Workforce Despite the pressure, the ERA shift is
not only possible but necessary for care businesses. Many of the law’s requirements align with changes that care homes have long needed to keep team members supported in their roles: more predictable rotas, clearer contracts, better onboarding, and a more stable workforce. Preparing now can simplify ERA compliance without legal repercussions and, at the same time, strengthen recruitment and improve continuity of care in the long run. While all the changes are rolling out over
the next 18 months, April marked the first major wave of changes and should be a high priority for all care managers to ensure these are already being complied with in the most optimal way.
How to align absence procedures with the new SSP reality? The Act removes the three-day wait for SSP, and now it’s officially an entitlement from ‘day one’ of the absence, and the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) has been abolished. It’s likely providers will see an influx of short-term absences as employees have less of a financial imperative to keep working when they’re unwell. The success of adapting to this reform
depends on having robust absence procedures. When those procedures are crystal clear, you get the consistency and compliance needed to roll this change out effectively. Many workplaces don’t track short-term
absences of a day or two in detail, but now every episode of absence incurs a cost. To quantify this, it’s wise to model the financial
impact early, tracking current absence patterns to predict changes to your expenditure. But changes to absence rights aren’t just
about costs. It’s about how your service will operate when team numbers are down. The priority needs to be determining how to build a work culture that reduces the need for absences. For example, you can improve shift patterns to prevent burnout or cover the costs of the flu vaccine for your team. A game-changer tool that will empower
management is the return-to-work interview. Documenting all findings from these interviews will make underlying absence trends stand out straight away. For example, you might notice that the same person is always off sick after a run of night shifts, or that absences spike on certain
weekends. Suddenly, what felt like a random sickness becomes a clear trend, and you have something concrete to act on. These insightful conversations also act as
a deterrent against non-genuine absences to protect your workplace from policy abuse. When employees know they’ll be asked about the reason for their absence, it naturally discourages casual or avoidable time off. They’re officially paying for every single absence, and therefore you lose value in not making the time for them. Confidence creates consistency, so it’s
vital to ensure all managers are up to speed on what’s expected from them. They’ll be receiving sickness reporting calls during the busiest of mornings, and yet the expectation to make sure the absence is properly documented, and the employee receives the correct pay on time never lessens for compliance standards.
Changes to absence rights
aren’t just about costs. It’s about how your service will operate when team numbers are down
38
www.thecarehomeenvironment.com September 2026
Can your rota manage new day one rights? On top of more unpredictable sickness days, the new day one parental leave and paternity leave rights can also eat into the team rota. While employees still need 26 weeks’ service to qualify for Statutory Paternity Pay, the changes in law mean in practice that a team member could approach you in their second week of service and request paternity leave at short notice. Care homes that rely on smaller, fixed
rotas, or a high proportion of zero-hour staff will feel this most sharply. A sudden period of paternity or parental leave, especially from a key role such as a senior carer or nightshift lead, can leave managers scrambling to fill gaps at short notice. And unlike sickness, which can sometimes
Halfpoint -
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Andrey Popov -
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