Agenda item

Cabinet:

a)    Approved an extension of the trial up until March 2024, in order to assess the impact on recruitment and retention, with regular reports on progress being submitted to Employment & Staffing Committee during 2023/24 and a final report to Cabinet and Council at the end of the extended trial period.

b)    Noted the position of Cambridge City Council regarding the Shared Planning Service trial extension (to be provided on 11 May, but not available at the time this report was published) and, should the City Council agree to proceed with the trial extension, Cabinet ensure equivalent reporting arrangements were established in order to provide Cambridge City Council with appropriate oversight arrangements regarding the Shared Planning Service.

c)     Approved a three-month trial for Facilities Management colleagues at South Cambs Hall, with a report being presented to Employment & Staffing Committee at the end of the trial.

Before agenda item nine was introduced by the Lead Cabinet Member for Resources, the Leader, Cllr Bridget Smith, spoke about the Council’s four-day week trial. Cllr Smith said that last year, she was asked at a Local Government Association conference about the challenge of recruiting and retaining people in Local Government; particularly in very expensive areas like South Cambridgeshire where it was very expensive for people to live and where the private sector could afford to pay them more. Cllr Smith said that, at that conference, she was asked if a four-day week would solve some of those recruitment issues. Cllr Smith said that her response was that it might well do. 

Cllr Smith said that, recently, there had been some commentary relating to studies concerning the four-day week which our Chief Executive was undertaking. Cllr Smith said that the Chief Executive chose not only to pay for the studies herself, but to spend weekends and annual leave working on them. Cllr Smith said that it’s perfectly normal for senior Local Government staff to do similar studies. 

Cllr Smith said that the Chief Executive’s studies were never dependent on the Council trialling a four-day week. Cllr Smith said that the Chief Executive had always been completely open about her studies. She added that verbal advice, sought from the previous Monitoring Officer and reaffirmed more recently, said that there was nothing to declare when it came to those studies. They were self-funded and done in her own time. 

Cllr Smith said that, however, with the benefit of hindsight, she accepted the Chief Executive’s studies should have been reflected in the original report which went before Councillors when a trial of a four-day week was first considered. Cllr Smith said that doing so would have made no difference to the trial – but would have ensured the Chief Executive’s studies were stated for everyone in the clearest terms. 

Cllr Smith said that in any other walk of life, where you had an experienced leader who had gained further knowledge about something that’s very relevant to their work, it would be considered a benefit. 

Cllr Smith handed over to the Lead Cabinet Member for Resources who formally introduced agenda item nine. 

Councillor John Williams, Lead Cabinet Member for Resources, introduced the report and referred to page 65 of the report pack, specifically to the ‘What we’ve done and why’ section, reminding members of the reason why the trial was introduced. It was confirmed that a £300,000 annualised saving had been identified during the three-month trial and that a £1m saving was expected over the full year.  

Cllr John Williams emphasised that although Health and Wellbeing of staff was important the four-day week would also improve the quality of services to residents and provide savings that could be put back into services to ensure they were maintained against a backdrop of high inflation rates.  

Cllr John Williams explained that the three-month trial had maintained performance, as confirmed independently by the Bennett Institute. It was recognised that performance must be maintained, and a 12-month trial extension would enable performance to be closely monitored as well as give staff certainty on their ways of working. The Council would then make a decision at the end of the 12-month extension. 

Councillor Sally Ann Hart, Vice-Chair of Employment and Staffing Committee, presented the views expressed by the Committee. It was noted that there had previously been concerns regarding the challenge of recruitment and that due to high housing and living costs in the area, the four-day-week offered an attractive incentive. Cllr Hart requested that regular reports be provided to the Committee during the 12-month extension period.  

Councillor Dr. Tumi Hawkins, emphasised that since the trial began, the Planning service has been enabled to work in better ways, simplifying templates and reports. Cllr Hawkins noted that applications were being processed in 6.3 weeks, within the statutory target.  

Cllr Hawkins emphasised that the output had improved, and complaints had reduced. Cabinet was told the four-day-week was an incentive and would help attract experienced planners to apply for roles.  

Councillor John Batchelor thanked Councillor Mark Howell for his statement of support for officers at Employment and Staffing Committee. 

Cabinet was reminded that there were challenging areas before the trial had begun and it would take time to correct but the data from the trial was encouraging. 

Councillor Brian Milnes informed Cabinet of a promising mystery shopper exercise recently completed which would indicate improving response rates. 

Councillor Bill Handley, Lead Cabinet Member for Communities, expressed his support for the four-day week. 

