We were in London yesterday for the FCSA Forum 2026, and it was one of those days that reminded you just how much is happening in this sector right now! A full agenda, a room full of people who care deeply about getting this right, and for a brief moment around mid-morning, the very real possibility that we were all about to stand on a pavement in central London thanks to a fire alarm. Thankfully it was a false alarm, and normal service resumed swiftly!
Here is what we took away from the day.
The Fair Work Agency: Compliance First, Enforcement Second
The session that arguably carried the most weight was from Matthew Taylor of the Fair Work Agency, which launched on 7th April 2026, bringing together the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate and the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority under one roof. National Minimum Wage enforcement, previously handled by HMRC, is in the process of transferring to the FWA, with full integration expected by April 2027.
The FWA’s stated mission is straightforward: ensure fairness for workers, support businesses to do the right thing, and restore faith in governance across labour supply chains. What came through clearly in Matthew’s presentation was the philosophy underpinning all of that: compliance is always preferable to enforcement. The FWA wants to be seen as the centre of an ecosystem of compliance, not a body that swoops in to punish. The language throughout was about empowerment, moving away from blame and towards businesses and workers genuinely understanding and meeting their obligations.
The audience had plenty of questions, and the Slido feed made for interesting reading. “What does success look like for the FWA?” was one of the most upvoted questions of the morning, and the answer was telling: success is a market where enforcement action is rarely needed because the right behaviours are embedded. Will the FWA name and shame persistent bad actors? The indication was that transparency and public accountability would be part of the toolkit, but the preference is always to resolve issues before it gets to that point.
On audit processes, the message was that the approach would largely mirror existing audit frameworks businesses are already familiar with, which should offer some reassurance. Who gets selected for scrutiny is where it gets more interesting: the indication was that a combination of geography, intelligence, and something closer to a rota principle would determine who comes under the microscope. As one panellist put it, when it is your turn, it is your turn.
The question that sparked the most discussion was around commercial incentives and whether kickbacks in the supply chain constitute a compliance issue. The FWA’s position was: transparency to the contractor is vital, and ideally these arrangements need to be resolved at a business-to-business level.
IR35 and the Off-Payroll Landscape
Seb Maley from Qdos gave an update on the IR35 picture, a topic that refuses to leave the agenda no matter how many years pass. The off-payroll working rules, which shifted responsibility for IR35 status determinations to end clients in the public sector in 2017 and the private sector in 2021, continue to create friction across the contractor market. The update served as a useful reminder that while the legislative framework is now relatively settled, the practical application of it remains inconsistent, and contractors continue to bear much of the uncertainty.
The day also featured presentations from inspirational speaker Jo Salter, Hannah Morrison of Brabners, Keith Rosser of Reed & BHI, covering a range of topics across employment law, labour market intelligence, and industry practice. Each session added its own layer to what was a genuinely packed and varied agenda, and reflected the breadth of expertise the FCSA continues to bring together under one roof.
Employment Law and the Horizon Ahead
Charlotte Beeley from JMW Solicitors covered what is fast becoming one of the most talked-about emerging issues in employment law: AI generated grievances. As AI tools become more accessible, there is a growing trend of employees and contractors using them to draft formal complaints, sometimes producing highly structured, legally framed grievances that bear little resemblance to what might have been submitted previously. The question for employers and umbrella companies is how to handle these consistently, fairly, and without being caught off guard by the volume and sophistication of what lands in their inbox.
It is a genuinely new challenge, and one that sits at the intersection of employment law, HR process, and the broader AI conversation that ran through the whole day.
The Hiring Landscape
The industry panel, featuring Ben Bruten (FWA), Rebecca Seeley Harris (Re:Legal Consulting) Shazia Ejaz (REC), and Andy Chamberlain (FCSA), tackled confidence in hiring and the wider economic picture. The headline from REC data was nuanced: confidence in hiring and the broader economy is falling, but at a slower rate than many had feared. Temporary roles are actually at their highest level in three years, which is a meaningful data point for anyone operating in the contractor and flexible workforce space.
The zero hours contracts consultation is now out for response, which will have implications for how flexible working arrangements are structured and communicated to workers. Single worker status is a longer-term reform that would collapse the current three-tier system of employee, worker, and self-employed into two categories. It has been widely discussed at an industry level but a formal consultation has not yet been launched, and no implementation dates have been set. It was mentioned at the forum as something looming on the horizon rather than an imminent change
The panel discussion also surfaced a question that we think deserves more airtime: is compliance still being used as an effective marketing tool? The response from the panel was mixed, which itself tells you something. The consensus leaned toward compliance being something that should simply be at the core of any reputable business’s operation rather than a differentiator to be shouted about. If you are leading with compliance as your USP, the implicit question is: what does everyone else think they are doing?
Linked to this was a broader observation about education. Is there a wider lack of understanding among contractors and end clients about what umbrella companies actually do, and what the genuine benefits are of using one? This points to a communication challenge the industry has not yet fully solved.
AI
AI ran as a thread through the entire day, from JMW’s session on AI generated grievances to a strong presentation from My Digital, followed by roundtable discussions that produced genuinely varied views.
What came out of our table, and what we suspect was echoed elsewhere in the room, is that AI is frequently misunderstood and as a result oversold. The promise of AI tends to outrun the reality of implementation, particularly in sectors like payroll and umbrella where accuracy, compliance, and human trust are non-negotiable.
The framing we found most useful: AI as part of a business should deliver quality rather than quantity. It should make the things your team already does well, faster and more consistent, not replace the judgement calls that require experience, context, and human accountability. In a sector where contractors are asking questions about their pay, their employment status, and their rights, the idea that a chatbot can or should handle that end of the relationship does not hold up.
It is worth noting that the industry’s own data supports this. Recent research shows that consumer preference for speaking to a real person when things go wrong has risen to 85%, while preference for AI in customer service interactions has dropped to just 5%. The message from the room at the FCSA Forum was broadly aligned with that: use AI where it genuinely helps, and be honest about where it does not.
What We Left Thinking About
A few themes stayed with us on the way home.
The FWA’s framing of compliance as the floor rather than the ceiling felt important. As the regulatory environment settles, the businesses that thrive will not be the ones that barely clear the compliance bar. They will be the ones that treat compliance as a given and invest their energy in what comes after it: the contractor experience, the quality of service, and the genuine value they add to the agencies and workers they work with.
The hiring data was more encouraging than the general economic mood might suggest. Temporary roles at a three year high is a real signal, and it points to a flexible workforce that is growing in relevance rather than retreating. That is good news for the sector, and it raises the stakes on getting the contractor experience right.
And the AI conversation, for all its complexity, ultimately came back to something simple: technology should serve people, not replace the relationships that make this industry work.
It was a long day, but a worthwhile one. As a perks and wellbeing platform working closely with the recruitment, umbrella, and payroll sector, events like this matter to us because understanding the pressures and priorities of the industry helps us build something that genuinely works for the contractors at the centre of it. If you were there and want to carry on the conversation, or if any of the themes above resonate with how you are thinking about contractor care, we would love to hear from you.
hello@thrivr.co.uk | thrivr.co.uk
