Decision to proceed with library service cut taken by officers without cabinet member's knowledge
A senior council cabinet member says the authority's officers took a decision to review its schools library service without her knowledge.
It emerged last week that Shropshire Council wants to scrap its Schools Library Service (SLS) from September as it seeks to save up to £62m from its spending.
Schools across Shropshire pay into the service and receive books and items from SLS' library of more than 250,000 items, including resource boxes.
Parents have reacted with dismay at the move, while one headteacher has launched a petition against the proposal – which has so far been signed by more than 3,000 people.
Councillor Roger Evans, the Leader of Shropshire Council's Liberal Democrats, raised the issue at Wednesday's meeting of the council's cabinet.
He asked if Councillor Kirsty Hurst-Knight, the council's Portfolio Holder for Children and Education, supported the plan.
In her response she admitted she had not been aware of the proposals until after its staff had been told their positions were at risk.
She has also spoken of her regret that schools were not told about the plans to cut the service.
She said: "While I was aware that the Schools Library Service, which is a traded service, was operating at a loss, and we acknowledge that this situation cannot continue, I was not made aware until April 4 that a decision by officers to proceed with a service review had been implemented, which placed affected staff in a 45 day consultation period.
"It is very regrettable that schools were not aware of the service review and no consultation with schools had taken place. I would like to reassure my cabinet colleagues, members, and members of the public that this is the very beginning of the process and we will be formally consulting with schools to ascertain if a way to remove the deficit can be found."
Councillor Hurst-Knight said that they would look at all options to retain the service.
She said: "We will invite all schools in Shropshire to respond to the consultation to capture ideas, including whether schools would be willing to pay more for the service as suggested by the headteacher from Cressage, and or indeed subscribe to the service at all given that 35 per cent of our Shropshire schools do not currently use the service and make alternative arrangements for this provision."
But the cabinet member also warned that the service is 'non-mandatory' and that it is schools' responsibility to provide resources to educate children.
She said: "I would remind everyone this is a non mandatory service the council provides to support schools, and to be very clear it is the school's responsibility to make sure children and young people have access to books and other suitable education materials necessary to learn the curriculum, with funding provided directly through the central government grants to do this.
"Considering the financial position and the challenge we face we cannot continue to subsidise a traded service but we will ensure that all possible options to continue the service are explored and we welcome all possible solutions.
"We will bring a report to cabinet detailing the consultation feedback alongside a suggested way forward. To be clear this could still provide the cessation of the service if a solution cannot be found."