Four-day week trial led to better public services, council claims

The first British council to trial a four-day week has claimed it has resulted in better public services, as it seeks to convince Labour the experiment should continue.

South Cambridgeshire district council claims that its controversial 15-month experiment to give staff a shorter week on full pay led to quicker planning decisions and reduced staff turnover.

The Liberal Democrat-controlled authority introduced the four-day week trial as part of efforts to improve services by filling hard-to-fill positions permanently rather than hiring more expensive agency workers.

The experiment required staff to carry out 100pc of their tasks while working one day less each week and still receiving their full salary. It ran between January 2023 and April 2024.

The findings come despite repeated criticism from the former Conservative government about the four-day policy in the local authority sector. Labour is yet to say if it will allow councils to continue with the arrangement.

Former local government minister Lee Rowley last year ordered the Cambridgeshire council to end the experiment “immediately”, claiming that the short week would not provide value to taxpayers.

Michael Gove, former levelling up secretary, last October warned underperforming councils that they were “on notice” and risked facing financial penalties if they did not ditch four-day weeks.

Labour, meanwhile, has resisted union demands to champion the four-day working week despite it being a key policy during the 2019 election.

An independent report by the Universities of Cambridge and Salford into the council’s four-day week trial on Monday found that 22 out of its 24 services either improved or remained the same.

Areas found to have improved included call answering times at the council’s contact centre, timeliness of planning decisions, how long it takes to process benefits claims, and speed of emergency repairs to council homes.

John Williams, the lead council member for resources, said: “We know we cannot compete on salary alone and have needed to find bold new ways of tackling our recruitment and retention issues.”

The report shows that a shorter week would deliver £371,500 in yearly cost savings, mainly through permanently filling 10 hard-to-fill roles.

The council also recruited more than 130 new staff, of which three quarters said they were influenced by the four-day week trial.

A separate independent health and wellbeing survey by Robertson Cooper also found that more staff are intended to stay longer at the South Cambridgeshire district council, reducing staff turnover and high vacancy rates.

Mental and physical health, plus motivation is said have increased.

Mike Davey, the leader of Cambridge city council, which shares planning services with South Cambridgeshire, said: “It seems to be a win-win-win situation, with improved service delivery for residents, reduced staffing costs for the council, and a better work-life balance for council staff.”

The South Cambridgeshire council has continued the four-day week even after the trial formally finished in March.