In your corner: REC Campaigns and Policy news - 27 January 2022

Across the UK, Covid-19 restrictions have started to ease, with the working from home guidance in England and Scotland relaxed. Many will have looked forward to this announcement which provides some much-needed certainty for businesses. With inflation increasing and the energy price cap rise looming, businesses and households are looking to government  to put the economic recovery at the heart of its agenda.  However, the ongoing “partygate” scandal and much-anticipated Sue Gray report has, unsurprisingly, dominated headlines and political focus in recent weeks. Regardless of what might be happening in No.10 right now, the REC Campaigns team continues to work hard to represent our members interests. Take a look at what we’ve been doing in the last couple of weeks.  

Umbrella company call for evidence roundtable 
On Tuesday, the REC hosted a roundtable session with representatives from the department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to discuss their and HMRC's call for evidence on umbrella companies as part of the process of legislating them. The session was extremely useful with members sharing their experiences of using or not using these companies. While the call for evidence deals with regulation, it also looks quite extensively at the tax implications. The REC is preparing its submission and we’re hosting a second roundtable on the 3 February at 1:30pm, however we’d encourage as many members as possible to respond directly to BEIS. The more data and evidence BEIS collect, the more accurate the picture which they will have to inform next steps. If you’re interested in joining our second roundtable, please email sam.beggs@rec.uk.com.  

Richard Meddings appointed new Chair of NHS England  
A banker and former member of HM Treasury’s Board, Richard Meddings has been appointed and confirmed as new Chair of NHS England. Coming into the role at a critical time for public health provision, Meddings and NHS England’s priority will focus on the recovery from the pandemic and expanding the NHS’s workforce. The REC has written to Mr Meddings, congratulating him on his new role and requesting a meeting. We also took the opportunity to share a briefing on the REC’s healthcare membership, as well as analysis on labour and skills shortages in the NHS. Click here to view our letter.  

Discussion on long-term, wider picture of the UK’s healthcare workforce 
Throughout January, the REC has engaged with a large number of healthcare members to discuss staff shortages and long-term workforce planning. The REC team is currently finalising  next steps in terms of key asks and stakeholder engagement. We encourage all our healthcare members to stay up to date by regularly checking the REC healthcare sector hub where we share updates on recent engagement and public affairs activities. If your business operates across the healthcare sector and would like to share feedback about long-term workforce planning, shortages or framework reviews, please get in touch with yerin.seo@rec.uk.com.  

Disability Reporting Consultation 
Before Christmas, the government launched a consultation regarding the possible introduction of disability workforce reporting (either mandatory or voluntary) for large companies. This consultation has been launched as part of the government’s wider National Disability Strategy. As this is an issue that will possibly affect large parts of the UK recruitment industry, including your own organisations, the REC is keen to hear from you on this issue to ensure our response to the consultation is reflective of the views of the industry. To offer feedback, please email patrick.milnes@rec.uk.com. 

In the Media  
This week, Neil Carberry spoke to Times Radio about our latest JobsOutlook survey and the state of the labour market. Listen back to the interview here, starting at 1 hr 55 mins.  

Research Corner  
The REC’s latest JobsOutlook showed that in the three months to December, business confidence in the UK economy fell at an increasing pace in the last quarter of 2021, as the Omicron variant surged across the UK and worries over rising inflation and labour shortages continued. In contrast, employers’ confidence in making hiring and investment decisions remained positive at net: +9, indicating that hiring confidence levels were still increasing 

The REC has also published it’s annual ‘state of the industry’ report. Every year we survey recruitment businesses across the UK to bring you the latest figures for the value and size of the staffing industry and the number of people we place into work. Find out more here.