2025 is a pivotal year in policy terms for those in professional staffing and the outsource market. We are also launching new initiatives to reposition the resources of our policy team and to engage with far more of you.
At Westminster we will focus on three key themes over the year; Employment rights and tax reform (primary focus theme), political preconceptions of ‘professional staffing and “outsourcing”, and recruitment and skills, both nationally and regionally.
We will be focusing on the passage of the Employment Rights Bill through the Commons and Lords with 1:1 meetings, parliamentary questions, briefings and submissions:
- to make sure the professional recruitment and talent management sectors are fully understood; and
- to help the government create regulatory and market conditions supportive of Growth, whilst implementing its big-ticket policy reforms on employment and work rights and contractor taxation.
One new initiative will be a structured programme of regional engagement with mayoral authorities, constituency MPs and local skills and jobs initiatives, prioritising the Northwest (Greater Manchester and Liverpool City) Yorkshire and the Midlands, all core member hubs. We are creating regional policy groups to drive this conversation and to have impact on skills and local issues such as transport, and to raise our profile and those of our member business leaders. Members and Trusted Partners should get in touch with their Account Managements to express an interest.
On 16th December the Government published the English Devolution White Paper: the plan is to deliver an integrated settlement to mayors in Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, North East, South Yorkshire, West Midlands and West Yorkshire Combined Authorities to fund local priorities across housing, regeneration, local growth, local transport, skills, retrofit, and employment support.
The Get Britain Working White Paper also sets out an intent that all Mayoral Strategic Authorities will have a substantive role in co-designing any future Jobcentre Plus employment support initiatives and Established Mayoral Authorities will have a substantive role in their delivery.
In Q1 our priorities are:
- Preparing a briefing document on the Employment Rights Bill for the Commons and Lords.
- Submitting to the Treasury’s consultation on the Spring Spending Review, deadline 9th February.
- Focusing on the public sector – the NHS Big Conversation and the Government’s pledge to recruit 6,500 teachers.
- Launching our regional engagement programme.
In 2025 we will be leading a short discussion at member events on the top policy topics of that month or having a policy focused speaker or panel. This means that you have more opportunity to bring issues of concern to our attention and we can get feedback from a broader group of members on the hot topics of the month.
Plus, we are launching a new look Political Monitor – in a more accessible format, fortnightly on Monday. This is essential to keep business leaders fully informed on new Government initiatives and those coming up and the progress of legislation in Parliament, with some insight into EU politics thrown in!
Finally, don’t forget to register to receive the E Bulletin into your inbox every week – in addition to keeping you fully briefed on member initiatives and special deals, it is where you will read about the latest Legal updates and resources, as well as Policy Events.
