Customer Service Hours Cut At Brighton And Hove Libraries Due To Staff Shortages

Customer service hours have been reduced at Brighton and Hove libraries as not enough staff are available.

Brighton and Hove City Council moved its customer service teams out of the two town halls and into the Jubilee Library, Hove Library and three family hubs last month.

But union official Diana Leach, joint branch secretary of the Unison branch, said that there had been a lack of training for people in the new roles expected of them.

She said that library staff were also unhappy about taking on extra duties which were not part of their job description – and they were not being paid more for the extra responsibilities.

Unison represents library and customer service staff and said that it was continuing to challenge the decision to bring customer services into the libraries.

She said:

“It’s one thing to reduce the hours that customer service is open but that doesn’t get them any further with the training because they need people to be sitting there and watching, observing how things are done – at least for a couple of hours before they are by themselves.

“Library staff have customer service skills but managers don’t realise the skills required to do customer services properly.

“People are coming in talking about council tax and every other service apart from homelessness and parking. We’ve had library officers report members of the public are very distressed and upset.

“Ultimately, what you’re seeing here is the level of public services and poverty … people who are on benefits and things have changed and they need to actually contact someone about it.

“When you’re dealing with someone like that, it’s not the same as having the skills about referencing books. It’s just ridiculous.”

Unison is concerned the library service staff were not consulted about the move but customer services were because their jobs were the most affected.

At a meeting of the council’s People Overview and Scrutiny Committee in March, the council’s head of library services Ceris Howard told councillors that some customer service officers were training to be library officers and could find themselves running “story time” or heading to Woodingdean to work in the library there.

At the time, Labour councillor Amanda Grimshaw said that, after speaking with people, she was aware staff were not “jumping with joy” at the proposals.

Labour councillor Jacob Allen, the council’s cabinet member for customer services and the public realm, said:

“Unfortunately, we are having to temporarily reduce the staffed times of the council help desks at Jubilee Library and Hove Library due to a gap in staffing capacity.

“We are keeping this to an absolute minimum and are reviewing the arrangement on a weekly basis.

"When unstaffed, we have dedicated security staff who are encouraging customers to use self-help computers or use the free phones to contact council services for personalised support.

“We are carrying out recruitment for new team members and are committed to return to offering full face-to-face customer service as soon as possible. We apologise to residents for the inconvenience caused.

“In-person support for families is available Monday to Friday from 9am to 4.30pm in our Tarner, Moulsecoomb and Hangleton family hubs. The Whitehawk Family Hub opens the same hours but is temporarily closed on Fridays.”

Customer service desk opening times are available by visiting the council’s website.

Face-to-face housing support is still operating from Bartholomews House, opposite Brighton Town Hall.