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Cambridgeshire: Council 'tampered' with four-day week report, Tories claim

Steve Hubbard/BBC South Cambs DC officesSteve Hubbard/BBC
About 450 staff at South Cambridgeshire District Council have been working a four-day week since January

A council has been accused of "tampering" with an independent report on its four-day working week trial.

The report had been cited as evidence that the trial at South Cambridgeshire District Council (SCDC) was working.

However, the council's Conservative group said edits by council officials "artificially improved" the results.

The council said it made clarifications to make "confusing language clearer", remove quotes included without permission and for "brevity".

SCDC began a trialling a four-day week for 450 desk-based staff in January.

The trial was extended in May for another 12 months, with the Liberal Democrat-led authority claiming the shorter week improved wellbeing and productivity.

The Bennett Institute for Public Policy, at the University of Cambridge, was asked to independently review the data, and published its report in April.

Conservatives claimed some negative quotes from staff - including a manager saying they "did all the unfinished work on my day off so that my team could have time off" - were removed from the report.

However, the council said this quote did not include the wider context of what was said by the manager, including that they had learnt to distribute work more responsibly.

Steve Hubbard/BBC Cllr Bridget SmithSteve Hubbard/BBC
Bridget Smith, Lib Dem leader of the council, said the four-day week was "about working smarter and becoming more productive"

Heather Williams, leader of the Conservative group, said the edited report "put the emphasis on quantity and not quality of work".

"I think it's no coincidence that the edits that were made removed negative outcomes from the four-day working week," she said.

"The Lib Dems need to come clean with the reality of this four-day working week.

"It is not giving taxpayers value for money. It's a social experiment that is going to have direct damage for many."

A spokesperson for SCDC said: "The clarifications suggested on the draft report were for three reasons.

"They made some confusing language clearer as the researcher is not a native English speaker; to remove individual member quotes which the council did not have permission to include in the report, and for brevity."

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