REC on Spending Review: Missing piece of the puzzle is delivery – where is the workforce plan?

Responding to today’s Comprehensive Spending Review, Neil Carberry, Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) Chief Executive, said:

“The government is correct when it says that only growth can right the fiscal balance and fund our public services. You can’t tax businesses into growth – especially when those firms need to be investing. Any spending commitments made today rest on the backs of the future success of British business.

“Today’s announcements get us halfway along the track. Investment in transport has a big effect, boosting workforce mobility, bridging skills gaps, and driving productivity. Commitments to long-term energy, technology and green investments matter because they give firms certainty to invest behind stable government plans. But we need to go further, addressing public service productivity and prioritising public spending and government action to those areas where it can make the biggest difference. The government’s commitment to planning reform is a great example of where bold action now, that is not watered down, would make a huge difference to future Chancellors.

“The missing piece of the puzzle in all this, is delivery. Despite talking about the need for a deep pool of talent, there was little on workforce today – yet we know this is the critical part of getting where we need to go without further tax rises. And not just on skills – where the prospect of apprenticeship levy reform is exciting but we await practical details. The upcoming Industrial Strategy is the opportunity to do this – dealing with workforce development as an economic essential, not only an employment rights issue. Across the country, REC members are helping build power stations, renovate our railways, drive British manufacturing and invest in our defence. Proper partnership with the sector to deliver a workforce strategy that meets the needs of the mid-21st Century will be essential.”

On the NHS, Neil Carberry added:

“Extra NHS funding won’t fix its staffing crisis. We keep getting people policies for the NHS wrong because we do not acknowledge the choices every worker - medical and non-medical - has over their working life. We have built a system where decision-making for any form of hiring into the NHS is glacially slow, and even though the costs of all other forms of hiring now outstrip on-framework agency rates, it is agencies that are called out as “expensive”. A true partnership approach to solving the issues – rather than attacking an entire sector on poor evidence – is what is needed. We are ready to help drive up the quality and value the NHS gets.”