A Long Week in Politics - What Does It Mean for Us?

It’s been an eventful week in politics with reshuffles, recriminations and white papers making headlines. Here’s a few thoughts on what it means for the jobs market and our industry.

The much anticipated Brexit white paper covered everything from professional standards, to data protection, to fishing and free movement. The government’s aim was to strike a ‘fair and pragmatic’ balance on trade, leaving both the single market and the customs union but establishing a new free trade area for goods. Our response to it underlines the need for more clarity on what a future immigration system will look like, which is a major concern for recruiters who are already reporting candidate shortages across a range of sectors.

The government shed more light on what the so called ‘mobility agreement’ with the EU could look like. While freedom of movement will end, free trade agreements that cover trade in services can contain provisions for the mobility of individuals to provide these services. This would be similar to provisions in the trade agreement between Canada and the EU and would allow EU nationals to visit the UK, and vice versa for a limited period of time for ‘short term business reasons’. Other proposals include extending the current youth mobility scheme and the government’s focus is also on how best to facilitate temporary mobility of scientists and researchers, self-employed professionals and investors.

What’s next? The white paper confirms that freedom of movement will end at the end of December 2020, and that there will be a future Immigration Bill to set out the UK’s future immigration policy in legislation. The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), who have been looking at the role of EU migrants in the UK economy, will report in September. This will inform the government’s future policy, and we’ll continue to use our regular data and research – as well as valuable insight from members – to influence the agenda. Our stance is set out in our latest research report on the need for any future immigration strategy to cater for seasonal and temporary workers from the EU who are so critical for the UK economy.

Back to reshuffles, we’ll build on existing links with incoming Secretaries of State and Ministers. We’ve positively engaged with Matt Hancock, the new Heath Secretary, when he was at the Department for Business, and will we will underline the positive role that healthcare recruiters play in helping the NHS address increasing staffing challenges. Our core messages to the new Brexit Secretary, Dominic Raab, will focus on the crucial importance of maintaining access to staff and skills from other EU countries at time of key sector wide shortages

Looking ahead, input from REC members is vital as we continue to champion our industry’s voice during Brexit-related debates. As ever, our underlying aim is to ensure that the UK jobs market - and the industry that supports it - can continue to thrive.