MHCLG urged to rethink four-day-week opposition

Council asks department to remove obstacles to "overwhelmingly positive" trial
MHCLG's Marsham Street headquarters. Photo: Steph Gray/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0

By Jim Dunton

16 Aug 2024

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has been asked to lift its objections to the public sector's biggest trial of four-day-a-week working in light of "overwhelmingly positive" results highlighted by an analysis of the programme.

Liberal Democrat-run South Cambridgeshire District Council began testing a 32-hour week in January last year and a study of the project published in July suggested the new arrangements had saved the authority hundreds of thousands of pounds, had reduced staff turnover and aided recruitment.

The SCDC project encountered fierce opposition from then-communities secretary Michael Gove and other ministers at the former Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. They subjected the council to a strict performance-monitoring regime through the imposition of two so-called "Best Value Notices", issued under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1999.

In the wake of the analysis conducted by researchers from Cambridge University and the University of Salford, district council leader Bridget Smith has called on MHCLG to lift the Best Value Notice the council is currently subject to.

She also asked the new government to distance itself from a warning to councils issued by Gove "threatening that future funding settlements could be adversely affected for councils operating a four day week".

In her letter to new local government minister Jim McMahon, Smith said the last government seemingly "had an ideological intolerance of councils trying to address serious recruitment and retention issues with innovative trials of working practices".

She added that while the provisions of the successive Best Value Notices required SCDC to submit around 200 weekly datasets to DLUHC for monitoring, as well as retrospective returns dating back to 2018, no feedback was ever provided or "serious explanation" of why the notices were issued.

"It is clear that the trial has been successful," Smith wrote. "Our only final task in analysis of the trial is to undertake a consultation.

"This is good practice and a necessary step in order for the council to take an informed decision about whether to make the trial arrangements permanent.

"However, the previous government has prevented us from doing this, because on 5 February 2024 the then secretary of state, Michael Gove MP, wrote to all council leaders threatening that future funding settlements could be adversely affected for councils operating a four-day week.

"The council is therefore requesting that the Best Value Notice is lifted immediately, and that the threat of financial levers is removed, thus allowing us to complete our public consultation."

The academic analysis of SCDC's trial found the council's performance had improved in 11 of 24 areas, with “no significant differences” in the quality of services in 11 further areas. The two areas of exception were rent-collection and the average number of days required to re-let housing stock.

Meanwhile, staff turnover reduced by 39% and savings of £371,500 were delivered, aided by reduced spending on recruitment.

In addition to the academic analysis, SCDC's annual survey found improvements to employees’ health and wellbeing over the course of the trial. Employees’ commitment to SCDC also improved, as did the extent to which staff felt the authority was committed to them.

Civil Service World understands that MHCLG has yet to reply to Smith's letter.

The department had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.

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