Four-day week: Greater Cambridge Shared Waste and Greater Cambridge Shared Planning

Open for comments from Monday 27 January to 11.59pm Sunday 23 March.

Councils across the country face an increased demand for services, coupled with reduced funding. It is crucial that local government can hire and keep the best possible staff. If councils can’t do this, it reduces the quality of services provided to residents, while costing the councils more in staff turnover and agency costs for hard-to-fill roles. 

Cambridge City Council shares a number of services with other local councils, including sharing planning and waste collections with South Cambridgeshire District Council (SCDC). For planning and waste SCDC is the authority who employs the staff to provide these across both areas. 

In and around Cambridge the local job market is very competitive, and the cost of living is incredibly high, and SCDC has struggled to fill vacancies and attract candidates for these services as it cannot compete with the private sector on salary and terms and conditions for some roles. Having agency staff collecting bins results in an increase in missed bins as they do not know the rounds as well as a permanent member of staff. Councils have a finite budget and for many years SCDC has been trying to ensure it was an attractive employer.  

In the past, South Cambridgeshire District Council has tried many ways to make itself an attractive place to work but has still struggled to recruit and retain staff. This has included one off payments of up to £6,000 to new starters who join a hard to fill role and flexible working policies. Despite these efforts, SCDC had still not been able to recruit and retain staff in some roles and recently trialled a four-day week.  

The aim of a four-day week is to get 100% of work done, in about 80% of contracted hours, for 100% of the pay. For full time staff at SCDC this means they work 32 hours a week for a full-time salary. Office based colleagues began these working arrangements in January 2023. Staff in the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning service, which covers both Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire, were included. Council services remained open five days a week – with emergency out of hours services still available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  

The Greater Cambridge Shared Waste service, which also covers both Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire, began its four-day week trial in September 2023 as more time was needed to plan for a trial. 

We (Cambridge City Council) have supported SCDC’s trial as they endeavour to find a solution to the recruitment and retention challenges councils are facing. We’ve always said that the most important factor for us is ensuring that services for residents continue to be delivered reliably and to a high standard, and we have been keeping a close eye on this throughout the trial. 

After an initial office-based three-month trial that started in January 2023, the trial was extended by another year. During that time, SCDC collected data on a range of performance and wellbeing measures. This data was independently analysed and showed positive findings. We published a link to the SCDC four-day week trial report on our website to help inform residents. The results were positive as services were generally maintained or improved, but the report provides a thorough review of four-day week working, compares service delivery and performance under the working practice to before the trial began. 

SCDC also published a webpage on the four-day week – this provides all the information in one place about the trial, and links to reports and decisions taken so far. 

Although SCDC has data on services before and during the trial, SCDC is now working to collect views from residents and businesses who use the shared services. Both councils want to ensure Cambridge residents and businesses who use planning and waste collection services are also heard from. This information will be shared with SCDC who will analyse the responses and then considered as part of SCDC considering whether they should become a four-day week employer. 

Please note: 

• Cambridge City Council is not trialling or planning to trial a four-day week. Only shared services where SCDC is the employer are included – planning and waste. 
• If you are a resident, business or voluntary group based in South Cambridgeshire, please complete the SCDC survey as the questions will be more relevant to you. The results will be assessed together. 

To request the survey in another format please email webteam@cambridge.gov.uk.

So you know what to expect, this consultation contains four sections. These are:

• questions about you
• questions about your experiences of Greater Cambridge Shared Waste and Greater Cambridge Shared Planning services during the four-day week. You will only rate services you say you have received from us.
• comments about the four-day week
• thank you and what happens next

This consultation is expected to take around five minutes to complete. However, it may take longer depending on how much detail you would like to write in your answers.