South Cambridgeshire council wants to extend four-day week

About 470 staff at South Cambridgeshire District Council trialled a four-day week

A district council wants to extend a four-day week for office workers for 12 months after a trial found it improved wellbeing and productivity.

South Cambridgeshire District Council reduced hours for desk-based staff for three months from January.

A few weeks into the trial, 60% of workers said they felt less stressed.

"Early indications" showed an improvement in its ability to recruit and retain staff, council chief executive Liz Watts said.

She was speaking at a meeting of Cambridge City Council's strategy and resources scrutiny committee, which unanimously backed the extension, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The Labour-led local authority was consulted as it shares some services with Liberal Democrat-run South Cambridgeshire, including waste disposal and planning.

The trial involved colleagues working a 30-hour week on the same full-time pay.

'Take stock and rebalance'

A report on its impact noted that aside from its benefits, performance measures were still below pre-Covid levels.

Stephen Kelly, the joint director of planning and economic development, said he struggled to fit his work into four days, but the extra day off had been "transformed" for him.

"From a wellbeing perspective, the fifth day is a totally different day to the weekend," he added.

"It is an incredibly powerful facility to be able to take stock and actually rebalance."

Mr Kelly said he noticed other members of staff used their extra day off "doing productive things" and said there had been a "profound shift" in the planning service as a consequence of people having more time "to live their lives".

Ms Watts said there was a "route back" and said they had "always been really clear" with staff that if performance dropped then the four-day week would not continue.

The district council's cabinet is due to meet next week when it is expected to give its approval for the trial extension.

A separate trial for the waste collection service, shared by the councils, is due to start in the summer, pending councillors' approval.