The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) launched its marketing, media and communications sector group earlier this month to improve standards in the sector. However, the absence of some of the sector's biggest names was notable.

The sector group, which held its first meeting in London last week, launched with eight members, including 2nd City Resourcing, F1 Recruitment, Harrison Pursey, JFL Search & Selection, PRJS, Media Contacts, Source Personnel and Xchangeteam.

The members will sign up to a code of conduct which has three parts: one part is a code of practice for recruitment agencies, one part is guidance for clients and another part is guidance for candidates in the sector.

However, sector giants pfj and Recruit Media were among notable absentees.

Paul Farrer, managing director of pfj, told Recruiter: "I went to the early meetings and I'm very supportive of what the group is trying to achieve. However, there are certain parts of the code that were not appropriate to our business; the other members operate in different sectors." Melanie Bennett, joint managing director of Recruit Media, told Recruiter that she knew nothing about the group. "We have not yet been invited to join the group. It's a shame because I would imagine that we would want to take part in it. It sounds very interesting and is about time."

However, Emma Brierley, chief executive of Xchangeteam and group creator, explained: "Our first meeting went really well and we now have a clear plan of action. We have agreed the next steps for the formation of the group and will be contacting all recruiters in the sector. We didn't invite recruiters to join first because we did not have the codes in place for them to sign up to."