Councillor Henry Batchelor, Lead Cabinet Member for Environmental Services and Licensing told Cabinet he would shortly be asking for support for the four-day week trial for the refuse collection service, noting, they did not have a full roster of permanent staff which was draining on resources. 

Councillor Anna Bradnam explained how the data presented was reassuring with both quality and in-depth analysis received. There had been regular feedback from staff with honesty from the beginning, noting where there had been some uncertainty it gradually became positive. 

Councillor Heather Williams asked for the disclosure of the number of, and name of councils who had shown interest in the trial as stated in the Leader’s interview with BBC Radio Cambridgeshire earlier that day. 

Councillor Bridget Smith stated that it would not be appropriate to name other councils and suggested Councillor Heather Williams might contact their group’s office at the Local Government Association. 

Councillor Heather Williams queried data related to agency staff, as they were still working and being paid for a five-day week. Cllr Heather Williams questioned whether they and permanent employees, still working a five-day week, were included accurately in the performance statistics. 

Cllr Heather Williams further queried data related to stress levels among staff and asked whether Cabinet was comfortable with the figures in the report. 

Councillor Bridget Smith stated that a short three-month trial was not going to be long enough to iron out all the issues. Some staff needed time to adapt to the new working arrangements and adopt new ways of working, some staff’s workload was already unmanageable on a five-day week.   

Chief Executive Liz Watts explained that there had been an improvement within the Planning Service where a number of agency staff were used. Not all of that performance improvement was related to the four-day week but much of it was, as it has enabled people to radically think about how they worked.  

Councillor Heather Williams asked if the Leader and members of Cabinet thought the four-day week was good value for the Taxpayers at a time when costs were rising and many residents were taking on second jobs. 

Councillor Bridget Smith explained that most responses to her appearance on radio were positive about the trial. It was stated that most councils in the last six months had increased their council tax by the maximum. The rent increase represented a reduction in income to continue the improvement programme as it did not represent the increased cost of managing housing stock.  

It was emphasised by Cllr Smith that South Cambridgeshire District Council had one of the lowest council tax rates in the country and offered 100% council tax exemption for those in greatest need. The Council had also increased the number of residents who received discounts in acknowledgement of the rising costs. In 2018, South Cambridgeshire District Council pledged it would be a modern and caring council, which included modern ways of working and caring for the residents and colleagues, who would be serving them.  

Cllr Smith confirmed that members of Cabinet would decide whether the trial would be extended, and full Council would decide whether they would become a four-day week employer at the end of the trial. 

Councillor Dr. Richard Williams stated that residents who were applying for Housing benefit, and Creditors who were owed money having to wait twice as long were not ‘minor’ issues, as described in the aforementioned BBC Radio Cambridgeshire interview. 

The Committee was told by Cllr Dr. Richard Williams that Conservative members had only two weeks’ notice of the introduction of the four-day-week trial, with no mention of a PhD. 

Cllr Dr. Richard Williams questioned why the last two Planning Committees had only two applications, noting that the first quarter of 2023 had eight planning decisions, 2022 had 29 and 2021 had 21. It was thought that maybe officers were unable to process them as quickly as they used to. 

Dr Nina Jörden, Research Associate at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, University of Cambridge, explained that the data could be viewed differently depending on the analysis run. It was explained that not all targets had been met but that four kinds of analysis were run, for a comprehensive picture and when combined there was no data that raised specific concerns. It was made clear that some service areas that would need further attention if the trial was to be extended. It was emphasised that KPIs were examined back to 2016 to create an average and no changes were seen in the data. 

Councillor Dr. Tumi Hawkins explained that only challenging or potentially sensitive planning applications went to Committee, and 94% of applications were dealt with by officers. Councillor Bridget Smith told Cllr Dr Richard Williams that a further written response would be provided regarding his query on Planning applications. 

Cabinet

a) Approved an extension of the trial up until March 2024, in order to assess the impact on recruitment and retention, with regular reports on progress being submitted to Employment & Staffing Committee during 2023/24 and a final report to Cabinet and Council at the end of the extended trial period.

b) Noted the position of Cambridge City Council regarding the Shared Planning Service trial extension (to be provided on 11 May, but not available at the time this report was published) and, should the City Council agree to proceed with the trial extension, Cabinet ensure equivalent reporting arrangements were established in order to provide Cambridge City Council with appropriate oversight arrangements regarding the Shared Planning Service.

c) Approved a three-month trial for Facilities Management colleagues at South Cambs Hall, with a report being presented to Employment & Staffing Committee at the end of the trial.