Four-day week impacting training at South Cambridgeshire District Council, peer review finds

A peer review of South Cambridgeshire District Council has found that its controversial trial of a four-day week has impacted employees’ ability to undergo training, due to lack of time.

The review also found a policy of staff attending the office just once a fortnight was also leaving some members “feeling completely lost”.

Staff told the report’s authors that they would like to see more “two-way face-to-face communication” with officers.

The review was carried out by councillors from other authorities across the country, who are referred to as ‘peers’.

“Peers heard a consistent message from colleagues who had opted into the four-day working pilot that they were finding it more difficult to manage their time to participate in learning and development activities and other corporate initiatives such as wellbeing events, as their work delivery is being self-prioritised ensuring as many available hours are focused on operational delivery,” the report said.

And it added: “There were examples cited where hybrid working and the policy of attending the office environment once a fortnight was driving limited engagement across teams and with some members who find it difficult to discuss issues with colleagues who reported ‘feeling completely lost and unsure where to go’, resulting in the escalation of their case work or enquiry to a senior manager. This is eroding capacity at a senior level.”

Peers also highlighted delays in the council producing its annual accounts.

A formal notice has been issued to the Liberal Democrat-run council by the government amid concerns over the four-day week trial.

The best value notice was issued on November 3 to ensure the authority provides assurances over improvements.

Under the trial, council workers are paid for five days but work for four in a move designed to aid recruitment and retention and save money on paying agency workers in hard-to-fill posts.

Cllr Heather Williams, leader of the Conservative opposition at the council, said: “Many of the concerns raised in the report are ones that I have personally held and raised throughout the trial – in particular, in relation to the time available to train staff.

“If council staff are not up to date with training, there will be unknown consequences and costs that the council is then exposed to.

“The four-day week has been and continues to be a high-risk strategy of the Liberal Democrats, with little to no reward for the hard-working residents of South Cambs who are footing the bill – not only for the trial itself, but also for the damaging results that could come from it.

“We have been consistently clear in our opposition to the four-day week; the Lib Dems have been consistently clear in their defiance. They have ignored government, they have ignored councillors and they are ignoring residents. Let’s hope they don’t ignore this report as well – though I have little faith that they will, given that they recently signed a blank cheque and agreed to an unlimited spending spree of taxpayers’ money to defend their defenceless policy.”

However, the report acknowledged that South Cambridgeshire was “a thriving economic area” which has enabled the council to achieve a balanced budget through to 2024-25.

And given this “positive financial position”, the council would have time to plan for economic pressures which are currently leading to a projected annual deficit from 2025-26 of approximately £3million.

The Lib Dem leader of the council, Cllr Bridget Smith, said: “We were congratulated on the incredibly positive culture in the organisation and welcome the findings in this report, as there’s always things we can improve and things we can learn. We instigated this review as it is extremely helpful to have a critical friend giving a fresh perspective.

“The report reaffirmed our robust financial management and effective investment strategy to generate income to offset cuts in central government funding. Although further efficiencies will be required in the coming years to meet our savings targets, the savings required are modest compared to many other local authorities. This is due to our prudent financial management in recent years which has built £61m of reserves, contrasting with £3m of anticipated shortfall, three years out.

“Prior to our four-day week trial, we had already recognised a change in attitudes towards learning and development. Whole days sat learning in the office were becoming less attractive, with more appetite for online, shorter learning sessions. This trend has increased since the trial began, and the work is more intensive as staff focus on operational jobs to get the wellbeing benefit of an extra day off a week.

“We are, however, creating a development hub which will be a more convenient one-stop shop for everything related to learning. We have 34 apprentices completing practical qualifications to support their development, in everything from business administration and project management to environmental health and town planning. We’ve also created a bitesize ‘manager development programme’, and all our inductions are again in-person, so every new starter understands the learning and development and wellbeing opportunities open to them.”