Council's four-day week trial deemed success in report

An independent report by two universities into South Cambridgeshire District Council’s performance during its four-day week trial has been published today (8 July).

Of 24 key performance indicators monitored by the Council, analysis by the Universities of Cambridge and Salford found 22 improved or remained the same.

An independently run health and wellbeing survey has also been published.

Under a four-day week, officers are expected to carry out 100 per cent of their work, in around 80 per cent of their contracted hours, for 100 per cent of their pay. 

The Council’s opening hours have been maintained so it has been open for business just as it was before the trial – with longer opening hours on Wednesdays too.

Researchers evaluated the Council’s key areas of performance over several years – including during the full length of the four-day week trial from the beginning of 2023 to the end of March 2024.

Eleven measures were performing better during the trial, compared to beforehand. This covers areas such as call answering times, timeliness of planning decisions, how long it takes to process benefits claims and speed of emergency repairs to Council homes. 

The areas found to have improved included the percentage of calls to the Council’s Contact Centre that were answered, the percentage of emergency repairs to Council homes completed within 24 hours, and the average number of weeks taken to determine householder planning applications.

Further key performance indicators showed no significant differences during the trial – meaning those services continued to be delivered to the quality they were previously. The frequency of bin collections has also remained the same.

The two areas that were exceptions in terms of performance during the trial period were housing rent collected and average days to re-let housing stock. Housing rent collected either hit or was just below the Council’s target in the 15 months of the trial. 

However, overall collection rates were below the long-term average, indicating that rent collection has not recovered to pre-Covid levels. The assumption is that this is likely due to the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on tenants' household finances.

Cllr Mike Davey, leader of Cambridge City Council, said: “From the outset we’ve supported South Cambridgeshire District Council in trialling the four-day week as they endeavour to find a solution to the recruitment and retention challenges we know councils are facing up and down the country. 

"It’s fantastic to see the intended benefits to recruitment and retention are evident, and how this has had the desired impact on improving service delivery in many areas, including in our shared planning service. 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.” 

There is also a financial assessment of the trial, which outlines a known full year cost saving of £371,500. This is mainly due to permanently filling 10 posts that were previously identified as ‘hard to fill’. The financial saving has been made by not needing more expensive agency alternatives.

Meanwhile, recruitment data shows there has been a 53 per cent increase in the average number of applications for jobs advertised externally and more than 130 new staff have joined the Council. Of new starters, 76 per cent were influenced by the four-day week trial when deciding whether to join.

The findings of the latest independently run health and wellbeing survey by Robertson Cooper show higher employee commitment, with more staff reporting they intend to stay longer working for the Council, a key factor in reducing turnover and high vacancy rates. Mental and physical health and motivation have also risen.