The not-for-profit organisation has called on the government not to exclude small companies from job creation plans.

The push follows Downing Street's summit held yesterday, which was attended by 19 of the UK's largest companies but no organisation representing the country's 4.8m small businesses.

FPB chief executive Phil Orford said: "It is important in the future that we are given a prominent seat at the table when it comes to discussion of such critical issues such as job growth and barriers to it, particularly employment red tape.

"Failure to listen to small business owners about employment will only further alienate them and fuel their concerns that they are, in reality, an afterthought at best."

Michael Moradian, owner of London-based printer Print Express, said he believed the government was keen to speak to SMEs, but that the mechanisms of doing so hadn't yet been established.

He said: "The problem that any government has with SMEs is that they are all very different, and it is difficult to find a representative to speak for them.

"The government needs to be consistent in reducing red tape and talk to SMEs and take information from a range of companies. At the moment, this is not formulised enough and it is a bit hit and miss."

He added that the government could invite the top trade associations of each sector to events such as the summit.

"MPs could also look at their constituencies and the SMEs there and see what they feel.

"The current government says that SMEs are going to be the engine of growth, and so we need to find a way for that dialogue to take place."

According to the FPB, there have been reports that prime minister David Cameron is set to launch an employers' charter aimed at boosting SME job creation.

It is said to include measures such as doubling the period in which a staff member has to have worked to be eligible to make an unfair dismissal claim.

Orford said: "A lot more must be done to stimulate employment, including addressing the tax burden and freeing-up business owners from the £2.4bn annual cost of compliance with employment law.

"Reducing this must be a central pillar of the government's review of red tape."