Government and campaigns
With political Autumn underway, and Party conferences right around the corner, the REC Campaigns Team have been busy preparing briefings for relevant roundtables and events across Liverpool and Manchester. If you're attending Party Conferences, then please do let us know, it will be great to see some of you there. There have also been a few updates, including our recent engagement with Labour's Shadow Health & Social Care Secretary, reaffirming the need to go beyond the narrative of 'rip-off agencies', and also on the Workers Bill gaining Royal Assent.
Last week, the REC attended an event by Wes Streeting, with the focus of discussion being on his priorities as an incoming Health Secretary should Labour win the next General Election. We asked a question about Labour's stance on agencies, and it was promising to hear Wes saying that he doesn't blame agencies for the crisis facing the NHS. Off the back of this event, we have submitted a briefing to Wes' office, and have also requested a meeting with him to offer expertise from the recruitment industry and professionals operating within the healthcare space. You can access our briefing here.
If you would like to feed in your perspective as a recruiter in health and social care, or if you have any questions, please email Usman.Ali@rec.uk.com or Patrick.Milnes@rec.uk.com
The Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Bill has now received Royal Assent from King Charles III and will be introduced into legislation as the Predictable Working Act. This act introduces a right for all workers, including to request a more predictable working pattern. We will work with the Department for Business and Trade to make sure the impact of this act on our sector is as limited as possible and will keep you updated with further developments as they happen. Read more in our blog on the subject.
Last week, the government published the response to their consultations on Stable Homes, Built on Love and the National Framework, including an update on the social worker agency consultation that they issued earlier this year. The government has reiterated their intention to publish their response to the agency social worker consultation “later in the year” and have also announced they will be consulting on statutory guidance for national rules on local authority use of agency child and family social workers, with the intention to introduce these rules from Spring 2024. The government has also confirmed that the Children’s Social Care National Framework will be issued as guidance in December this year. This will be accompanied by a plan to support local authorities with this. For the latest health and social care updates, check our health and social care page.
REC’s call for the government to stay focussed on regulating umbrellas and scrap their grossly unfair proposal to pass the buck of umbrella tax debt to employment businesses, was reported on by the main taxation publications. We also wrote a separate article on this topic for Contractor UK. Elsewhere, we published the shortlist for the 14th REC Awards, including for its first-ever Agency Star of the Year award. This new category will recognise the contribution of recruitment industry workers who do not necessarily fit into the other more role-specific categories.
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