A new report from the UK Government’s Women and Equalities Committee (WEC) has highlighted a range of issues with the UK’s current parental leave system and urged the government to address them as part of its proposed review. The report, Equality at Work: Paternity and Shared Parental Leave, argues that the existing system requires substantial reform to better reflect the needs of modern families and working parents. It identifies shortcomings such as low statutory pay, limited leave entitlements for fathers and partners, and the complexity of the Shared Parental Leave (SPL) scheme. (more…)

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has expressed support for the UK Government’s ‘Get Britain Working’ initiative, which aims to tackle economic inactivity and promote greater inclusion within the workforce. However, the CIPD has urged the government to take more ambitious steps to elevate the status of apprenticeships and strengthen partnerships between employers and Jobcentres. (more…)

Workers in the UK are lukewarm towards the “New Deal for Working People,” a cornerstone of the recently introduced Employment Rights Bill. This ambivalence is coupled with a significant lack of awareness about their current workplace rights and their employers’ stance on various aspects of the deal. These insights come from the latest Robert Half Jobs Confidence Index (JCI), an economic confidence tracker developed in collaboration with the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr). (more…)

The rising costs of welfare and the country’s increasing dependency on immigration have become significant concerns, prompting a call for reform from a prominent government health adviser. Alan Milburn, a former health secretary, has emphasised the need for individuals with long-term illnesses and others stuck in a cycle of long term unemployment to actively seek employment. He argues that this approach is essential to address the unsustainable welfare costs associated with the long term unemployed and to mitigate the “toxic” reliance on immigration for the workforce. (more…)

Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson have unveiled Skills England, an initiative designed to unify the fragmented skills landscape and foster a cohesive national ambition to enhance the nation’s skills. Richard Pennycook CBE, former chief executive of the Co-operative Group and lead non-executive director at the Department for Education (DfE), has been appointed as the interim Chair of the new body. (more…)