Free Childcare

We called for a commitment to bring forward reforms to improve access to affordable, flexible childcare, to help ease the shortage of skilled people in the workforce. The government has announced that, in eligible households where all adults are working at least 16 hours, they will introduce 30 hours of free childcare for every child over 9 months old – starting from the moment maternity and paternity leave ends – to be introduced in stages.

Shortage Occupation List

When businesses cannot recruit and/or train the skills they need quickly enough, the immigration system needs to be flexible and affordable to help them bring in talent from overseas to fill a short-term gap.

We pushed for government to improve the way it manages the Shortage Occupation List (SOL), to reflect workforce needs more accurately. Government has committed to reviewing the SOL more regularly, based on recommendations from the Migration Advisory Council, so it’s more responsive to the needs of businesses and the economy.

T Levels

We asked for more flexible training, incentives to recruit T Level students and more access to Occupational Health services for SMEs. The government has launched a one-year employer support fund to provide financial assistance to employers, offering high-quality T Level industry placements, announced that it will expand the Skills Bootcamps by 8,000 additional places per year in 2024-25, and widened its occupational health pilot subsidy scheme for SMEs.