1st, putting the citizen in control

Empowerment and enterprise; people and partnership

Accountable Taking personal and professional responsibility for our actions, performance and money.

Radicalism and urgency; tools and professionalism; outcomes and delivery

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Flowing from the values, are the eight competencies and behaviours (listed in the third column in the previous table) that you are expected to strive to meet. Each year you are expected to agree some actions with your manager that will help you improve in several of these competencies. Your performance against these actions will be used with other criteria to assess your contribution at end of year as part of the total contribution pay scheme.

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In Libraries, Registration and Archives we have a great track record of fully supporting the values, behaviours and competencies that have been described in these earlier slides.

This has helped us all put our customers first, and so deliver excellent customer services for everyone.

These slides form the introduction to the Taktix system we are now rolling out to support all staff. It will provide online training material to support face to face sessions with managers and colleagues, and also give you easy access to the information you need to do your jobs well.

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I hope you find this information helpful but remember, this is a new system we are rolling out so please do let us know how useful it is, and feel free to suggest new content or changes to existing content.

Many thanks,

Cath Anley

23rd April 2012