The October 2026 Employment Rights Act Changes: What Employers Should Be Reviewing Now
Several key provisions of the Employment Rights Act 2025 are expected to take effect in October 2026, bringing important changes for employers. This blog explores the reforms, what they may mean in practice, and the policies, procedures and training employers should be reviewing now to stay prepared. Based on the latest implementation timeline, some changes remain subject to final regulations and parliamentary processes.
Probation periods in practice and what the upcoming changes mean for employers
Probation periods continue to play an important role in managing new appointments.
As the legal framework develops, taking time to ensure they are structured clearly, supported by an effective induction process, and managed consistently in practice will help provide a more stable and confident approach to decision making.
We regularly work with managers to support them in handling probation periods in a clear and consistent way. This often includes helping to structure review processes, guiding conversations where concerns arise, and ensuring that decisions are approached in a way that feels fair and well supported in practice.
Where this is in place, probation tends to feel more straightforward to manage and provides a more reliable basis for deciding how employment should continue.