Council's four-day week 'maintains service'

The trial began last year and was extended to include refuse workers

A report into a council's controversial trial of a four-day working week suggests it has maintained the quality of its services.

South Cambridgeshire District Council introduced the scheme in January 2023 for most of its staff and extended it to bin crews in September.

It means staff are meant to do the same amount of work in 80% of their contracted hours without losing any pay.

An opposition Conservative councillor said the report had led to "immense scrutiny" of staff and called for it to be ended.

The findings of the report will be discussed at a full council meeting on 18 July

A group of researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Salford looked at 24 different parts of the council's work before and after the trial.

They found it had improved in 11 areas, including the percentage of calls being answered by its contact centre, the number of major planning decisions made on time and invoices being paid by the council within 30 days.

Staff turnover also dropped by 40%, the report said.

Outcomes in some areas remained the same, including frequency of bin collections, while they dropped in two areas, including housing rent collections and meeting a 17-day target to re-let empty council homes.

Daiga Kamerāde from the University of Salford, one of the report's authors, said: "The trial suggests that a four-day work week maintains the quality of public services as measured by key performance indicators, while attracting new staff and improving workers' wellbeing."

Responding to the report, Heather Williams, leader of the Tory opposition on the council, said the trial "needs to stop".

"I feel sorry for the call centre staff who have been under immense scrutiny," she said.

Ms Williams said she was hesitant to rely on the new report, repeating concerns from the Conservative camp about a report previously published in April last year.

At the time, the council insisted it had made clarifications in the 2023 report to make "confusing language clearer", remove quotes included without permission and for "brevity".

'Win-win situation'

The council said it was "open for business" since starting the trial, with the same opening hours as before and longer opening hours on Wednesdays.

John Williams, a Liberal Democrat councillor and the lead cabinet member for resources, said the report painted a "positive picture" of the trial.

"We know we cannot compete on salary alone and have needed to find old new ways of tackling our recruitment and retention issues," he said.

Mike Davey, Labour leader of Cambridge City Council, which shares waste services with South Cambridgeshire, said the trial was a "win-win situation".

The report, as well as a staff wellbeing survey, will be discussed at a committee meeting on 15 July and full council meeting on 18 July.