Formal concerns ended over South Cambs four-day week

The government has written to the authority to say it will not reissue the Best Value Notice, which had raised ongoing concerns about the impact of the four-day week on the district council.

The notice was issued by the former government which had opposed councils running a four-day week trial.

The district council introduced the four-day week trial for desk-based staff at the start of 2023, before later expanding it to include staff working in the waste collection service.

Under the trial staff receive full pay for working fewer hours, but are expected to complete all of their work in that time.

The authority began the trial to see if it would help with the staff recruitment and retention problems it was facing.

The district council’s leadership has faced repeated backlash over the trial, but refused to back down to calls from the previous government and opposition members to end the trial.

A letter sent to the district council on Friday, November 8 said the authority had engaged ‘constructively’ with the government in providing data about the impact of the four-day week.

While not offering outright support for a four-day working week, the government said it would ‘end micromanaging’, and would not reissue the Best Value Notice.

The letter said: “We recognise the council’s constructive engagement with the department throughout the period of the notices, including your cooperation with the request for data about the impacts of the four-day working week trial.

“As the Deputy Prime Minister set out in her letter to local authority leaders on July 16, and reiterated on October 24, at the Local Government Association conference, this government is committed to working as partners in power, with mutual respect underpinning our approach.

“This means an end to micromanaging local authorities.

“Although it is not government policy to support a general move to four-day working week for five days’ worth of pay, we recognise that local authorities are independent employers who are rightly responsible for the management and organisation of their own workforces.

“We encourage active and ongoing dialogue with the workforce and trade unions on any changes to local working arrangements.

“In turn, local voters are best placed to make decisions about the effectiveness of local authority services in their own areas.”

Leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council Cllr Bridget Smith (Image: SCDC) The leader of the district council, Cllr Bridget Smith, said: “The results from our four-day week trial painted a really positive picture, with many of our services improving.

“This was along with the hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayer money we saved, improved recruitment and retention plus incredibly significant positives around health and wellbeing.

“We have spent the last year having to submit around 200 pieces of raw data to government every single week in response to this now-expired Best Value Notice – providing lots of evidence demonstrating our council is functioning very efficiently.

“Disappointingly, at no point were we given any feedback on the data from government.

“As today’s letter from Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government clearly points out – there is now agreement that councils themselves are best placed to consider what works best for them when it comes to recruiting and retaining the best staff to deliver high-quality services for residents.”

The decision by the government to not reissue the Best Value Notice has faced backlash from a campaign group which has opposed the four-day week trial.

Elliot Keck, head of campaigns at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, argued the four-day week trial was a “reckless experiment” and claimed the government was ‘effectively allowing it to continue with no oversight’.

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Mr Keck also called for all councillors at the district council to be able to vote on whether the four-day week should continue which he said they “deserve” to be able to do.

However, the news was welcomed by Joe Ryle, director of the four-day week campaign, who claimed the four-day week offered a “win, win” with happier workers and the hiring people to hard to fill roles, which he said helped the authority to save money.

He said: “A four-day week gives people the freedom to live happier, more fulfilling lives. The nine-to-five, five-day working week was invented 100 years ago and is no longer fit for purpose. We are long overdue an update.”