Advice from an HR consultant in Ipswich on dismissing employees during probation under the new unfair dismissal rules taking effect from 2027.
I’ve had more conversations about this topic in the last few months than almost anything else.
Business owners are coming to me worried they’ve lost the right to end someone’s employment during probation. That’s not the case.
What has changed is how much evidence you’ll need if that decision is ever questioned.
The Employment Rights Act is cutting the qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims from two years down to six months. And if you’re not ready for that shift, it could get expensive.
Let me walk you through what’s actually happening and what you need to do about it.
The change in a nutshell
From 1 January 2027, anyone with six months’ service will have the right to claim unfair dismissal. Currently, that threshold sits at two years. The new rules apply to anyone hired from 1 July 2026 onwards.
There will be a statutory initial period of employment, which acts as a formal probation window. But one detail catches a lot of people off guard: employees can bring a claim even during that initial period. The protection starts earlier than you’d expect.
So while you still have the ability to let someone go during their early months, the bar for doing it properly has been raised.
What you haven’t lost
You can still dismiss someone during probation. Full stop.
If the person isn’t performing, if there are conduct issues, if their capability isn’t where it needs to be, you can still make the call to end the employment. You can still decide that the role simply isn’t working out.
None of that has been removed. What’s different is the standard you’ll be measured against if that person decides to challenge your decision.
The old way versus the new reality
Under the two-year qualifying period, you had a long window to assess whether a new hire was the right fit. If things weren’t going well, you could manage someone out informally without much legal exposure.
That cushion has gone.
With the qualifying period dropping to six months, everything shifts forward. Your onboarding process needs to set clear expectations from day one. Probation reviews need structure and documentation. If there are performance concerns, they need to be addressed promptly rather than left to drift.
You also need to decide earlier whether someone is right for the role. And you need to be able to demonstrate how you arrived at that conclusion.
Manager capability becomes really important here. A lot of the problems I see with my clients start with a manager who put off a difficult conversation, or assumed the issue would resolve on its own. Under the new rules, that kind of avoidance carries real risk.
What a fair process looks like now
If you’re going to dismiss someone within their first six months, you’ll need to show that you took reasonable steps before reaching that point. In practical terms, that means:
- You raised your concerns early, clearly, and in writing
- You told the employee specifically what needed to improve
- You gave them a genuine opportunity to get things right
- You followed a fair and consistent process throughout
If you can’t point to evidence of those things, you’re exposed. It really is as simple as that.
How long should your probation period be?
I get asked this a lot, and the honest answer is that nobody has settled on a definitive number yet.
The new rules don’t mandate a specific probation length. HR professionals and employment lawyers are all landing in different places. Some suggest three months. Others say five or six.
My advice? Don’t get hung up on the number. A six-month probation with no check-ins and no written feedback is far riskier than a three-month probation with clear goals, regular reviews and documented conversations.
The quality of what happens during probation matters far more than how long it lasts.
The mistakes that lead to problems
When a dismissal gets challenged, the same issues come up again and again. Through our HR consultancy services in Ipswich and beyond, we see these patterns repeatedly:
- No written record that concerns were ever raised with the employee
- No evidence that support or feedback was offered
- The company’s own procedures weren’t followed
- Different employees in similar situations were treated differently
- A manager hoped the problem would sort itself out instead of addressing it head on
Every single one of these is preventable. None of them require complicated systems or expensive software. They just require a consistent approach and a willingness to document what’s happening.
Ask yourself these questions
Before the new rules take effect, it’s worth thinking about where your business currently stands:
- Do your managers know how to raise performance concerns in writing, and do they actually do it?
- Are your probation reviews structured with clear milestones, or are they informal catch-ups with no record?
- If you dismissed someone tomorrow, could you produce a paper trail showing the steps you took?
- Are all your managers handling similar situations in the same way, or is it inconsistent across the business?
- Does your current probation process include documented feedback at regular intervals?
How we can help
An experienced HR consultant can look at your existing probation and dismissal processes and tell you honestly whether they’ll hold up under the new rules. We can also work with your managers to make sure they understand what a fair process looks like in practice, and support you through individual cases so every decision you make is on solid ground.
If you’re not confident that your current approach will stand up after 1 July, it’s worth getting that checked now. It’s always better to find out where the gaps are before they become a problem.
Let’s have a conversation
If any of this has raised questions for you, I’d love to chat it through.
As an outsourced HR consultant in Ipswich, I work with business owners every day who want to get this right without overcomplicating things. Whether you need a full review of your probation process or just want to sense-check where you stand, get in touch and we can arrange a call.
