Employment Rights Bill 2025: How can the UK care sector prepare?
Sep 2025 ⋅ 9 min read
Remember 2024’s Autumn Budget Update? The rising costs of wages and NI contributions were just the beginning. Now, the Employment Rights Bill 2025 is set to bring the biggest and most significant employment law changes in a generation — changes that will significantly impact how care providers like you manage your team.
What is the Employment Rights Bill (and why does it matter)?
The Employment Rights Bill 2025 is the first phase of Parliament’s plan to ‘Make Work Pay’. It introduces measures like day-one rights, guaranteed hours, and stronger protections against harassment.
These employment law changes are due to become law in Autumn 2025 (with some phasing in up to 2027), and will directly affect the care sector’s employment rights in the UK. However, details may still change before then.
For employers, this means taking on more responsibility to manage compliance, maintain clear records, and adjust staffing models, all while budgets are already under strain.
For care managers, the important thing is to start preparing now, so adjustments can be made gradually rather than all at once in a last-minute rush.
What the Employment Rights Bill 2025 means for the care sector
As a historically low-paid sector in England, with a staff turnover rate high above the UK average, adult social care has long struggled with high turnover and tight margins. While these changes to carers’ employment rights in the UK may help improve stability for staff, they also create new obligations for employers.
From inspections to agency staffing to managing sick pay, compliance will become more complex, and budgets will climb.
When your shifts and budgets are already stretched so thin, it’s only natural for these employment law changes to be daunting. But knowing what’s coming, when, and putting systems in place early will help you stay compliant and in control, without adding to your admin.
What are the key changes in the Employment Rights Bill 2025 for care?
Changes to zero-hour contracts
The Employment Rights Bill 2025 won’t altogether ban zero-hour contracts (or casual contracts), but it aims to ban the ‘exploitative’ ones in 2027, where staff can find themselves without a guaranteed income or forced into working long hours.
Employers will be required to provide:
- Contracts with regular hours
- Reasonable notice of shifts
- Compensation for last-minute changes
Staff will be secured with expected shifts and a baseline for pay, which will stem across to agency staff, too, as the Fair Work Agency will come into play (from October 2026). This ensures agency staff will be treated the same (and have the same rights) as employees, from fair pay to holidays.
For care managers, this means rethinking your rota planning and audit trails.
When care sees constant fluctuation in demand and needs, you rely on ever-changing rotas, agency staff, and last-minute cover. So, providing staff with guaranteed hours and reasonable notice for shifts will be a challenging shift – but a necessary one. Poor workforce planning and an over-reliance on casual labour could be seen as a compliance risk, and therefore a risk to the quality of care.
Preparing now with reliable digital systems for tracking hours and costs, scheduling shifts, and forecasting demand will make the transition far smoother.
Day-one rights for workers
Three key day-one rights from the Employment Rights Bill 2025 are:
- Paternity Leave and Unpaid Parental Leave will be available from the first day of employment to increase well-being and job security for new parents (from April 2026).
- Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) will be payable from the first day of illness, no longer the fourth day, and the lower-earning threshold of at least £125 per week to qualify will be removed (from April 2026).
- Unfair dismissal claims will be able to be made from an employee’s first day, removing the current two-year qualifying period (from 2027).
For care managers, look at how you track and manage absence and attendance.
The likelihood of short-term absences increasing is likely, as well as the costs associated with them. If left unchecked and without a robust way to track and manage absence and attendance, you could find yourself more out of pocket – in coins and staff coverage.
Enhanced protection from harassment
Building on the Worker Protection Act in October 2025, employers must take ‘all reasonable steps’ to protect employees from harassment from third parties. These can be service users, residents, or families.
For care managers, review your audit trails and how you document.
Be sure to create and follow robust risk assessments, training, and document any incidents – all with a solid process and workflow. You’ll need evidence that you’re taking those necessary steps to protect your staff and service users, or you won’t be compliant.
How the UK care sector can prepare: What care managers need to do now
The Employment Rights Bill 2025–2027 introduces significant employment law changes that care managers must prepare for now. With compliance, staffing, and costs already placing pressure on the care sector, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and intimidated by it all.
But stop. Take a breath. The Employment Rights Bill has been designed to gradually phase in from 2025 to 2027. While the employment law changes are staggered to allow employers to adjust, it’s important to start that adjustment now for an easier transition.
Siân Whelan, Managing Director of Norton Loxley, a HR Consultancy here in York, agrees.
“The implementation of guaranteed hours and SSP may well reduce the care providers’ ability to respond as quickly to these changes in resource demands. So, care managers should consider the financial impact now and review their workforce contracts, rostering process, and HR policies ahead of time.”
Breaking it all down into clear steps will help you stay compliant while keeping your operations efficient.
Care managers’ checklist for the Employment Rights Bill 2025:
- Review contracts and HR policies
Update zero-hour, agency, sickness, and parental leave terms to reflect the new employment law changes affecting the care sector. - Strengthen your onboarding processes
Ensure day-one rights are built into your processes. - Forecast costs early
Consider the impact of guaranteed hours and sick pay on your budget planning. - Document harassment safeguards
Create risk assessments and training records to meet and protect carers’ employment rights in the UK. - Audit your tracking systems
Check how you record sick leave, absences, and staff hours, and see where digital tools could replace manual admin. - Prepare for inspections
Ensure policies, rotas, and training records are easily accessible for CQC and Fair Work Agency reviews.
