Businesses and workers are being urged to familiarise themselves with new family-friendly employment rights which are due to come into effect in April and aim to help more people stay in work while balance caring responsibilities.
The reforms are part of the Employment Rights Act (ERA) 2025.
From April 2026:
- Unpaid parental leave: New parents will be able to take unpaid parental leave from day one of their employment, removing the existing one-year service requirement, giving around 1.5 million parents greater flexibility.
- Paternity leave: The 26-week service requirement for paternity leave will be abolished, allowing fathers and partners to take paternity leave from their first day of employment.
- Shared parental leave: There will be flexibility to take paternity leave after shared parental leave.
Claire McCartney, policy and practice manager at the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development, said:
“The changes to unpaid parental leave and paternity leave will provide more access, fairness and flexibility for working parents. But it’s important that employers reflect these changes in their policies and clearly communicate them to managers and employees. Organisations will also need to think about different ways of covering leave, such as providing development opportunities for other members of staff.”
As part of the UK Government’s ongoing review of Parental Leave and Pay, the CIPD has also called for statutory paternity leave to be increased from one or two consecutive weeks to six weeks, paid at or near the full rate of pay, to further support greater equality in caregiving responsibilities.
In an effort to give more people flexibility over their work, further reforms under the Employment Rights Act (ERA) 2025 will place greater responsibility on employers to properly consider flexible working requests and ensure any refusals are justified.
From 2027, when handling flexible working requests:
- Employers will only be able to refuse a request if it is reasonable to do so.
- Employers must explain in writing the specific grounds for refusal and why they consider the decision to be reasonable.
Research from the CIPD’s Flexible and Hybrid Working Practices in 2025 report, based on a survey of 2,000 employers and 5,000 employees across the UK, found that just over half of organisations (51%) require employees to be on-site a minimum number of days per week – typically three – while 14% enforce a set number of office days per month.
However, the research also found that around one million UK workers left their jobs last year due to a lack of flexible working options. This suggests the current approach to flexible and hybrid working is failing to meet employee needs and could be contributing to some organisations losing talent.
Claire said:
“If we are to help more people stay in work and achieve their potential – not to mention meet the challenges of an ageing population and the rising number of carers – employers must think more creatively around flexible working.
“Compressed hours, job sharing, and term-time working can help people achieve a better work-life balance and support employer efforts to recruit and retain staff, while also building a more equal and inclusive workforce for the future.”
