The Employment Rights Act 2025 represents one of the most significant updates to workplace legislation in recent years. It brings together a series of long-discussed reforms designed to make employment fairer, more secure and more flexible across the economy. For public sector employers, the implications reach far beyond compliance they impact core elements of how public bodies plan and manage their workforce.
The reforms influence how organisations attract, retain and support staff, how they manage resources and how they demonstrate fairness and accountability to the public. This is with a backdrop of persistent recruitment and retention challenges in local government only exacerbated by funding difficulties.
Research conducted by Commercial Services Group showed optimism for the changes but also gaps. Nearly seven in 10 leaders (69%) believe they can adapt without major new funding and 68% feel they have the right skills and systems. Yet almost a third remain unsure and smaller organisations, particularly frontline services, report fragile readiness due to budget and capacity constraints. Generally the reform is welcome but preparation is clearly uneven. The staggered implementation timeline gives organisations some opportunity to support roll out but training is essential to ensure that staff are fully aware of changes.
Among employees, as you would expect, support for reform is strong with 91% believing stronger rights are important. Now that parts of the Act are in place how are organisations implementing the culture change necessary? Our research suggested this was an area where organisations were behind the curve. As one local government HR manager told us: ‘We know what we need to do on paper. Embedding it in behaviour will take longer.'
Why is this so important? There are consequences for non-compliance and behaviour change is never a question of simply updating policies – it requires consistent communications and training. Managers, in particular, need to understand the implications of the new rights. This legislation extends some obligations beyond the organisation itself such as the changes to protection from third party harassment. All organisations including councils will probably need to reassess their partnerships and strengthen contracts to ensure employees will be adequately protected.
For those councils facing local government reorganisation (LGR), while the Act may add an additional layer of complexity there is also opportunity. Such councils will need to establish a fresh culture and the Act can be built into ‘the ways things are done here' from the beginning. These reforms can be used as an opportunity to underpin the new workforce strategy.
Too often legislative changes such as these are treated as a technical compliance exercise rather than as a catalyst for better management. When creating new workforce strategies surely this is the ideal time to embrace the transformation and create a culture inclusivity for these reforms.
From our research there are five priorities for HR and leaders. First is communication – do it consistently, regularly and with transparent messaging which will help reduce uncertainty and build confidence.
Second, if it hasnt been done already, audit existing capability. This will help identify gaps in HR, legal and finance functions and allow for investment in additional training or capacity as necessary. Our research showed there are clear operational challenges including changes to statutory sick pay, parental leave and zero-hours contract reform. These are not simply HR issues, they demand coordination across HR, finance and workforce systems. How joined up are your processes?
Third, leadership has an essential role particularly in culture change and demonstrating fairness and respect for the changes through strategic priorities. These, as has already been said, need to be backed by management training and accountability. If your council is faced with LGR this culture change can be built in from the very start.
Fourth, partnerships need to be aligned with organisational values. This means ensuring that all partners including agency and recruitment teams meet the same ethical and operational standards as expected internally.
Finally there is a need to continue to monitor and share progress and add more support as required. This may mean tracking retention rates, employee satisfaction and other compliance metrics and sharing best practice across all parts of the organisation.
With any reform comes challenges, but by preparing well, ensuring that change is led from the top and progress monitored, these changes will soon simply become the way things are done. Now is the time to sustain momentum and embed reform in a way that strengthens councils, the wider public sector workforces and the communities they serve.
Hayley Titchner is senior legal advisor at HR Connect, part of Commercial Services Group
