Welcome back to The Val Wade Brief. This month: £270m of fresh funding lands for arts and heritage, permanent hiring shows its first real signs of stabilising, and three more October employment law changes to prepare for.
Thank you for the warm response to our first edition last month, it’s been great hearing from so many of you. August has brought a genuinely busy month in our world: Government funding news for arts and heritage, early signs that the permanent hiring slowdown may be easing and further detail on the trade union and harassment provisions coming this October.
As always, this issue brings together what we’re seeing in the market, sector by sector, alongside the people side of it, the candidates available right now and what they’re looking for. We’ll also keep you up to date with what’s happening at Val Wade Recruitment and highlight opportunities across the sectors we specialise in.
We’re incredibly proud to have been helping organisations and candidates build successful partnerships for nearly 40 years. While the world of recruitment continues to evolve, one thing hasn’t changed is our belief that great recruitment starts with listening, understanding and building genuine relationships.
Best wishes,
Emma Darbyshire Managing Director, Val Wade Recruitment
Legislation & Compliance
Last month we covered the harassment prevention duty and tribunal time-limit changes landing in October. Three more provisions from the same phase are worth flagging now, while there’s still time to prepare:
October 2026: Third-Party Harassment Liability
A new stand alone claim will let workers hold employers liable for harassment by clients, customers or suppliers where preventative measures were inadequate and a single incident can be enough to trigger it. This lands on top of the “all reasonable steps” duty we covered last month, so client-facing and front-of-house teams (reception, visitor experience, hospitality-adjacent roles) are worth reviewing first. We have a ‘Sexual Harassment Training Video’ to support our temporary staffing team when working on our clients sites.
October 2026: Trade Union Access & Written Statement Rights
Employers must issue written statements informing workers of their right to join a trade union and unions gain wider workplace access rights, including digital communication channels, for recruitment, representation and organising. Repeated access breaches can carry penalties of up to £500,000. HR and office managers should have template statements and an access policy ready ahead of October.
October 2026: Umbrella company liability
If your business engages temporary or interim workers through umbrella companies, this one’s worth knowing. Since April, liability for unpaid PAYE and NICs can now extend beyond the umbrella company itself, to whoever holds the contract and in some cases to you as the end client too, particularly if you contract with an umbrella company directly or work through an agency connected to one. Placing your temp and interim workers through a UK-based agency that has audited its supply chain, as we have, is the simplest way to keep your exposure to a minimum. If you’re not sure how your current arrangements stack up, we’re happy to talk it through.
Market Intelligence
The permanent hiring slowdown that’s defined 2026 so far may finally be easing. Here’s what July’s data tells us.
Numbers to know
Fastest since Apr ’23
Pace of temp billings growth (KPMG/REC, July 2026)
Softest in 3 months
Pace of permanent placement declines eases (KPMG/REC)
Strongest since Jan
Growth in starting salaries and wages (KPMG/REC)
Permanent hiring shows its first real signs of stabilising
July’s KPMG/REC Report on Jobs recorded the softest fall in permanent placements in three months, a notable easing after a prolonged downturn. While temporary billings grew at their fastest pace since April 2023. Pay growth also picked up, with starting salaries and wages rising at their strongest rate since January. Nursing/medical/care and engineering led permanent hiring gains, while retail continued to see the steepest declines. For our sectors, this points to a market where confidence is returning gradually rather than snapping back, worth timing key hires to catch the shift early.
London Salary Benchmarks 2026 — Office & Business Support
Role
Salary Range
Day Rate
EA / PA (senior)
£45,000–£65,000
£200–£280
Office Manager
£38,000–£52,000
£160–£230
Team Administrator
£28,000–£38,000
£120–£170
Receptionist / FOH
£26,000–£34,000
£110–£150
Finance Administrator
£30,000–£42,000
£130–£185
Source: Robert Half 2026 UK Salary Guide. Ranges represent 25th–75th percentile London market data, unchanged since last month. Candidates with verified AI/automation skills command an additional 5–10% premium.
Sector Intelligence: Professional Services
Business support roles are evolving, not shrinking Demand for EAs, PAs, office managers and administrators across professional services firms remains solid, but the role itself is changing. Employers are prioritising candidates who pair strong communication and problem-solving with digital confidence, support professionals who act as a genuine connector between teams, systems and leadership, rather than pure administrative execution.
