HR compliance in schools: your 2026 checklist

Use this section to check whether your policies, contracts, and HR processes in your school or across your MAT are up to date for each wave of changes. For a full breakdown of what each change means for schools and MATs, see our guide to employment law changes for schools and MATs.

In force from April 2026

☐  Statutory Sick Pay (SSP). Review your sickness absence policy, payroll processes and return-to-work procedures to reflect day-one SSP eligibility with no earnings threshold.

☐  Paternity and parental leave. Update contracts, employee handbooks and leave policies to remove any length-of-service eligibility criteria for paternity and parental leave.

☐  Bereaved partners’ paternity leave. Update your leave policies and confirm payroll can process up to 52 weeks’ leave for bereaved partners.

☐  Redundancy consultation. If you are planning any redundancies, take legal advice before proceeding. The collective consultation threshold now applies across your whole organisation, not just a single site, and penalties for failing to consult correctly are increasing.

☐  Whistleblowing. Review your whistleblowing policy to confirm it explicitly covers sexual harassment and check that staff know how to report concerns and who to report them to.

☐  National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage. Check that anyone paid at or near the minimum wage is on the correct rate from 1 April 2026 (£12.71 per hour for staff aged 21 and over) and update your payroll and budget accordingly.

☐  Fair Work Agency. A new government body that launched in April 2026 to enforce employment rights, with stronger investigative powers than its predecessors. Review pay records, working time records and HR documentation for accuracy - particularly for staff on variable hours, sessional contracts or shift patterns.

Prepare now for October 2026

☐  Zero-hours and variable contracts. Identify staff on zero-hours or variable contracts who have worked a regular pattern for 12 weeks or more and put a process in place for handling guaranteed hours requests.

☐  Harassment prevention duty. Review your harassment policy, confirm staff have received relevant training and ensure clear reporting procedures are in place. From October 2026 the duty extends to harassment by third parties such as parents, contractors and visitors.

☐  Employment tribunal time limits. Make sure all meetings, decisions and processes involving staff conduct, performance or contracts are clearly documented and stored - the tribunal claim window extends to six months from October 2026.

Plan ahead - expected from January 2027

☐  Day-one unfair dismissal protections. Review probation processes and dismissal procedures now. Anyone hired on or before 1 July 2026 will already have day-one unfair dismissal protection when the law changes on 1 January 2027. