Peer Reviews
The public libraries Peer Review programme, developed jointly by
the Improvement and
Development Agency (IDeA) and the Museums, Libraries and
Archives Council (MLA), is one of the key planks of the
Framework for the Future implementation plan. It is designed to
address the issue of disparity of quality of services across the
149 library authorities in England, and the need to share and
learn from good practice.
At the end of a peer review the authority receives a report,
which indicates the service's strengths and the issues it should
consider against pre-defined benchmark competencies, and makes
recommendations for improvements. Several of these reports are
now available from the IDeA
website . The reports represent the peer team's reflections
at the particular time in which the review took place, and as
such, do not necessarily represent the current picture for the
service.
The impact of peer reviews
Full evaluation of the impact of the programme will be undertaken
as part of the over-arching evaluation of Framework for the
Future. However, there is already a body of anecdotal evidence
to suggest that it is making a real contribution to public
library improvement and is providing the effective machinery
that Framework for the Future said was so necessary for
identifying and correcting failure and finding and spreading
good ideas. And as the attached case studies from four of the
peer review authorities demonstrate, the programme has been
credited with providing crucial support to library services as
they seek to improve their performance and face up to the
challenges of Framework for the Future.
 Peer review case studies, August 2006 (Word 81KB)
An internal evaluation report analysed the first nine library
peer reviews in order to identify areas of improvement regarding
the delivery of the programme. The report also examined early
evidence that peer reviews were having a significant impact in
the three pilot authorities. Some common themes which might
provide a focus for future improvement activity were identified
from the review reports. A range of other improvement activities
which might be introduced alongside the peer review programme
was outlined, and the future for the programme considered.
Evaluation of pilots and
phase 1 of the programme, May 2005 (PDF 412KB)
Evaluation of pilots and
phase 1 of the programme, May 2005 (Word 275KB)
Some common messages
The programme is helping to provide a picture of the conditions
and activities which cause some authorities to perform better
than others and is helping to focus future programmes for public
library improvement. The challenges facing many, if not all, of
the authorities reviewed include:
- leadership, advocacy and service positioning
- change management
- performance management
- workforce (skills and roles)
- customer focus
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