A group of academics at Cambridge University have been accused of editing evidence of the impact of a council’s four-day working week trial.
The university’s Bennett Institute for Public Policy was tasked with observing the four-day week trial at South Cambridgeshire District Council between January and March 2023.
In May, after its analysis revealed that the arrangements were reducing costs while still delivering “excellent services to residents and businesses”, the council extended the trial to 12 months.
This meant around 450 employees could take Monday or Friday off, as long as they worked more productively during the four remaining days. The council said the move had meant a reduction in the use of agency staff, saving £2 million a year, and a reduction in the annual wage bill of £300,000.
However, a freedom of information request by the TaxPayers’ Alliance has revealed emails between the institute and the council suggesting that the council should edit its analysis before publication in case it was “ripped apart”.
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The emails also show that the council was allowed to make changes to the report after seeing an early draft.
Other correspondence shows researchers and council employees proposing changes and suggesting tweaks to quotes that would be included in a press release about the success of the trial.
The TaxPayers’ Alliance has written to council leaders across the UK asking them to pledge not to bring in a four-day week, claiming “it is not suitable to conduct such an experiment in the public sector”, and that residents are “rightly worried that a part-time council could be coming to their town hall”.
In July, Minister for Local Government Lee Rowley asked South Cambridgeshire District Council to end the trial “immediately”, claiming the four-day week was negatively impacting council activities and not delivering “value for money for taxpayers and residents”.
In a statement to the Times newspaper, the Bennett Institute insisted its evaluation was independent and not commissioned by the council.
“There was a normal process of discussion and minor changes to the draft report and press release, correctly described in the email correspondence as ‘tweaks’. The institute has not taken any stance on the pilot scheme,” a spokesperson said.
A spokesman for South Cambridgeshire District Council said: “The Bennett Institute for Public Policy at the University of Cambridge independently reviewed the council’s data from the trial, to ensure it was analysed without any risk of bias.
“This is a trial, but we have already seen strong independently assessed evidence which showed that performance was maintained, and in some cases improved, in the first three months.”
The claims that the university enhanced evidence around the four-day week trial come as figures show that councils across the UK granted more than 1,350 requests from staff to work from overseas over the past three years.
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