Trainers and stable staff to be surveyed to help tackle British racing's workforce shortfall

British racing knows less about the people looking after its racehorses than the racehorses themselves, the chair of the sport's newly formed Industry People Board (IPB) claimed on Wednesday.

Neil Hayward was speaking as a new trainer and stable staff survey was launched to assemble more data on staffing issues and help shape British racing's long-term plan for its workforce.

It is estimated there are between 2,000 and 2,500 staff vacancies, mainly in yards and studs, and especially for grooms and work-riders.

That shortfall was identified by Hayward as one of the main challenges facing the IPB along with issues such as retention rates, investment in training and a lack of data.

On that subject, Hayward said: "There is a need for more accurate quantitative comprehensive data on employees across the sport.

"We know significantly less about the people looking after horses than we do the horses and I'm afraid that is not necessarily the right way round."

Trainers and stable staff are set to be contacted by independent research organisation Public Perspectives to give their views on how to improve recruitment, skills and retention of staff in the survey, which is set to run until early January.

The survey, commissioned by the IPB with funding from the Racing Foundation, is the fourth in a series started in 2016 and Hayward said he hoped the board's strategy would be published next summer.

However, Hayward said he did not want this to be a top-down process.

"If the people strategy is just something created by the Industry People Board and not something that sits within the hearts and minds of people within the sport right down to the grassroots level it is bound to be too narrowly drawn and it could fail," he warned.

Hayward added: "We are all passionate about ensuring that we have a viable, successful, sustainable sport and I don't believe we can have that unless the workforce challenges and issues are adequately addressed.

"I see our challenge ultimately as being around future proofing racing so that the industry is an attractive, fulfilling, safe and enjoyable place to work. If we do that then that is how we make sure the horses we care so much for are really well looked after. It all comes down to that."

In October the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) recommended that six key racing roles be added to the government's Shortage Occupation List, the list of jobs for which visas for overseas workers should be granted more easily.

Hayward said the MAC's recommendations did not guarantee the Home Office would agree, adding it would take some "very intensive, continued lobbying" to make further progress.

Racing Foundation chief executive Tansy Challis said the charity was happy to support the delivery of the survey again.

She said: "By using data in 2016 to set a baseline from which to measure progress and identify issues, we have been able to invest a significant level of targeted grant funding over the last six years and to monitor its impact.

"The 2021 survey highlighted that recruitment, skills and retention issues continue to negatively impact the racing industry and we felt the best way to deal with the challenges is to ensure a strategic approach is taken – one that considers the whole people journey and prioritises interventions that will have the greatest impact."

Challis said the foundation had been encouraged by the formation of the IPB, adding: "The data gathered by the 2023 surveys will play a crucial part in informing this strategy and we hope all trainers and stable staff will participate."

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