The Employment Rights Act 2025 has generated more column inches than any piece of employment legislation in a generation. Day one unfair dismissal. Fire and rehire reforms. The Fair Work Agency. Most of it has been written for private sector employers, with payroll teams that have already spent the last six months stress-testing their processes.
Schools, academies and Multi Academy Trusts have largely been an afterthought in that conversation. That is a problem because the Act lands squarely on education employers, and in several areas, it creates complications that are specific to how schools are structured, how they staff their classrooms, and how they manage pay across a workforce that is rarely straightforward.
Day one unfair dismissal rights – and what that means for probation
Until recently, an employee needed two years’ continuous service before they could bring an unfair dismissal claim to an Employment Tribunal. That qualifying period is being reduced. Under the Employment Rights Act, employees will receive protection, although not as first envisaged, from unfair dismissal after 6 months fo employment.
For education employers, this matters in ways that go beyond the headlines.
Schools rely heavily on fixed-term contracts – newly qualified teachers, maternity cover, short-term project roles, staff on support contracts that are renewed year on year. Many of these employees have historically sat below the two-year threshold. From the point of implementation, dismissing a fixed-term employee whose contract has simply come to an end will require a fair process and a fair reason, just as it would for a long-serving member of staff.
There is a statutory probationary period being introduced alongside the new dismissal rights – a period during which a lighter-touch process can apply. The detail of that regime is still being confirmed. But “lighter-touch” does not mean informal, undocumented or unstructured. Schools that have traditionally managed poor performance or capability concerns through an informal conversation and non-renewal of contract are going to need to rethink that approach entirely.
ACTION: Review your probationary processes now, before implementation, not after your first difficult conversation goes wrong.
Statutory sick pay from day one – and who this now covers
From 6 April 2026, two significant changes to Statutory Sick Pay came into force.
- The three-day waiting period has been abolished – SSP is now payable from the first day of sickness absence.
- The lower earnings limit for eligibility has been removed, meaning that employees earning below £123 per week now qualify for SSP for the first time.
Both of these changes have direct implications for education employers.
The removal of waiting days will increase SSP costs across the board, but particularly for schools with high levels of term-time sickness absence – a pattern that is well-documented in the sector. Budget planning for the 2026–27 academic year needs to account for this.
The removal of the lower earnings limit is arguably the more significant change for many schools. A substantial proportion of the support workforce including teaching assistants working part-time hours, lunchtime supervisors, cleaning and catering staff, have historically earned below the lower earnings limit and
have therefore been excluded from SSP entitlement.
That exemption no longer exists. These employees now qualify for SSP from their first day of illness, from their first day in post.
ACTION: If your payroll system has historically screened these staff out of SSP calculations, that process needs to be corrected immediately.
Zero-hours contracts and guaranteed hours – the supply and cover question
The Employment Rights Act introduces a right for workers on zero-hours contracts to request a guaranteed-hours contract after 12 weeks of regular work. Where those hours have been predictable and consistent, the employer will be obliged to offer a contract that reflects them.
For schools, this raises a question that has been sitting awkwardly in the sector for years – the status and employment arrangements of supply and cover staff.
Cover supervisors and teaching assistants employed directly by the school on zero-hours or casual arrangements are clearly in scope. After 12 weeks of regular work, they will be entitled to a guaranteed-hours offer. Schools that have used zero-hours arrangements as a long-term staffing solution, rather than as
genuine short-term cover, are going to find that approach increasingly difficult to sustain.
Agency supply teachers are more complex. Where the individual is employed by an agency, the obligation to offer guaranteed hours sits with the agency, not the school. But schools that have been using the same agency supply teacher for months at a time, effectively as a permanent member of staff, may find that their arrangement starts to attract scrutiny – both from the individuals themselves and, in time, from the Fair Work Agency.
ACTION: Now is a good moment to audit your use of zero-hours and agency arrangements and to be clear-eyed about which ones reflect genuine flexibility and which ones have become a substitute for proper staffing.
Holiday pay records – the term-time trap
Buried in the Employment Rights Act, with no fanfare and very little commentary, is a new legal duty that came into force on 6 April 2026. Every UK employer is now required to keep detailed records of annual leave and holiday pay for six years, as a legal obligation rather than simply good practice.
For most employers, this is a significant administrative change. For education employers, it is genuinely complex, because term-time only workers are one of the most complicated holiday pay scenarios in UK employment law.
