The Employment Rights Act and what it means for Social Care Providers.

On 18 December 2025, the Employment Rights Bill became the Employment Rights Act (ERA) 2025, meaning it has been given Royal Assent. This Act introduces significant changes to the employment rights of individuals updating the 1996 Employment Rights Act and its content.

While the various elements of the ERA will pass into employment law over a two-year period, mainly during 2026 and 2027, social care providers who employ people need to start planning for it. It is worth noting here, as ACAS (the Advisory, Conciliation, and Arbitration Service) point out that because the elements of the Act pass into law over an extended period of time, employers need to ensure they stay up to date with and apply the current situation with regard to employment law.

In this blog, we will briefly consider some of the key changes which will impact social care provider employers in the UK. We will delineate these changes according to when they are happening. It is worth noting that Bettal has a timeline plan to introduce changes to our Human Resource (HR) policies at a time to reflect them coming into effect.

Employment Rights Act Timeline

Here we highlight the key changes happening under the ERA as they apply to social care providers.

6 April 2026

Family friendly changes:
• Paternity leave: will become a “day one right.” At present someone must have been with their employer for 26 weeks.
• Parental leave: will become a “day one right.” At present someone must have been with their employer for a year.
• There will no longer be a restriction on paternity leave following shared parental leave

Sick Pay:
• Sick pay: statutory sick pay (SSP) will be payable day one of illness, instead of the fourth day as it is now.
• The lower earning limit for being eligible for SSP is being removed.

Sexual Harassment:
• Under whistleblowing law, sexual harassment becomes a “qualifying disclosure,” meaning whistleblowers are protected from detriment and unfair dismissal.

Trade Unions:
• The law as to how trade unions become recognise din workplaces will be simplified.

All of the changes brought about by the ERA will be overseen by the new Fair Work Agency which is an amalgamation of exiting bodies and which comes into force on 6 April 2026.

October 2026

Employment practices:
• Fire and rehire will become an automatic unfair dismissal. This happens when people are fired and then rehired on worse terms and conditions.

Harassment:
• Employers will be liable for all types of harassment employees suffer from third parties, such as service users or their families, unless they take “all reasonable steps” to prevent it.
• Similarly, employers will be liable for sexual harassment in the workplace unless they take “all reasonable steps,” as opposed to the current reasonable steps, to prevent it.

Workers employment rights:
• The time limit for making claims to an employment tribunal will be 6 months for all claims up from the current 3 months for most claims.
• Employers will have to tell all workers that they have a right to join a trades union.

Of special note, there is to be a new Negotiating Body for Adult Social care from October 2026 to set a fair pay process for the adult social care sector in England. It is worth employers and employees reviewing the remit of this body and understanding what it might mean for the sector going forward.

Employers with over 250 employees will have to have an action plan to address gender inequality in pay – this will become a regulation in 2027. Similarly, larger employers will have to make workplace adjustments for employees experiencing the menopause with this becoming regulation sometime in 2027.

2027

There are a raft of changes planned for 2027. What these will look like in practice and when they will be introduced is subject to consultation, but the key elements which will apply to social care are:
• Protection from unfair dismissal will come into force after six-months in a job as opposed to the two-years it currently stands at.
• There will be additional protection against dismissal of pregnant workers.
• There will be an entitlement to bereavement leave – although it is uncertain as to whether this is paid or not at this time.
• Workers on zero-hours contracts will have the right to working hours which are guaranteed if they ask for them.
• Workers will have the right to paid for a shift if it is cancelled or the changed by the employer.
• Flexible working law will change such that employers will have to state the reasons and explain why they believe these reasons are reasonable when refusing a request.
• The requirement to take “reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment will become law and what these steps will mean will be defined.

As well as the above, there will be changes to arrangements for collective redundancy, and how companies must treat trade union members.

Getting ready for the changes

We have not covered all of the changes in this blog, nor have we covered them in detail. It is important therefore that employers take the time to consider the impact of the changes as they might apply to their individual organisations.

It is worth therefore signing up to a newsletter from organisations such as ACAS to help stay up top date with the changes in real time. We will cover some of these changes as they happen in future blogs here.

Summary

In this blog we have identified some of the main changes to employment practices which will take place as a result of the Employment Rights Act 2025 passing into law. We have identified that there are a number of changes which social care providers need to prepare for in the way in which they induct and subsequently support and care for staff who they employ.

We have identified how the various regulations associated with the ERA will come into force at different times giving employers the time to make the adjustments necessary. Bettal will keep subscribers up to date with employment regulations changes as we make updates to our employment policies over this period

Bettal has a well tried and tested suite of policies, procedures, risk assessments, and documents which are available to help social care providers who employ other people. These include policies covering issues such as recruitment, induction, supervision and disciplinaries.

If you would like to know more, browse our website or get in touch:

Email: info@bettal.co.uk
Telephone: 01697741411

Peter Ellis MA MSc BSc (Hons) RN
Consultant
Bettal Quality Consultancy