By acting now, you can turn these employment law changes into an opportunity to strengthen compliance, reduce costs, and provide greater stability for staff and service users.
Why paper & manual processes put you at risk
Okay, your office could look like a hoarder’s haven or be a minimalist interior designer’s dream. But manual processes increase the likelihood of mistakes, delays, and failed inspections. What’s worse: you risk not supporting your staff or service users enough.
Lost reports or errors can break your audit trail – something Fair Work Agency and CQC inspections could penalise you for. Even the most well-organised paper systems make it harder to prove compliance when the Employment Rights Bill 2025 brings in new requirements. Now, the amount you’re tracking multiplies. Those manual processes are no longer reliable or sustainable, no matter how used to them you are.
As HR consultant Siân Whelan explains:
“It’s vital to ensure your current HR processes and workforce systems are robust enough to handle the changes, and if not, consider alternatives.
“Employers will need to review their probation, dismissal and sickness policies to ensure they are fair, consistently applied, documented and that managers are trained to follow them from day one.”
Now, more than ever, care can no longer afford to avoid digital systems. Care providers who do make the digital switch find themselves with accurate audit trails, better cost forecasting, and reduced reliance on agency staff, helping them stay compliant while protecting budgets.
How to stay compliant without the (literal) paperwork
Care has been slow on the uptake to digital, but the changes coming in the Employment Rights Bill from just 2025 alone show the uphill battle care providers will have to track and prove compliance if they stick with manual processes and calculations.
With digital systems like workforce management software, compliance is simple.
- Automated time & absence tracking supports sick pay & agency staff
- Instant shift notifications keep everyone in the loop & reduce that last-minute chaos
- Shift flexibility gives staff more autonomy with minimal admin
- Real-time visibility of hours & costs reduces reliance on costly agency staff & tracks contracted hours
- Digital reports & audit trails provide easily accessible & trackable proof for CQC & Fair Work Agency (FWA) inspections
- Visibility of multiple sites/locations helps you oversee staffing levels across all care homes/service users
RotaCloud supports compliance and is tailored to UK labour laws. Everything from staffing levels and working hours to time tracking and budgeting is constantly visible and recorded, meaning you automatically have an audit trail that inspectors will love – without having to lift a finger.
Wrap-up
The Employment Rights Bill 2025 is one of the biggest employment law changes the UK care sector has ever faced. It can be overwhelming. But with the right preparation, you can make your life a little easier.
Some of the employment law changes won’t take effect until 2026 or 2027, but waiting until the deadline could leave you exposed to compliance risks, higher costs, and a whole lot of last-minute stress. You’ll be expected to show evidence of compliance from day one, so the sooner you update your processes, the smoother the transition will be.
Siân perfectly sums it up:
“Whilst the Employment Rights Bill is still under consultation, the direction of travel the Government is looking to take is clear. It’s therefore sensible for employers to get ahead and prepare by reviewing their workforce contracts now, as well as considering what digital tools they need to implement to effectively manage working time, rosters, and other key HR data to help them remain compliant with any new employment law changes that come into force.”
The way forward is clear. While digital transformation certainly makes things smoother, easier, and more efficient, it’s now about protecting your staff, your service users, and future-proofing your business.
Read next >
Benefits of UK care companies going digital
Explore how digital workforce systems can make compliance simpler and more cost-effective.
Thank you to Siân Whelan, Managing Director of Norton Loxley HR Consultancy, for her insight on this topic and her help with this article.
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
What is coming from the Employment Rights Bill in April 2026?
Parts of the Employment Rights Bill coming into effect from April 2026 are:
- Parental leave to be available from day one of employment
- Statutory Sick Pay to be available from the first day of sickness, removing the waiting period and lower earnings limit
- The Fair Work Agency for fairness in the workplace
- Protection for whistleblowing
What is coming from the Employment Rights Bill in October 2026?
The Employment Rights Bill amendments that come into effect from October 2026 are:
- End of unfair fire & rehire practices
- Fair Pay Agreement for the adult social care sector in England
- Employers to protect their employees from harassment by third parties
- Employers to take ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment and create safer workplaces for their employees
What is coming from the Employment Rights Bill in 2027?
Parts of the Employment Rights Bill coming in 2027 are:
- Enhanced protection and job security for pregnant women and new mothers
- Day one right to claim unfair dismissal
- Start of Bereavement leave
- End of exploitative zero-hour contracts
- Improved flexible working
When will the Employment Rights Bill become law?
It’s expected that the Employment Rights Bill will reach ‘Royal Assent’ in Autumn 2025, where the King formally agrees to make the Bill law. These proposed changes are still subject to change until then.
Do carers have any rights at work under the Employment Rights Bill 2025?
Yes. The Employment Rights Bill 2025 strengthens carers’ rights at work, giving them day-one protections (such as unfair dismissal, sick pay, and parental leave), fairer treatment under zero-hour and agency contracts, and new safeguards against harassment. A Fair Pay Agreement for adult social care will also raise pay and conditions across the sector.
