Tania Bowers, Global Public Policy Director at APSCo studies the political parties’ manifestos and asks where are the skills?
Following months of speculation, Rishi Sunak finally called an election, albeit earlier than expected, leaving little time for preparation for many. However, all of the major political parties have now unveiled their manifestoes in an attempt to win votes on 4th July.
Arguably there were no major surprises in any of the announcements, besides one that is critical for the labour market: clear action on skills shortages was missing. Each party has referenced plans to recruit more in sectors or remits that are struggling with a dearth of talent and heavy workloads. But there was little detail in terms of where these resources will come from. As APSCo has highlighted for some time, solving skills shortages isn’t going to be achieved overnight. Equally though, simply increasing the number of jobs isn’t a viable solution.
If we look at the details from each of the political parties, it becomes more evident that the information around how to increase skills in the UK is missing.
Conservatives focus on education
The current Government has so far honed much of its efforts on reducing taxes and other tactics that are clearly aimed at winning over voters. However, looking at the detail in the Conservative manifesto, there’s a clear focus on the education sector.
Not only were plans announced to reform education itself – which includes pushing ahead with the Advanced British Standard and funding 100,000 ‘high-quality apprenticeships – but recruitment activity was also reported. The offer of tax-free bonuses for new teachers in priority areas is certainly interesting, but doesn’t address the entire talent challenge in teaching.
The skills gaps in education have been growing for some time driven by both low levels of new teachers entering the workforce, and high numbers of staff turnover. A financial incentive may encourage people into education initially, but it doesn’t address the reasons why so many in the profession are leaving.
Plans to also double digital and AI expertise in the civil service are ambitious to say the least. These skills are already lacking across the country and the private sector is arguably able to command more attention from the workforce. Simply suggesting that more skills will be hired doesn’t address the fact that these resources simply don’t exist in the numbers that the UK needs.
The same can be said for the Conservative’s plans to recruit more doctors and nurses. Given that existing roles are going unfilled due to a lack of staff, increasing recruitment numbers adds no value to the true resourcing challenges in healthcare.
Labour’s growth plans
As with the incumbent party’s plans, Labour’s manifesto had a number of gaps in terms of how skills will be bolstered. Its commitment to recruiting thousands more teachers, support the growth of the AI sector and deliver more NHS appointments, doesn’t address the fact that there simply aren’t enough professionals in these remits to meet existing needs, let alone new requirements.
There is a commitment from the Labour party to introduce an Employment Rights Bill in the first 100 days of Government as well as set up a Single Enforcement Body. However, as APSCo has highlighted to shadow ministers already, differentiation of the highly skilled contract workforce is needed to ensure it isn’t unnecessarily within scope of stricter regulation on zero-hour contracts and basic employment rights that are designed to protect more at-risk workers.
We do welcome the plans to establish Skills England to bring together business, training providers, unions, and government to meet the demands of Labour’s Industrial Strategy. What’s crucial is that this body will collaborate with the Migration Advisory Committee to align training with the overall labour market needs. Plans to introduce a new Industrial Strategy Council to inform and guide the Industrial Strategy is also a positive move that showcases some plans to increase domestic skills.
Labour’s diversity initiatives and actions to target younger, inactive demographics do also suggest some form of method to increase productivity in the UK workforce. What is perhaps most encouraging, though, is the recognition that the points-based immigration system not only requires reform to increase international recruitment efforts, but that migration also needs to be managed alongside programmes to upskill the UK workforce.
Liberal Democrats social care stance
In the launch of its manifesto, the Liberal Democratic party made it clear that social care will be a primary focus. The planned increase in social care recruitment did beg the same question around where these workers will come from as the Labour and Conservative promises. However, it should be noted that there were some details from the Lib Dems as to how they will fill these positions.
Plans to exempt NHS and social care staff from the £1,000-a-year Immigration Skills Charge and reverse the ban on care workers bringing partners into the country will certainly have a positive impact.
Intentions to reform the apprenticeship levy to broaden the scope and ensure it is more flexible was certainly welcome news and is aligned with calls APSCo has made in the past. The Lifelong Skills Grants were another move that we believe will have a longer-term positive impact on the strength of the UK’s labour market, along with the investment in national centres for excellence in core sectors such as renewables.
Of all the major political parties, it was the Liberal Democrats that seemed to have really hit the proverbial nail on the head for the contractor market. Plans to modernise employment rights through actions such as establishing an employment status in between ‘employed’ and ‘self-employed’, is a prime example of the new approach to the world of work that is needed in the UK.
Reform’s ‘contract’
While the Reform party may have shaken up the political dynamic somewhat, the ‘contract’ launched by Farage was missing the detailed proposals we’d like to see in order to ascertain what impact their intentions will have on the UK’s labour market.
From the information we do have available, though, it’s perhaps safe to say that the skills agenda was lacking in the Reform party’s intentions. Reducing immigration and implementing tighter restrictions on international students will only hinder longer-term growth of skills in the country.
On face value, the plan to introduce new apprenticeships and vocation courses to increase the supply of highly-skilled workers sounds promising, but without the full detail on how this will be achieved, it’s difficult to say if it will have the desired impact.
SNP’s plans to underpin Scotland’s skills
Naturally the Scottish National Party has outlined a number of core tactics to improve skills access across the country, including reverting back to some of the EU freedom of movement regulations. Some elements of the SNP’s manifesto mimic those of other parties, including the plans to scrap zero-hour contracts and increase spending in the NHS.
What is of note, though, are the party’s plans to amend the definition of worker to strengthen the protections for those with unfair contracts. This suggests that the SNP recognises the need for clear definitions written into legislation that accommodates the nuances of the workforce today. We do, however, believe that more detail is needed around the intention to create a single status of ‘worker’ for all but the truly self-employed.
The Green Party’s sustainability boost
It’s no secret that the Green Paty’s core agenda is focused on moving the UK to a green economy, and its plans to invest billions into this cause over the course of the next Parliament comes as no surprise. However, there was little to no detail on how skills will be boosted to support this.
Increasing the minimum wage and moving to a four-day working week are seemingly the core steps being introduced to address skills shortages and get people back in the labour market, but for the green economy – where many jobs are highly skilled and highly paid– these actions will have limited results.
Speed of Change
The race for Number 10 may be on, but for the UK’s labour market, the political manifestoes are unlikely to deliver skills improvements at the rate needed, given the parties’ pledges to recruit more teachers, doctors and IT specialists seemingly immediately. While the focus now is clearly on the results from 4th July, the King’s Speech will enunciate the legislative agenda for the first year of the new Government, led by whoever claims the keys of 10 Downing Street on the 5th July.
