by Clair Mooney | Jun 2, 2021 | Main News Feed
The Department for Health has launched a new toolkit for employers to help ensure employees get reliable information about COVID-19 vaccines. Several major businesses, including Asda, IKEA and Santander, have already pledged to promote vaccine uptake with their employees and to allow flexibility for staff to get vaccinated during work hours.
Access the toolkit to get materials for you to run internal awareness campaigns promoting the benefits of vaccination, including key messages, posters, fact sheets and videos providing accurate up to date information. The government is calling on as many employers as possible to join the campaign and support the efforts to continue to bring the nation out of lockdown.
by Clair Mooney | May 27, 2021 | Main News Feed
As part of a new incentive scheme, employers in England can claim £1,000 for every T-Level student they host on a high-quality industry placement https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cash-boost-for-t-levels.
The T Level employer incentive fund recognises the impact of the pandemic on many businesses, and has been designed to help cover financial constraints employers may face as a barrier to hosting placements in the short term.
Employers will be able to claim £1,000 for up to 20 students they host on a 45 day (315 hour) industry placement, from now until July 2022. The incentive offers businesses an excellent opportunity to tap into the emerging talent pipeline, whilst supporting the skilled workforce of the future.
Those interested in accessing the incentive payments and offering T-Level industry placements should contact: 08000 150 600 (choose option 4) or fill out an industry placement contact form online: Next steps | T Levels
T Levels uniquely combine classroom study with industry placements, generating the skilled workforce that businesses need for the future.
This Employer Guide helps businesses understand how to host an industry placement. This includes details on what is expected of employers during the placement.
by Clair Mooney | May 27, 2021 | Main News Feed
The Small Business Commissioner, Philip King, joined a meeting with Build UK members (including FIS CEO Iain McIlwee) earlier this month to discuss the changes to the Prompt Payment Code (PPC). PPC is a voluntary code of practice for businesses, administered by the Office of the Small Business Commissioner (SBC) on behalf of BEIS. It was established in December 2008 and sets standards for payment practices between organisations of any size and their suppliers. Being a signatory is often a requirement (or at least a consideration) for projects procured through Government.
As it stands, large businesses that have submitted data to Government’s Payment Practices Portal revealing payment of less than 90% of invoices within 60 days are suspended from the Code, until they achieve at least that percentage. If a suspended signatory fails to engage with the PPC administrators, or compliance is not achieved within a reasonable timescale, the signatory risks being permanently removed from the Code.
Key changes include the new requirement for signatories to pay 95% of invoices from businesses with fewer than 50 employees within 30 days from 1 July 2021. The meeting looked at definitions of employment (in this case it is referring to PAYE employment and not taking into account self-employed or gang/agency workers) and the challenge of identifying suppliers. It was recognised that signatories of the code can use the Common Assessment Standard to identify suppliers with fewer than 50 employees. Question 10 asks ‘Are you a Micro, a Small or a Medium‐Sized Enterprise?’ and any suppliers that state they are ‘Micro’ or ‘Small’ have fewer than 50 employees, in accordance with the EC definitions used within the standard, and this information is independently verified by a certification body on an annual basis.
Commenting on the meeting, FIS CEO stated
“It was good to hear that the PPC is starting to ratchet in to focus on flow of monies through the supply chain and to hear Philip signing off in such a positive way. In the meeting we did take the opportunity to reinforce that late payment and fair payment are linked, but the subject is more complex. We look forward to continuing this discussion with the new Commissioner, Liz Barclay, when she takes over in the summer”.
Build UK has produced a summary of the key points which answers the range of queries raised by members.
by Clair Mooney | May 21, 2021 | Main News Feed
As an employer it will be your responsibility to check that an individual has a right to work (this applies to both employed and contracted workers). You could face a civil penalty if you employ an illegal worker and have not carried out a correct right to work check. FIS has updated its Employment & Workforce Management Toolkit to give you access to the most up to date information. This includes access to a webinar, run in collaboration with the Association of Labour Providers and Stronger Together to help FIS members understand the responsibility and steps that must be taken to discharge this responsibility.
At the same time, it is vital that you consider Modern Slavery. A recent report by the Association of Labour Providers reflects that, despite Right to Work Checks being more onerous, the likely shortages and background means that new immigration rules are likely to have an adverse impact on Modern Slavery. Modern Slavery and Right to Work should not be confused, someone can have the Right to Work, but still be operating under coercion.
You can access the updated FIS Employment and Workforce Management Toolkit here
You can access the updated FIS Modern Slavery Toolkit here
You can access a recent recording of our webinar on Modern Slavery and Right to Work Checks here
by Clair Mooney | May 21, 2021 | Insurance, Main News Feed
FIS has become acutely aware of the growing issues within our supply chain regarding requirement, availability, and escalating cost of insurance (particularly professional indemnity), but also overall concern regarding support for our sector from the insurance industry. This has been widely reported across construction with the latest report from the Construction Leadership Council identifying that 55% of businesses responding had been unable to secure the level of cover that they wanted to buy.
FIS is exploring the possibility of developing a tailored, comprehensive, insurance solution aligned to the risk management principles identified in our FIS Product Process People Quality Framework that ultimately fairly prices risk and delivers value for money to our community. Through this process FIS intends to challenge the market by interrogating claims history and policy wording with a view to supporting a more structured and informed dialogue, address some of the trust issues that have built up and ultimately look at how we best share risk with the insurance sector.
Insurance is the ultimate trust based sector – premiums go up when trust goes down. Our remit from the Board is to challenge and, if necessary, disrupt and we are considering a number of potentially radical options, even the possibility of setting up a mutual insurance offering that ultimately would be owned by the industry.
We are not going to run before we can walk, but wanted to give you a bit of a heads up as to where this may go. Key to supporting change is information – it is critical now that we build on the anecdotal information members have shared and use hard stats to challenge and, if necessary, to disrupt insurance provision for our sector. So to this end please complete this short survey on insurance, even if you are perfectly happy with the support you are getting, we need a clear picture and the full range of views to understand scale and identify ground truths and ultimately support reform.
The survey is available here, should take no more than 5 minutes to complete and we are requesting responses by close of play on Thursday 27 May.
For more information on insurance, visit the FIS Business & Taxation Toolkit here
by Clair Mooney | May 20, 2021 | Fairness, Inclusivity and Respect (FIR), Main News Feed, Sustainability
A half day Women in Construction event, hosted by the Department for International Trade Sweden, will be taking place on Wedneday 26 May to facilitate knowledge exchange, stimulate ideas and give UK and Swedish stakeholders’ insight into the two markets.
Build UK Chief Executive Suzannah Nichol will be a keynote speaker at the event, which will feature panel discussions with stakeholders from the UK and Sweden. Attendance at the virtual event is free and you can register online here.
A range of speakers, from the private sector, civil society and other organisations, will offer their perspectives on the markets, both in the UK and in Sweden. Together, the panellists will discuss their experiences and the challenges they face as women in their professions, in the office and on site. The speakers, from both Sweden and the UK, will give their unique insights into the differences and similarities in the two markets.
