A public consultation on the 4-Day working week trial at South Cambridgeshire District Council closes at midnight on Sunday (23 March). Anyone, from anywhere in the world, is invited to have their say on the working arrangement through the survey. The Council says the results will be used to guide its next steps with the initiative.
Take part
The consultation can be accessed online. South Cambridgeshire residents who would prefer to complete a paper survey can email communications@scambs.gov.uk or call 01954 713 000.
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As South Cambridgeshire District and Cambridge City councils share some key services – Greater Cambridge Shared Planning and Greater Cambridge Shared Waste – residents of Cambridge city are also being encouraged to comment on their experiences of using these services using the online link.
Cambridge city residents who would prefer to complete a paper survey can email communications@cambridge.gov.uk for a copy.
Criticism
Opposition councillors widely criticised the consultation publicly before it went live eight weeks ago.
They argue residents may struggle to answer questions that refer back to before the 4-day week trial was introduced in January 2023. It was also felt people should be asked directly whether they support the working arrangement or not – with the response being a simple yes/no answer.
However, Lib Dems argue this would make the survey a referendum and the current format offers a richer insight.
Next steps
HI HUB asked the Council if there was any information available on how many responses it had received so far and how long it takes on average for people to complete the survey. A spokesperson said these details are not available while the consultation is still active.
He explained after the closing date, the results will be independently analysed by the market research company DJS Research, who will provide a report on the findings. At a previous council meeting, it was revealed the findings should be made available by the summer.
A referendum on the four-day week trial at South Cambridgeshire District Council would be “meaningless” the authority’s leader has said.
Cllr Bridget Smith said the planned consultation will focus on people’s experiences of using council services, rather than asking a yes or no question on whether people support the trial.
She said gathering information on people’s experiences would be “very useful” to help the authority make a decision on whether to keep the 4-day week permanently. However, opposition councillors criticised the fact that people would not be asked whether they want to “fund a 4-day week”.
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Consultation to go ahead
The district council introduced the 4-day-week trial for desk-based staff at the start of 2023, before later expanding it to include staff working in the waste collection service.
Under the trial, staff receive full pay for working fewer hours, but are expected to complete all of their work in that time. The authority began the trial to see if it would help with the staff recruitment and retention problems it was facing.
A public consultation will open on Monday 27 January and will ask people to share their views on using council services before and during the 4-day-week trial. Members of the public completing the survey will also be asked if they would be more or less likely to apply for a job if a 4-day week was offered.
‘Meaningful information’
Cllr Smith told councillors at a Scrutiny and Overview committee meeting last Thursday 16 January that the consultation had been put together with the help of an independent organisation. She said the consultation would give the authority “meaningful information” on people’s experiences using council services.
The consultation on the 4-day week will be launched on Monday 27 January. Photo: StartupStockPhotos from Pixabay
Cllr Smith said: “The purpose of this consultation is to ascertain what the experience has been of our residents, our businesses, our partners, our stakeholders, during the 4-day-week trial.
“Has there been any change in people’s experiences of our services as experienced prior to the trial starting, and as experienced during the trial.
“This is very useful information, as it will either support or not the vast amount of evidence that has been amassed for us about the trial by universities in Cambridge and Salford.
“Additionally, there is a legal requirement for us to consult. It is very important we fulfil that requirement, and it is important to do so in a way that is legally compliant and meaningful. It is very important to us to know what our customers of all types think of us, and what their experiences have been.
“This, with all the other information we have – the surveys of staff, the KPI data – will help us as a council and cabinet to make an informed decision – during this summer probably – whether we become a four-day-week employer.”
The opposition’s view
However, the leadership faced challenges from opposition councillors on the proposed consultation.
Cllr Tom Bygott said the “obvious question” of asking people whether they support the 4-day week was not in the consultation.
He said: “We are not going to have any view whether, as a taxpayer, people want to fund a 4-day week, but we are going to get a view whether they would want to be an employee working in that way.”
Cllr Smith said Cllr Bygott was suggesting a referendum, which she argued would be “meaningless”.
She said: “We are a service provider. What is meaningful is people’s experiences of our services, so that is what we are doing.”
Cllr Smith added that there were text boxes in the survey where people could leave whatever comments they wanted about the trial. However, she stressed the consultation was not a referendum and said she would “not allow it to become a referendum, because that is not meaningful and not useful” for the council.
Think back to 2022…
Cllr Heather Williams highlighted that people were being asked in the survey to compare their experiences of using council services before and after the trial. She said she understood why the authority wanted this information, but said they were asking people to remember what happened years ago.