Contact us today: 01473 653000 or hello@pshumanresources.co.ukYes, you can still dismiss during probation
Advice from an HR consultant in Ipswich on dismissing employees during probation under the new unfair dismissal rules taking effect from 2027.
I’ve had more conversations about this topic in the last few months than almost anything else.
Business owners are coming to me worried they’ve lost the right to end someone’s employment during probation. That’s not the case.
What has changed is how much evidence you’ll need if that decision is ever questioned.
The Employment Rights Act is cutting the qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims from two years down to six months. And if you’re not ready for that shift, it could get expensive.
Let me walk you through what’s actually happening and what you need to do about it.
The change in a nutshell
From 1 January 2027, anyone with six months’ service will have the right to claim unfair dismissal. Currently, that threshold sits at two years. The new rules apply to anyone hired from 1 July 2026 onwards.
There will be a statutory initial period of employment, which acts as a formal probation window. But one detail catches a lot of people off guard: employees can bring a claim even during that initial period. The protection starts earlier than you’d expect.
So while you still have the ability to let someone go during their early months, the bar for doing it properly has been raised.
What you haven’t lost
You can still dismiss someone during probation. Full stop.
If the person isn’t performing, if there are conduct issues, if their capability isn’t where it needs to be, you can still make the call to end the employment. You can still decide that the role simply isn’t working out.
None of that has been removed. What’s different is the standard you’ll be measured against if that person decides to challenge your decision.
The old way versus the new reality
Under the two-year qualifying period, you had a long window to assess whether a new hire was the right fit. If things weren’t going well, you could manage someone out informally without much legal exposure.
That cushion has gone.
With the qualifying period dropping to six months, everything shifts forward. Your onboarding process needs to set clear expectations from day one. Probation reviews need structure and documentation. If there are performance concerns, they need to be addressed promptly rather than left to drift.
You also need to decide earlier whether someone is right for the role. And you need to be able to demonstrate how you arrived at that conclusion.
Manager capability becomes really important here. A lot of the problems I see with my clients start with a manager who put off a difficult conversation, or assumed the issue would resolve on its own. Under the new rules, that kind of avoidance carries real risk.
What a fair process looks like now
If you’re going to dismiss someone within their first six months, you’ll need to show that you took reasonable steps before reaching that point. In practical terms, that means:
- You raised your concerns early, clearly, and in writing
- You told the employee specifically what needed to improve
- You gave them a genuine opportunity to get things right
- You followed a fair and consistent process throughout
If you can’t point to evidence of those things, you’re exposed. It really is as simple as that.
How long should your probation period be?
I get asked this a lot, and the honest answer is that nobody has settled on a definitive number yet.
The new rules don’t mandate a specific probation length. HR professionals and employment lawyers are all landing in different places. Some suggest three months. Others say five or six.
My advice? Don’t get hung up on the number. A six-month probation with no check-ins and no written feedback is far riskier than a three-month probation with clear goals, regular reviews and documented conversations.
The quality of what happens during probation matters far more than how long it lasts.
The mistakes that lead to problems
When a dismissal gets challenged, the same issues come up again and again. Through our HR consultancy services in Ipswich and beyond, we see these patterns repeatedly:
- No written record that concerns were ever raised with the employee
- No evidence that support or feedback was offered
- The company’s own procedures weren’t followed
- Different employees in similar situations were treated differently
- A manager hoped the problem would sort itself out instead of addressing it head on
Every single one of these is preventable. None of them require complicated systems or expensive software. They just require a consistent approach and a willingness to document what’s happening.
Ask yourself these questions
Before the new rules take effect, it’s worth thinking about where your business currently stands:
- Do your managers know how to raise performance concerns in writing, and do they actually do it?
- Are your probation reviews structured with clear milestones, or are they informal catch-ups with no record?
- If you dismissed someone tomorrow, could you produce a paper trail showing the steps you took?
- Are all your managers handling similar situations in the same way, or is it inconsistent across the business?
- Does your current probation process include documented feedback at regular intervals?
How we can help
An experienced HR consultant can look at your existing probation and dismissal processes and tell you honestly whether they’ll hold up under the new rules. We can also work with your managers to make sure they understand what a fair process looks like in practice, and support you through individual cases so every decision you make is on solid ground.
If you’re not confident that your current approach will stand up after 1 July, it’s worth getting that checked now. It’s always better to find out where the gaps are before they become a problem.
Let’s have a conversation
If any of this has raised questions for you, I’d love to chat it through.
As an outsourced HR consultant in Ipswich, I work with business owners every day who want to get this right without overcomplicating things. Whether you need a full review of your probation process or just want to sense-check where you stand, get in touch and we can arrange a call.
Contact us today: 01473 653000 or hello@pshumanresources.co.uk
