Campaign Roundup - 15 May 2024

It's full steam ahead in the world of politics and policy - and our team is at the forefront of representing our members. From giving interviews to the BBC on the state of the economy to giving oral evidence in Parliament on Apprenticeships and Skills and the recent announcement on agency workers in social care space, there's a lot for our members to be aware of.  

REC gives oral evidence on Apprenticeships and Skills 

Our Director for Campaigns and Insights, Shazia Ejaz, gave oral evidence to the Industry and Regulators Select Committee alongside Amazon and the Co-operative Group as part of their enquiry into the Future of Skills. Shazia offered detailed insights to the committee on the need for an industrial strategy linked to skills policy to unlock future growth and combat existing skills shortages that are holding back employers. 

Key areas covered by REC also included: 

• The need for a reformed and flexible Apprenticeship Levy that enables the temporary labour market to upskill. 

• A much-needed Industrial Strategy with employer and government collaboration at the heart of it. This should be done alongside a Workforce Plan to address the skills and labour shortages in the UK.  

• The benefits of local skills planning and the role of Local Skills Improvement Plans LSIPs and reducing barriers for SMEs and recruiters to participate in these 

• The importance of having a skills system that is agile and responsive to labour market demand - and crucially works for the temporary labour market. 

If you want to watch the recording, please click here. 

Update on Agency Social Workers Rules 

The Department for Education have emailed REC confirming their intention to publish the full statutory guidance on the new national agency rules, and the government’s response to the consultation regarding these, in July (subject to internal clearance). REC will continue to engage with the DfE to find out more about the timeline for implementation of these rules once published and will let members know of any updates. Once published these rules will apply to use of agency child and family social workers. 

Ahead of this publication, the DfE has now published supplementary guidance on the data collection and price caps rules that will be included in the main rules. This additional guidance has been published now to allow businesses time to start preparing for these changes. Under this published guidance, the first data reports will need to be submitted in January/February 2025, covering data for the period between 1 October and 31 December 2024. The guidance also states that pay caps will need to be agreed by 27 March 2025, to be adhered to from 1 April.  
 
If you have any questions around these changes, please contact us on Patrick.milnes@rec.uk.com 

Personal Independence Payment (PIP) Consultation  

The Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) published consultation on a Health and Disability Green Paper - Modernising Support for Independent Living. This is to address a number of key demographic changes in the people who claim disability benefit PIP. According to the paper, there are more younger people claiming PIP than ever, alongside an increase in people applying with mental health conditions and those who are neurodiverse (including, Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia and Dyspraxia). The paper will evaluate different reforms to the eligibility criteria for PIP, the assessment process, and alternative support beyond cash payments. We will be submitting a response to this consultation response centred on the importance of supporting those on PIP to work productively. Please email natasha.mpofu@rec.uk.com if you would like to support our submission. The deadline for the submission is the 22 July 2024.  

Research Corner  

Last week the REC published May’s Report on Jobs This reveals that placements are falling a weaker pace than previously seen. The number of staff appointed to permanent positions by UK recruitment consultants continued to decline during April. Temp billings also declined, however the rate of contraction was the slowest since January. Meanwhile, there were sharp increases in permanent and temporary staff availability, these rises were most prominent in London. Additionally pay rates picked up during April as firms remained willing to raise wages to attract suitable candidates. The latest data signaled that pay has now increased for both permanent and temporary staff for 38 months in a row. Make sure to look out for our Labour Market Tracker coming later this week as well.  

Media Corner 

We worked with the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) on a survey which found employers want any changes to public sector employment services to prioritise reform of financial support for new recruits. This is an example of our two organisations coming together to explore the ‘cost of working crisis’ in a way that adds to public debate on recruitment and employment. And it is great that the trade media was keen to report on it. Elsewhere, we provided expert commentary on the latest ONS labour market statistics for the media. We are succeeding in keeping debate about the labour market in the minds of policymakers, with our Chief Executive Neil Carberry on BBC News TV on the same day our Director of Campaigns Shazia Ejaz appeared on Parliament TV giving oral evidence on skills to a House of Lords committee.