The Government has issued a new Best Value Notice to South Cambridgeshire District Council due to ‘ongoing concerns’ about the authority’s four-day working week.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) first issued South Cambridgeshire with a Best Value Notice in November alongside a request for weekly data on the council's four-day week trial.
However, ministers ‘remain concerned’ and have asked to receive the reports for a further six months to ‘allow for further data analysis’, the DLUHC said today.
In new guidance on Best Value standards published today, the DLUHC clarified its position on four-day working weeks, which it said were ‘unlikely to adhere to the Best Value Duty’.
‘We will take action where an authority is not using its resources effectively and does not have a credible workforce strategy’, the guidance says.
South Cambridgeshire extended its four-day week trial, which was due to end in March, arguing that it could not proceed with a consultation on a permanent shortened week until ministers clarified proposals on using ‘financial levers’ to discourage the practice.
Council leader Bridget Smith said data seen so far showed the four-day week was ‘having a positive impact on many parts of the council’. A full council meeting will review the latest findings in July.
Meanwhile, commissioners are set to leave Liverpool City Council but will be replaced with an assurance and improvement board until next March because the authority ‘is yet to fully meet its Best Value Duty’.
The DLUHC also announced today that there would be Best Value inspections at Spelthorne and Warrington borough councils.
Concerns raised by the department included ‘extremely high levels of debt and borrowing’ at both Spelthorne and Warrington, which have the second highest levels of debt for a district council and a unitary council in England respectively.
If this article was of interest, then check out, Who’s afraid of the four-day week?
