THE PERFORMANCE of libraries in Merthyr Tydfil has “clearly improved” last year after serious concerns had been raised the year before.
Those are the findings of the annual assessment of the county borough’s libraries for 2024/2025.
The report to the Aspirational Merthyr Tydfil scrutiny committee says that in 2023-24, serious concerns were raised about Merthyr Tydfil libraries as a result of a reduction in funding and change in governance which had severe impact on staffing, opening hours and resource provision.
However, the 2024-25 return demonstrates that the situation in Merthyr Tydfil has “clearly improved” during the year.
Merthyr Tydfil reported meeting all of the 13 core entitlements in full through self assessment but the independent assessor considered that the service met 12 of the 13 core entitlements in full and one in part.
Of the five quality indicators which have targets, Merthyr Tydfil is achieving three in full and one in part with one not being met.
The report said that it is positive that the service now meets 12 of the 13 core entitlements and that staffing numbers are gradually increasing, IT provision is being improved, more activities are being offered and the book budget has increased this year.
But it added that the impact of the problems the service has experienced in recent years is still being felt.
In particular, the reduction in opening hours has “clearly impacted” customers and also limits the service’s ability to work with partners who wish to make use of library spaces.
The report said that Merthyr Tydfil Libraries now have a strategy to guide their development over the next few years and it is evident from this year’s return that progress is being made but added it is likely that the service will take a number of years to recover from the challenges it has faced.
The five quality indicators with targets include support for health and well-being which Merthyr has fully met, all static service points offer events/activities for users with special requirements which Merthyr has also fully met, location of service points which again Merthyr has fully met, staffing levels and qualifications which is partially met in Merthyr and opening hours per capita which is not being met in Merthyr.
These are the 12 core entitlements and Merthyr’s performance on each:
- Free to join and open to all – fully met
- Ensure friendly, knowledgeable and qualified staff are on hand to help – fully met
- Provide access to a range of services, activities, and high-quality resources in a range of formats to support lifelong learning, personal health and well-being, community participation, cultural experiences, recreation, and reading for pleasure – fully met
- Provide appropriate services, facilities and information resources for individuals and groups with special requirements – fully met
- Provide appropriate safe, attractive and accessible physical spaces with suitable staffed opening hours – partially met
- Lend books for free, and deliver free access to information, including online information resources available 24 hours a day – fully met
- Provide free use of the internet, including Wi-Fi and access to digital equipment in all service point – fully met
- Provide access to services, cultural activities, and high-quality resources in the Welsh language – fully met
- Work in partnership to share catalogues and facilitate access to the resources of all Welsh libraries – fully met
- Work with a range of partners to promote and deliver services to new and diverse audiences, enabling more people to benefit from those services – fully met
- Regularly consult users to gather their views on the service and information about their changing needs – fully met.
