Preventing Problems

---

The cheapest investigation is the one you never need. A review of your HR policies and practices shows where the gaps are, so you can fix them before they turn into potential claims.

  The Employment Rights Act 2025 changes both the likelihood and the cost of getting it wrong. From 1 January 2027:

• Employees can claim unfair dismissal after six months’ service, not two years.

• The cap on unfair dismissal compensation is removed.

• Dismissing someone for refusing a change to pay, hours or other core terms (“fire and rehire”) becomes automatically unfair in most cases.

Tribunal time limits have already doubled from three months to six, and the duty to prevent sexual harassment now means taking “all reasonable steps”.

Most organisations’ policies were written for the old rules. And in our experience, the bigger risk is usually the gap between what the policy says and what actually happens.

  The core policies and procedures that govern how you manage conduct, performance, grievances and exits, checked against best practice and the 2027 changes:

• Disciplinary and grievance policy and process.

• Dismissal and termination, including probation periods and how they are managed.

• Whistleblowing and harassment, including the new “all reasonable steps” standard and harassment by clients or other third parties.

• Contracts of employment, including variation clauses and any reliance on fire and rehire.

• The staff handbook, so day-to-day terms sit there rather than in the contract and are easier to update as the law changes.

• Record-keeping, so that if a case does arise, the paperwork stands up to scrutiny.

Where it helps, we also advise on related people practices, such as appraisal and rating scales, and role profiles.

  • Read everything. Your policies, handbook, contracts and how recent cases were handled.

• Gap analysis against the Employment Rights Act 2025 and best practice.

• Talk to the people who use them. Short conversations with directors and managers to see how the policies work in practice.

• Compare against how similar organisations in your sector handle the same issues.

The review is informed by our investigations work. We see where policies hold up under real pressure, and where they don’t.

• A short written report, policy by policy, showing what works and what doesn’t.

• Recommended changes, prioritised into must-do before 1 January 2027 and longer-term improvements.

• A run-through of the findings with your directors.

• Optional training for managers and staff on what is changing, why, and what it means for them.

Most reviews take around a week, on a fixed fee agreed up front.

- Businesses without an in-house HR team, that need someone to check the basics are in place.

- Growing businesses whose policies haven’t kept pace with their headcount.

- Larger organisations that want an independent view, often after a difficult case has shown up a weakness.