Executive & professional temp demand cools even as billings rise elsewhere
While overall temp billings hit a three-year high in July, Executive/Professional roles were one of the categories that actually saw demand soften, alongside retail and healthcare temp work. A reminder that sector-level averages can mask real divergence underneath, worth a specific conversation about the role types you’re recruiting for rather than relying on the headline numbers alone.
Sector Intelligence: Built Environment
240,000 more workers needed by 2029 … even as output surges
New work output across construction and built environment is forecast to grow 16–18% through 2030, but the sector needs roughly 240,000 additional workers by 2029 to deliver it, while build costs are projected to rise around 15% by 2030 on labour inflation alone. Demand is strongest for civil, structural and M&E engineers on net-zero and renewable energy projects, BIM and digital construction specialists and staff experienced in commercial refurbishment of London’s older heritage buildings.
Flexible working is now a genuine differentiator
Despite 86% of professionals reporting salary satisfaction, 43% still want a pay rise on cost-of-living grounds, but the bigger gap is elsewhere: 37% of candidates want flexible working, yet only around 3% of adverts currently offer it. With women still under 15% of the workforce, the sector is also actively expanding degree apprenticeships and skills boot-camps to widen the pipeline. Employers willing to close the flexibility gap will have first pick of a shrinking talent pool.
Sector Intelligence: Higher Education
University funding crisis is driving real redundancies
Frozen tuition fees, higher employer National Insurance costs and falling international enrolment are forcing institutions to rationalise support functions. University of Worcester (-44%), Robert Gordon University (-16%) and Sheffield Hallam University (-15%) are among this year’s largest staff reductions, and the pressure shows no sign of easing before the next academic year.
HR, marketing and admin hit hardest; IT and data roles hold up
The heaviest cuts are concentrated in professional services functions; HR, marketing, communications and general administration, especially at smaller or financially stressed institutions. IT and data roles have fared comparatively well, as digital transformation stays a budget priority even amid the wider squeeze. Experienced professionals from affected teams carry institutional knowledge that transfers well elsewhere in the sector, and are worth talking to before they move on their own timeline. Hot off the press is UK’s first ‘super-university’, merging Greenwich and Kent, to launch in September. The new London and South East University Group will be UK’s third largest higher education institution
Sector Intelligence: Arts & Heritage
£270m government funding lands for arts, culture and heritage
The government has unveiled a £270m package for England’s arts, culture, libraries and heritage sector, including an £85m Creative Foundations Fund for urgent venue repairs, a £20m Museum Renewal Fund to protect civic museum jobs, a £120m Public Bodies Infrastructure Fund for 17 national institutions, and a further £25m round of the Museum Estate and Development Fund, plus a 5%+ budget uplift for national museums and galleries. Expect fresh project, capital and visitor-facing hiring as funded organisations mobilise. Talk to us →
Sector leaders warn this is a start, not a solution
SOLT & UK Theatre have cautioned that theatres alone need at least £500m over the next four years to prevent closures and much of this package is one-year funding pending the spring spending review. In practice, that means a genuine near-term up-tick in project and capital-delivery roles, but organisations may still lean on fixed-term and interim staff until longer-term funding is confirmed.
The Candidate Market
There is strong, qualified talent in the market right now across our specialist sectors and the conditions to attract it are better than they’ve been for some time.
Arts & Heritage
With £270m of fresh funding landing across the sector, expect both new vacancies and renewed competition for experienced project, membership and visitor-experience professionals. Candidates with capital-project or funding-bid experience are especially well placed right now.
Higher Education
University restructures are releasing high-quality professional services professionals HR coordinators, faculty administrators, student services staff and PA/EA talent with strong stakeholder management experience. Many are open to sector moves.
Built Environment
Strong candidate availability among civil, structural and M&E engineers, BIM specialists and project support coordinators. With flexible working now a genuine differentiator, roles that offer it are filling fastest.
Professional Services
Redundancies and cautious permanent hiring across law and professional services have pushed up candidate supply, particularly for legal PAs, practice coordinators and BD support, many available for locum or interim cover at short notice.
What candidates are looking for right now
✦ Hybrid working with clear office expectations set upfront
✦ Roles with genuine development or progression opportunity
✦ Organisations with a clear mission or values, especially in culture and HE
✦ Salary increases of up to 10% for full-time on-site roles
✦ Speed — the best candidates are off the market within 1–2 weeks
✦ Support for AI tool adoption in their role
Ready to hire, or looking for your next role?
We’d love to help. Val Wade has been placing office administration, digital, business and customer support professionals across our specialist sectors for over 40 years.
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