As we approach the new financial year, schools and trusts must prepare for the most significant shift in UK employment law in a generation. The Employment Rights Act 2025 introduces several changes, including Day 1 rights and enhanced protections that will directly impact school budgets, recruitment, and administrative processes, starting from 1st April 2026 and forecasted into Spring 2027.
Changes to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)
From the 1st April, the long-standing “three waiting days” and the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) are being abolished. SSP will now be a Day 1 right for every instance of sickness, regardless of an employee’s weekly earnings. For lower earners, a new “dual calculation” is being introduced: they will receive either the standard flat rate or 80% of their average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.
Schools and trusts with a high volume of support staff (catering, cleaning, and mid-day supervisors) who may be on SSP rather than OSP, should forecast a 10–15% increase in absence costs, as well as ensuring payroll providers are configured for these new “cap” calculations well in advance of the April deadline.
Redundancy: The Cost of Non-Compliance Doubles
The stakes for restructures will rise significantly. For collective redundancies (20+ staff), the maximum “Protective Award” for failing to consult meaningfully with unions or staff representatives will double from 90 days’ pay to 180 days’ pay per affected employee.
A failure to meaningfully consult could now result in a penalty equivalent to half a year’s salary per person, making “pay-to-leave” strategies commercially unviable for any budget.
New “Day 1” Family Rights & Enhanced Protections
From 6 April, the qualifying periods for Paternity Leave (previously 26 weeks) and Unpaid Parental Leave (previously 1 year) are scrapped. New hires will be eligible for these entitlements from their 1st day of employment. Furthermore, new protections make it unlawful to dismiss pregnant staff or those returning from family leave within the last 6 months, except in highly specified circumstances.
Schools and trusts need to ensure they update Staff Handbooks and recruitment induction checklists without delay. Any policy language referring to service-length requirements for these types of leaves will be legally void. In restructures, “flag” any staff in these protected periods, as they now carry significantly higher protection against dismissal.
How FusionHR can support you
Our team are currently updating all model policies and templates on our online hub to make sure our clients remain fully compliant. These will be available shortly for you to access. We also have a variety of template documents and toolkits to support you in keeping your school/trust compliant, well-informed and ready for this transition. To help you navigate these complexities, we invite you to join our Employment Law Update Webinar on 21st April with our Educational Lawyer, Paul Menham. Register here to join us.
We’ll continue to provide periodic updates over the next 18 months. Please keep an eye out for our newsletters, blogs and webinars. If you have immediate concerns regarding the 2026/27 Employment Law Changes and what that means for your school or trust, please contact our team today.
