“The Chancellor’s changes to the Jobs Support Scheme will see more firms use it as a realistic way to ride out the Covid recession. Local grant support in higher tier areas is welcome – and emphasises the need for all firms to talk to their local authority about the support available. But we are disappointed by the failure to address problems caused to the suppliers to hospitality and leisure businesses by the same fall in demand. Staffing firms in hospitality will be crucial to the sector’s recovery and need support too.

“More can be done to protect jobs. Lowering the cost of labour by reducing employers National Insurance contributions will help boost hiring and keep people in work. Delivering on effective test, track and trace system is absolutely essential to helping our economy recover – and businesses are looking to Government to deliver on this.”

In response to news that care staff may be banned from working in more than one care home in an attempt to halt the spread of coronavirus, Neil Carberry, Chief Executive of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation said:

“The UK’s social care sector couldn’t operate without agency workers – there are around 112,000 job vacancies on any given day in adult social care in England. Agencies have been working for months to minimise movement between homes, but banning changes of location in Covid secure ways would be catastrophic for patient care, leading to more hospital admissions. The Government would do well to acknowledge this.

“Temporary staff adhere to the same rigorous infection control guidelines as permanent colleagues and have an equal right to PPE and testing. Like everyone else, they are also reliant on a highly effective track and trace system to stop the spread of infection. This should be the Government’s priority if they want to protect both those being cared for and the staff in social care and the NHS.  

“Any blanket legal ban on agency workers moving between care homes would crash the care system. It mustn’t be allowed to happen given there aren’t enough staff already in the system to make up the shortfall.”