'Extraordinary success' of council four-day week trial

RECOMMENDATION HAS NOW BEEN MADE THAT THE PRACTICE SHOULD BE MADE PERMANENT FOR DISTRICT COUNCIL STAFF

- By HANNAH BROWN Local democracy reporter

THE leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council has said the four-day week trial has been an “extraordinary success”.

Councillor Bridget Smith (Liberal Democrat) said the effects of the trial had “exceeded” her expectations, and said it had saved the authority money and helped it make improvements.

A recommendation has been made that the four-day week should be made permanent for staff at the district council, following the publishing of independent reports looking at the impact of the trial. The four-day week trial was introduced for desk-based staff at the district council in 2023, before later being expanded 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 district council introduced the four-day week to see if it would help with staff recruitment and retention problems the authority had been facing.

While staff have been working a four-day week the district council said all services have continued to operate for at least five days a week. Independent reports have now been published by the authority which say that 21 of the authority's service areas had improved or stayed the same since the four-day week trial began.

The report said nine areas saw a “statistically significant improvement”, these included: The percentage of calls answered at the contact centre; The percentage of complaints responded to within timescales; The percentage of undisputed invoices paid in 30 days; The average number of days to process housing benefit and council tax support claims; The percentage of staff turnover; the percentage of emergency housing repairs completed in 24 hours; The percentage of major and non-major planning applications decisions issued on time; And the average number of weeks it took for householder planning applications to be determined.