The entitlement calculation for term-time only workers, the carry-over rules, the distinction between the four-week EU-derived leave entitlement and the additional 1.6 weeks, the correct application of the 12.07% accrual method – all of this has to be evidenced, in detail, for six years.
Many schools and MATs are currently managing this through a combination of HR software and spreadsheet workarounds that do not talk to each other cleanly. That patchwork approach does not meet the new legal standard. Failing to keep adequate records is a criminal offence, and the Fair Work Agency — which has explicit holiday pay enforcement powers – launched on 7 April 2026.
ACTION: If you cannot demonstrate, right now, exactly how holiday pay for your term-time only staff has been calculated and paid for the last 12 months, that is where you need to start.
Fire and rehire – restructuring just got harder
The Employment Rights Act significantly restricts an employer’s ability to dismiss and re-engage employees to impose new terms and conditions. Dismissal for the purpose of rehiring on a different contract is now unlawful unless the employer can demonstrate that the organisation was in serious financial difficulty and the change was genuinely unavoidable.
In the education sector, contract restructuring has not been uncommon, particularly when schools have needed to move staff to different term-time patterns, change working hours as a result of budget pressures, or alter support roles following curriculum changes. The fire and rehire route, where it was used, is now effectively closed.
That does not mean schools cannot restructure. It means the process for doing so, including genuine consultation, exploration of alternatives, and documented justification, has to be robust, well-evidenced, and clearly lawful before any dismissal takes place.
ACTION: For MATs managing workforce changes across multiple sites and different employee groups, this adds a layer of complexity to any restructuring programme. Take legal advice early.
Bereavement leave – a new day one right
The Employment Rights Act introduces a statutory right to one week of bereavement leave following the death of a close family member, available from day one of employment.
This extends beyond the existing right to time off for dependants, and it applies regardless of length of service. The definition of who qualifies as a close family member is broader than many employers might assume and includes parents, spouses, civil partners, children, and siblings.
ACTION: Schools and academies will need to update their bereavement leave policies and ensure that the new entitlement is reflected in employment contracts and staff handbooks. Where schools currently offer more generous contractual bereavement provisions, those continue to apply — but any member of staff who does not currently have contractual entitlement will now have a statutory floor from day one.
The Fair Work Agency – a new enforcement body with real teeth
On 7 April 2026, the Fair Work Agency launched as a consolidated enforcement body, absorbing the functions previously spread across HMRC’s National Minimum Wage team, the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate, and the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority.
The FWA has 550 inspectors, the power to enter premises and inspect documentation, the ability to issue civil penalties, and the authority to bring Employment Tribunal claims on behalf of workers. It can enforce the National Minimum Wage, Statutory Sick Pay, and holiday pay.
Education is not an exempt sector. Schools and MATs, including those that are not-for-profit or in the public sector, are employers in the eyes of the FWA, and they are subject to the same enforcement regime as any other business.
In its early months, the FWA is expected to focus primarily on minimum wage, gangmaster licensing, and modern slavery. Holiday pay and SSP enforcement will follow. But later is not never. The records you are keeping now, or failing to keep, will be the records you are asked to produce when an investigation comes.
What education employers should be doing right now
Audit your fixed-term and probationary processes
With day one unfair dismissal rights on the way, informal non-renewal of contract is no longer a risk-free option. Make sure your processes are documented, fair, and capable of withstanding scrutiny.
Check who now qualifies for SSP
If your payroll has been excluding lower-paid support staff from SSP on LEL grounds, update your system and notify those employees of their new entitlement. This applies from 6 April 2026.
Review your zero-hours arrangements
Identify which casual and zero-hours workers are approaching or have passed 12 weeks of regular work, and consider what a guaranteed-hours offer would look like before the obligation lands.
Fix your holiday pay records for term-time only staff
The six-year record-keeping duty is already in force. If your current systems cannot evidence entitlement, accrual, pay calculation, carry-over, and termination payments in detail, address that now.
Update your bereavement leave policy
Ensure the new statutory right is reflected in your handbooks and that payroll is set up to administer it correctly.
Check your NMW compliance for support roles
With the FWA now operational and looking closely at lower-paid workers, schools with hourly-paid support staff should satisfy themselves that NMW is being met across all roles, including roles where additional duties or travel time might affect the calculation.
Education employers are used to navigating complexity. Different pension schemes, national pay agreements, term-time contracts, agency and supply arrangements, casual and bank staff – a school payroll has more moving parts than almost any other sector. The Employment Rights Act adds more moving parts still.
