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Jason Davenport MCIPP MIoD, CIPP CEO and Samantha O’Sullivan, CIPP policy and advisory lead, share highlights from this year’s Labour party conference
W ith a new government in place that has big plans to change employment for the better, made clear in its pledge to “make work pay”, this year the CIPP had a key opportunity to attend the Labour party conference, which took place in Liverpool from 22–25 September, to hear more about the policies behind these pledges. Payroll is the function that pays workers, so our industry is pivotal in ensuring the government’s plans are prepared for, explored and implemented in the right way. This is our policy and research team’s ongoing aim – to liaise with government to ensure our members’ views are not only heard, but acted upon, to better our profession for the payroll professionals working in it and also for the workers who we pay. We must assure you, the CIPP always remains politically neutral while attending such a politically focussed event. In previous years, policy leads have attended conferences of the party in power at the time to engage and report back on what government is planning in the future. This year was particularly poignant, as this is the first time in 14 years Labour has been in power. As you know, there are two changes planned in the next two tax years which will have a huge impact on the way our industry works – mandating payrolling of benefits and hours worked being reported by real time information – but these were ideas born from our previous Tory government. Unfortunately, these were not discussed at the party conference, but the policy and research team continues to engage with HM Revenue and Customs officials on these changes. We’d hoped to hear more about the eagerly awaited Employment Rights Bill, which was announced in the Kings Speech earlier this year, but no juicy takeaways were provided. Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner promised that the Bill would be delivered within the first 100 days. This was the case, as we saw the Bill published on 10 October. Alongside the main sessions, which included hearing from the first female Chancellor of the Exchequer since the role
began 800 years ago, Rachel Reeves, and our newest Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, we attended a number of fringe events while at the conference. “The employers and workforces that took part in the four-day week trials have seen positive outcomes” Four-day working week A pledge made in the Labour manifesto was around flexible working. News stories have covered the possibility of this being introduced as a four-day working week, consisting of compressed hours worked over four, rather than five days. The fringe event we attended was ‘The Case for a Four-Day Week’ and was hosted by Joe Ryle, director of the 4-Day Week Campaign. Joe was joined by panellists India Burgess from the Autonomy Institute, Fran Heathcote from Public and Commercial Services Union and Peter Dowd MP. The panellists spoke of the benefits previous trials of the campaign had seen in the workplace and to their workforce. The key ones were:
Down Barriers Through Applied Financial Education for Young People’ panel session was delivered by The Purpose Coalition and Young Enterprise. The panel comprised of Ellie Lillott from Scouts, Sharon Davies from Young Enterprise, Sally Williams from HSBC, Claire Hazelgrove MP, Racel Taylor MP and was chaired by Lord Walney. The panellists spoke of the importance of young people learning about money and how this can protect them from future financial harm. But the fact of the matter remains that financial education has little or no context if you don’t have access to practical opportunities to use money in your everyday life. This event explored the role of applied learning in boosting young people’s financial capability, increasing future productivity and breaking down the barriers to opportunity. Jason spoke up in the question-and- answer session and offered our assistance in supporting what Scouts, Young Enterprise and HSBC are doing to support education and awareness of payroll and its remit in financial education in sharing our interactive Understanding your Payslip tool. This aligns with Jason’s work, joining forces with Youth Group to engage an 18–30-year- old audience on payroll, what it is and the future career opportunities. The group also wants to raise financial education to that age sector and we are working with the team on getting the Understanding your Payslip tool shared far and wide. You can watch Jason’s YouTube video with the Youth Group here: https://ow.ly/KHqX50ThoBN. The CIPP has a financial education working group, which is focussed on reviewing how we can share our knowledge and expertise with young people as they leave school and enter the world of employment. This session gave us some fantastic contacts to ensure this work grows and evolves. We both thoroughly enjoyed attending our first, but not last, party conference. Sam is now well prepared for ensuring the policy team is equipped for attending future conferences, and it has given Jason further insight in supporting and representing the membership voice at the various committees in place. n
l productivity improved l sickness days reduced l turnover reduced
l 89% of organisations that took part in the trials still had a four-day week in place l 100% of the feedback received from
managers and CEOs was positive l staff burnout reduced by 39%.
The headlines make a firm argument that the employers and workforces that took part in the trials have seen positive outcomes. You can read more about the 4-Day Week here: https://ow.ly/eKL650TB02O and https://ow.ly/VIKN50TB079.
Financial education We also attended a fringe event on
something that hasn’t been raised on the political agenda but is close to the heart of the CIPP. ‘The Power of Money: Breaking
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| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
Issue 105 | November 2024
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