South Cambridgeshire Council to trial 4-day working week in UK first

A Cambridgeshire council is poised to become the first local authority in the UK to trial a 4-day working week.

South Cambridgeshire Council will begin the trial in January after councillors voted in favour of it yesterday. The pioneering trial will see desk-based council staff begin a 4-day week on the same salary. In other words, it is not the same as “compressed hours” schemes, which sees the traditional 37-hour week squeezed into four longer days.

Four-day working weeks have received lots of focus off the back of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is currently a large-scale, 6-month pilot programme involving more than 70 UK companies. Organised by 4 Day Week Global in partnership with the thinktank Autonomy, the 4 Day Week Campaign, and researchers at Cambridge University, Oxford University and Boston College, the trial involves more than 3,300 workers.

One of the touted benefits of 4-day working weeks is how they can make an organisation standout and appear more attractive to talent. Likewise, it is more likely that existing staff will remain under such working arrangements.

A three-month planning period will now take place at the council between October and December before the trial commences in January 2023. There are approximately 470 desk-based staff at South Cambridgeshire Council who will be able to take part in the trial, which will apply to workers on all pay grades.

The Leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council, Cllr Bridget Smith, said: “We have taken a big step forward in looking to address not only our own recruitment issues, but also the staffing challenges facing local government across the country. But first of all, this must be a trial that works for our residents and businesses, as well as the Council. This is why we now have a three-month period to carefully plan and prepare.

“Once we have run this initial test involving our desk-based staff, we will be looking to trial this way of working amongst our bin crews too. This has always been our intention, but the practicalities of working through how this could work for a service that empties tens of thousands of bins every day will take a little longer to work through.

“This is all about seeing whether the benefits on productivity, staff wellbeing and recruitment can be seen in local government as demonstrated in the private sector. We only filled around half our vacancies during the first few months of this year and using temporary agency staff instead is expensive. Additionally, we think that this will help us attract a more diverse workforce. If we can help reduce the financial burden of caring and childcare costs, I believe we will open ourselves up as an employer to more people and in turn help them deal with the rising cost of living.”

Joe Ryle, Director of the 4 Day Week Campaign, said: “We congratulate South Cambridgeshire District Council on becoming the first ever UK local authority to give the go-ahead to a four-day week trial. Offering a four-day week is the best thing that councils can do to tackle the recruitment crisis in Local Government and we expect more councils to follow their lead. The four-day week brings many other benefits including increased productivity, improved wellbeing of staff and a reduction in carbon emissions."

South Cambridgeshire District Council's HQ. Credit: South Cambridgeshire District Council

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