Residents will be asked for their views on Council services since the 4-day week was introduced.
Cllr Williams said: “I know I reported a bin being missed, but whether I did that in 2022 or in 2023, it is too long of a gap.”
She suggested it might have been better to have conducted a survey of people’s experiences before the trial started, to have a base set of data to compare to, as she said people will “really struggle” to accurately remember what they were doing years ago.
Cllr Smith said it was “nonsense” to suggest the authority should consult on whether to carry out a trial. She added that the district council had hoped to hold the consultation back in March last year, but said the “threat of financial penalties” made by the previous government meant they could not do this.
Cllr Williams argued the district council could have consulted on people’s experience of using its services, even after the initial three month trial.
Cllr John Williams, lead cabinet member for resources, said the survey was intended to “add value” to other performance measures which the district council had been using to gauge the effect of the trial. He said the survey would help the authority “check” these measures were giving “correct information”.
Disagreements continue
A week on from the discussions, disagreement between the two parties about the consultation continue. To the referendum point, the South Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrat Group insists “the survey includes many questions to gather feedback and views” and there is an opportunity for contributors to say whether they agree or disagree with the 4-day week.
A spokesperson for the group said: “The survey includes free-text boxes throughout for additional feedback. There is not a referendum type question as we want to ensure we have more detailed feedback on whether four-day-week working has had an impact, positive or negative, on services.”
Meanwhile, a press release issued by South Cambridgeshire Conservatives last night (Wednesday) complained its calls for a referendum have been “snubbed” by the Lib Dems.
Cllr Williams said: “The administration’s claims that a referendum would not be useful for the Council are disappointing. This demonstrates a complete contempt for the feelings and pockets of residents shelling out 37 hours pay for 32 hours work – all when the Lib Dems are planning to increase Council Tax by the maximum amount again.”
South Cambridgeshire District Council says the consultation platform will go live on Monday 27 January.
Reporting by Hannah Brown, Local Democracy Reporting Service. Additional words from HI HUB.
South Cambridgeshire District Council (SCDC) will outline plans for a public consultation into its 4-day week today (Thursday).
The Council’s Scrutiny and Overview Committee will discuss proposals to get feedback from residents on the controversial working pattern. Subject to final sign-off, a “full public consultation that anyone, anywhere can respond to” is being put forward.
This means even people who live outside the district can also share their views on the scheme, though their questions will be tailored slightly because they do not directly use council services. For example, a participant from Australia can take part, but is not able to give feedback on areas such as bin collections.
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The planned consultation will be for eight weeks, beginning on 27 January and closing at 11:59pm on 23 March. It will be possible to have a say on how Council services have been since January 2023, when a trial of a 4-day week began.
The information gathered will help District Councillors decide on next steps.
‘Always’ going to consultation
The Council had previously postponed a public consultation expected in April 2024 because of the previous Government’s intense scrutiny of the initiative. This included warnings that SCDC may face financial penalties if the 4-day week arrangements continued.
Cllr John Williams, SCDC’s Lead Cabinet Member for Resources, said the Council has “always made it very clear” there would be an opportunity for stakeholders to share their views on how the 4-day week has impacted them.
He said: “We have not been able to [launch a public consultation] up to this point because of threats made by the previous Government. With those threats lifted, we are now able to begin this process.
“Our approach is designed to ensure those who have used our services during the four-day week arrangements can quickly and easily share their views – though anyone, anywhere will be welcome to submit comments.”
As SCDC and Cambridge City Council share some key services – such as planning and bin collection – residents who live within the city are also being encouraged to comment on their experiences.
Justifying the 4-day week
SCDC staff deliver 100% of their work, in around 80% of their hours, for 100% pay.
Those at desks have been working 30 hours per week over the four days. Waste operatives are in 32 hours because a trial found it was not possible for them to deliver services within the 30.
The Council says the aim was to help with recruitment and retention issues it has been experiencing, rather than relying on more expensive agency staff which can be disruptive.
It believes financial savings have been made and the performance of their services have either been maintained or improved during the trial. Also, opening hours have also been maintained throughout.
Last summer, the Universities of Cambridge and Salford published an independent report on the Council’s performance during its trial of the four-day week. Of 24 key performance indicators, the analysis found 22 improved or remained the same.
The improved areas included percentage of calls to the council’s Contact Centre answered, average number of weeks to determine householder planning applications and the average number of days to process Housing Benefit and Council Tax changes.
A financial assessment of the trial outlined a known full year cost saving of £371,500. This was mainly due to permanently filling 10 posts that were previously identified as “hard to fill”.
