The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has lifted a special measures regime imposed on a council that introduced four-day week working for its staff – but the department insists there has been no change of policy on the issue.
MHCLG's decision is a step towards allowing South Cambridgeshire District Council to begin the process of making its innovative working arrangements permanent. Its progress will be watched closely in parts of the civil service, not least MHCLG and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. There is growing interest in the four-day week model among staff in both departments.
SCDC began trialling four-day week working for its staff last year as a way to address recruitment and retention issues, cut down on the use of agency staff, and improve services.
Under the arrangements, staff receive 100% of their full-time pay and are expected to complete their full workload, but can do so in 80% of what would be their full-time hours. The new arrangements are still in place, but the process of making the model permanent stalled because of opposition from the last government.
In October 2023, the Sunak administration issued guidance calling on all councils trialling four-day week working to stop and made SCDC subject to a Best Value Notice regime when it did not. The regime required the council to submit hundreds of pieces of performance data relating to its operations every week on the basis that its new working arrangements could be at odds with the Best Value Duty placed on authorities under the Local Government Act 1999.
In February this year, then-communities secretary Michael Gove also wrote to council leaders warning that future funding settlements could be adversely affected for authorities operating a four-day week.
SCDC leader Bridget Smith has described the council's four-day week pilot as "overwhelmingly positive". An academic analysis of the programme published over the summer found that performance had either improved or remained stable in 22 of 24 service areas. The two exceptions were rent-collection and the average number of days required to re-let housing stock.
A letter from MHCLG's deputy director for local government stewardship and intervention, Max Soule, last week confirmed that SCDC's Best Value Notice was not being renewed and that the authority would not continue to be part of the reporting regime.
"Although it is not government policy to support a general move to a four-day working week for five days’ worth of pay, we recognise that local authorities are independent employers who are rightly responsible for the management and organisation of their own workforces," Soule wrote.
"We encourage active and ongoing dialogue with the workforce and trade unions on any changes to local working arrangements. In turn, local voters are best placed to make decisions about the effectiveness of local authority services in their own areas."
Smith, a Liberal Democrat, said the four-day week pilot had saved hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money and delivered "incredibly significant positives" for staff health and wellbeing.
"We have spent the last year having to submit around 200 pieces of raw data to government every single week in response to this now-expired Best Value Notice – providing lots of evidence demonstrating our council is functioning very efficiently," the council leader said.
"Disappointingly, at no point were we given any feedback on the data from government. As MHCLG clearly points out, there is now agreement that councils themselves are best placed to consider what works best for them when it comes to recruiting and retaining the best staff to deliver high-quality services for residents."
SCDC said that despite the end of the Best Value regime, it was still keen to get reassurances that councils would not be subject to "financial levers" designed to discourage four-day week working.
It said that a consultation to inform a decision to formalise the permanent introduction of four-day week working could take place in early 2025 if the local government finance settlement for 2025-26 provides clarity on the "financial levers" threat.
The settlement is due to be provided by the government next month.