IN DEPTH
Your mission is to connect
Mission-driven is what Sir Keir Starmer calls his government and it will need a new level of proactive communication from organisations and individuals to work. Rob Mackinlay looks at CILIP’s new toolkit to give members a headstart in connecting with local and national representatives to make sure those missions include libraries.
CILIP Connect aims to help librarians and information professionals across all sectors communicate with politicians and deci- sion makers at all levels. “It is increasingly important for information professionals to feel confident in engaging relevant national, regional, and local politicians, as well as their staff and officials,” the toolkits intro- duction says.
Why now?
If you type “my mission-driven government” into Google you’ll see the Prime Minister uses the phrase a lot. By defining a big inclusive mission, the aim is to both encourage wide participation and to achieve ambitious goals that the govern- ment wouldn’t be able to achieve on its own. So, setting out a mission becomes a call to action that is designed to encourage greater cooperation within communities. For this to work communi- cation needs to flow, disrupting the traditional impression that the doors to power are generally closed, except to a chosen few.
CILIP’s role
Now in Government, Labour is looking to break down silos within Whitehall. It hopes to do this with new ‘Mission Boards’, chaired by the Prime Minister, to get departments moving towards shared goals. Of the five missions, growth is the predominant one. For example, Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, has said that ‘the Health Department is now an economic growth depart- ment’. The Government also wants this mentality to extend to metro mayors, local government and its business and third sector partners.
18 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
Rob Mackinlay (
rob.mackinlay@
cilip.org.uk) is a journalist at Information Professional
Louis Coiffait-Gunn, Chief Executive of CILIP, sees mission-driven policy as a good environment for CILIP members: “The new government’s focus on Missions aligns perfectly with the work of CILIP and its members. Consider the Libraries Change Lives themes and Trust Libraries pledges. Information professionals are embedded in every aspect of society, the economy, and the country. If Starmer’s government aims to drive growth, opportunity, or health, our sector is already con- tributing significantly, but there’s potential to do even more.”
CILIP has already identified several Bills and agendas where information professionals can play a crucial role and has already written to the relevant ministers (
www.cilip.org.uk/campaigningan- dopenletters) to say how the sector can help achieve these. But members are also encouraged to proactively engage by reaching out to their local
October-November 2024
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