Government and campaigns
With less than two weeks until we finally find out who our next Prime Minister will be, we’re very much in the calm before the storm. Sunak and Truss may be continuing to duke it out for the Tory leadership but for the REC it's a unified front to ensure our industry is in the best possible position to influence government and have a positive impact for the economy over the rest of the year. We've been hard at work on our Overcoming Shortages campaign, and there's plenty of other legal and regulatory changes coming up to keep us on our toes.
We’ve put together a helpful toolkit for our members, designed to help you get the most out of the Overcoming Shortages report. In this toolkit, we bring together various materials, including template social media posts and graphics, a template letter to your MP and a presentation to use with your clients. These tools will help you engage your clients and local MPs about the role of the industry in helping businesses and policy makers build sustainable workforces, boost economic growth and put ‘people’ at the heart of workforce planning.
Since the launch of our report, the campaigns team has had busy few weeks meeting various stakeholders to discuss the findings and recommendations from our Overcoming Shortages report. We’ve met with policy advisers from the Treasury and discuss immigration policies and apprenticeship levy reform with them. The team told us they find the REC’s Report on Jobs and JobsOutlook helpful in their policy development. We also met with colleagues from the Department for Transport that are working on the Transport Employment and Skills Taskforce to emphasise the important of having the right transport links to get people to work. Other discussions were with SNP MP Alison Thewliss, and Daniel Johnson MSP, the Labour Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Finance for Scottish Parliament to discuss skills and productivity in Scotland. There are more meetings lined up with politicians and industry stakeholders, including James Davies, Conservative MP for the Vale of Clywd, and Lord Daniel Moylan, a Conservative Peer.
Following the recent Supreme Court judgment on Harpur Trust v Brazel, the REC understands the impact that this decision has had on many of our members. We are working to think of a short-term solution that will provide clarity for our members, which we will be sharing with BEIS. If you have any thoughts about what would be best for your company please do let us know by emailing patrick.milnes@rec.uk.com
NHS Workforce Alliance has launched the next iteration of the International Recruitment offering, which will go live in March 2023. This framework was set up in response to the NHS’ need to increase international recruitment to fill existing vacancies. Bidders are invited to submit their tenders by midday Friday 30 September through an e-tendering portal. For more information about how to be part of the framework and support the NHS workforce, take a look at this contract notice and this letter.
It is now just over a month until the rules around Right to Work (RTW) Checks change on 30 September. A full explanation of what is changing and why, as well as what this means for your business can be found in our blog on what changes are being made to right to work.
Our next Education Sector meeting is taking place on Thursday 15 September between 1pm and 2.30pm. Join us for the latest legal and campaigns updates, including news on Harpur Trust v Brazel, the new Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance and our Overcoming Shortages campaign. We will also be joined by representatives from CCS to discuss the new education framework, and Amiqus, one of the REC’s preferred IDVT suppliers, to talk about their new digital right to work platform. You can register to attend here.
Latest Jobs OutlookThe REC’s latest JobsOutlook showed that in May-July 2022, business confidence in the UK economy fell by a further 5% from the previous rolling quarter to net: -55. Employers’ confidence in making hiring and investment decisions also fell by 5% to net: -17. As confidence continues to drop, demand for temporary staff increases. In the three months to July, employers’ intentions to hire temporary agency workers in the short-term rose by 2% to net: +14.
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