A four-day week involves working 80% of your hours for 100% pay.
South Cambridgeshire District Council trialled a four-day week between January 2023 and March 2024 for its council staff – but the Lib Dems have continued this working arrangement by stealth, despite the trial ending.
This week the Lib Dem-run council published its findings from the trial.
There’s a lot of noise – and claims that the new Labour government will be more sympathetic to councils working four-day weeks for full pay.
So, beyond the headlines, what does the data from South Cambridgeshire’s four-day week trial really tell us?
Has it saved money?
The main benefit given to residents from the four-day week was to save the council money.
In November 2023, the council predicted savings of £776,000 from the trial – but the actual saving has been £371,500, less than half of the forecast.
But this figure does not include the £430,000 needed to purchase two new bin lorries – should the four-day week become permanent – to do more bin collections in fewer days. It also omits a public consultation, estimated to cost £40,000 in November 2023.
Even without including legal fees and officer time spent on the trial, we are already at a loss of £100,000. The four-day week has cost taxpayers more money – not saved it – and they have received intermittent services as a result.
Has performance improved?
It is impossible to attribute any performance changes to the four-day week because nothing happens in isolation.
The council’s three-month planning period for the four-day week commenced in October 2022, where departments were encouraged to ‘redesign ways of working, [and] consider perceived barriers to success’.
During the trial, the council also sought to improve operational efficiency by consistently reviewing services and processes – including moving many services for residents online.
But these are not time or cost savings attributable to the four-day week. Processes could be streamlined and made more efficient without needing to give officers an extra day off each week.
Nevertheless, the University of Salford’s analysis still revealed that 33% of performance indicators declined during the four-day week trial – a big problem for vital council services.
This will be a concern for residents and the Liberal Democrat administration, who repeatedly assured residents any dip in performance would halt the trial.
Has recruitment improved?
The council employed 134 new staff over the trial’s duration – but that doesn’t account for staff who have left.
Only 9 of these new employees were senior or principal planners – classified as ‘hard to fill’ posts by the council.
That means just 6% of new staff recruited during the trial fitted the bill that the four-day week was designed to tackle.
Can we trust the data?
In September 2023, the University of Cambridge’s report was favourably edited upon the council’s request prior to publication.
This latest report was conducted by the University of Salford. But we have no guarantee that similar censoring has not occurred to artificially improve the results of the four-day week trial.
Are staff better off?
While staff report having more ‘good days at work’, there are many underlying concerns for staff wellbeing.
In 2024, 37% of council staff had to work more than four days a week to get their work done – up from 28% in 2023. 2 in 3 staff said their work days intensified.
30% of staff reported increased stress levels in 2024 – 70% of whom said this stress adversely impacted them, well up from 59% in 2023.
This suggests many officers are experiencing burnout. They simply cannot get their work done in four days, and more than 1 in 3 are working more than four days as a result to prop up the four-day week.
How can it truly be classed as a four-day week when such a high proportion of staff are working more than four days a week?
New starters also report severe difficulties getting to know people and learning the council’s working practices – suggesting the four-day week is hindering the development of new recruits.
What do residents say?
South Cambridgeshire’s residents are the ones footing the bill of the Liberal Democrat administration’s four-day week trial – so what they think matters.
And it’s not good news.
In the council’s online four-day week survey, 75% of respondents did not support the four-day week.
It is also significant that over 80% of councillors have still had no vote on the four-day week trial, underlining the severe underrepresentation of South Cambridgeshire residents.
The final verdict
Cllr Heather Williams, Leader of the Conservative Opposition at South Cambridgeshire District Council, said:
“The Lib Dems are trying to fool people with their spin that this is some great success. But the data is unreliable because we can see that the four-day week is not enforced. 37% of officers are propping this entire project up by working more than four days.
"We’ve warned from the start that officers would burn out. This report shows this is a consequence of the Lib Dems’ decisions.
“The Lib Dems are clinging on to their four-day week PR exercise that has been on life support from the very start.
“This has all been at significant financial and reputational cost to this council – and at huge cost to the taxpaying residents who have been forced to fund it.
“It needs to stop – and it needs to stop now.
“The time has come for the unworkable four-day week to enter its final day.
“We know the longer this goes on, the harder it is to reverse. Let’s end this social experiment before we surpass the cliff edge point of no return.”
