English Public Libraries Stakeholder Working Group

Overview

In its sector leadership role, Arts Council’s sector convenes the English Public Libraries Stakeholder Working Group (known as EPL) made up of senior stakeholders from across the sector. The group is chaired by Arts Council’s Director, Libraries and its focus is to agree collaborative work streams that benefit the library sector in England. The group works closely with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to support it in its library Superintendance role.

EPL has developed two sounding boards of Heads of Service and Councillors to support this work. ACE jointly chairs with LGA the group.

EPL is not responsible for:

The statutory funding of public libraries (this is the responsibility of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Supporting the Secretary of State with Superintendence duties
Library by-laws and data
Advising services undergoing significant change

EPL continues to build on the work of the Ambition document published by the Libraries Taskforce which we ran from December 2019 to March 2020

Membership

The group has no formal responsibilities, its primary focus is to agree collaborative work streams to benefit the library sector in England.

The group members are currently as follows:

Luke Burton (Chair), Director, Libraries, Arts Council England
Steven Broomhead, Chief Executive, Warrington Borough Council
Alison Hoolihan, Senior Officer, Libraries Development Team, Arts Council England
Isobel Hunter, Chief Executive, Libraries Connected
Sophie Lancaster, Senior Manager, Library Development Team, Arts Council England
Lauren Lucas, Advisor - Culture, Tourism and Sport, Local Government Association
Jo Cornish, Interim Chief Executive, CILIP: the Library and Information Association
Kamal Shah, Chair, Community Managed Libraries Network
Tabitha Witherick, Chief Executive, Association of Senior Children’s and Education Librarians
Liz White, Head of Public Libraries and Community Engagement, British Library
Heads of library services, invited from a pool of volunteers on rotation

Current priorities

The activity of EPL is based on the principle, from the group’s Terms of Reference, that EPL members will work cohesively and constructively to best assist the public library sector. The group’s priorities work towards achieving the outcomes laid out in the EPL Impact model.

Impact model and priorities.pdf

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