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Government notice served on Cambridgeshire council over four-day-week

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

The government has issued a "best value notice" to a council after it refused to stop a trial of a four-day working week.

South Cambridgeshire Council began the trial in January and ignored government calls for it to end.

The authority must now provide evidence to show how the controversial initiative fulfils its "best value" duty.

The council said it had received the notice and will "consider it".

Since the trial started in January, the Liberal Democrat-controlled council has said that performance has generally been maintained, and in some cases improved, with not a single area falling to a worrying level.

The government ordered councils to stop trialling four-day-week schemes in July, but South Cambridgeshire District Council (SCDC) extended its experiment until March 2024.

The council offices remain open five days a week, but staff take, in most cases, either Monday or Friday off.

Last month, the local government minister, Lee Rowley, put councils adopting the approach "on notice" that their performance would be monitored more closely.

David Woolfall Lee RowleyDavid Woolfall
Government minister Lee Rowley said councils pursuing a four-day working week were "on notice"

The government believes a shorter working week could conflict with the council's duty under best value legislation to "secure continuous improvement in the way in which its functions are exercised, having regard to... economy, efficiency and effectiveness".

The best value notice that has now been issued requires SCDC to:

  • Provide robust evidence of the impact of the trial on council services
  • Set out how it is measuring whether the trial fulfils the best value duty
  • Show that it is safeguarding the use of resources and securing value for money

The council will have to send information to the Government every week for at least the next six months.

If the government is not satisfied, it could determine that a "best value failure" has occurred and taken further action against SCDC.

A SCDC spokesperson said: "We have received the notice from government, and it will be considered."

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