Government issues second best value notice to local authority over four-day week trial

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has issued South Cambridgeshire District Council with another best value notice as the row over the local authority’s trial of a four-day week continues.

DLUHC first issued South Cambridgeshire with a notice in November 2023 – to remain in place for six months – over its concerns about the trial. It called on the council to demonstrate how it was delivering its best value duty.

The same month five Suffolk Borough and District Council leaders wrote an open letter to bordering South Cambridgeshire District Council to show support for the trial. They suggested that the decision to serve a notice was “heavy-handed” and “tantamount to bullying”.

In February this year South Cambridgeshire said it would continue with the four-day week until the Government set out how it planned to use ‘financial levers’ within future local government settlements from 2025/26 to stop councils working this way.

In a second best value notice sent to South Cambridgeshire’s chief executive, Liz Watts, this week (8 May), the Deputy Director, Local Government Stewardship at DLUHC, Max Soule, said ministers remain concerned as to the authority’s compliance with its best value duty under the Local Government Act 1999.

Soule said there were “ongoing concerns” about the trial of a four-day working week, including that the local authority is “not yet fully analysing the long-term impacts of the trial and future decisions on the trial remain unknown”.

He added that “the removal of up to a fifth of the capacity of the Authority means that it is unlikely, in aggregate, for it to be able to support continuous improvement,” and that in insisting on continuing the trial, “the working arrangements chosen by the Authority could impact on the delivery of its Best Value Duty, consistent with the statutory guidance on Best Value Standards and Intervention issued on 8 May 2024”.

The best value notice calls on South Cambridgeshire to continue to provide additional detail “on [the trial’s] impacts, on individual employee productivity, the Authority and the provision of services as a whole”.

Soule wrote: “Ministers remain clear that they expect the Authority must demonstrate to the Department how it is delivering its Best Value Duty, by:

• Providing robust evidence of the impacts of the trial on services offered to residents and on the organisation itself.
• Setting out how it is evaluating Best Value in relation to the trial, specifically:
  • To make arrangements to secure continuous improvement in the way in which its functions are exercised, having regard to a combination of economy, efficiency and effectiveness.
  • That it has in place and properly deploys an effective internal control environment to safeguard the use of resources, and clear and effective processes to secure value for money.
  • That human resources and fixed assets are managed efficiently and effectively.
• Responding to the Department’s requests for information fully and promptly.”

The council has been asked to complete and return an ongoing data request on a weekly basis. “Furthermore, the Authority previously provided comparable information for financial years 2018/19 to 2022/23 via an annual retrospective data collection form. We request that you now provide the information in this form for 2023/24, to provide insight into performance over a full financial year of the trial. This should be provided within one month of receipt of this letter.”

This second notice will also remain in place for six months, “to allow for further data analysis”.

It has been issued outside the statutory powers held by the Secretary of State under the Local Government Act 1999 to inspect or intervene in local authorities where there is evidence of Best Value failure and, separately, under section 230 of the Local Government Act 1972 to request information from local authorities.

“However, a failure to demonstrate continuous improvement may be judged to contribute to Best Value failure and the Secretary of State will consider using these powers as appropriate,” Soule said.

The Leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council, Cllr Bridget Smith, said: “The data and evidence we’ve seen so far shows how the four-day week is having a positive impact on many parts of the Council – and lots of the services we provide to local people. For example, our ability to recruit and retain planning officers has dramatically improved. This means a smoother service for anyone who sends in a planning application as it can be dealt with by the same planner from start to finish.

"The Government highlights in their letter how we have engaged constructively with their data requests so far. We will continue to do so. Performance data we’ve collected during the trial is being analysed, and councillors will also review this data at a Full Council meeting in July.”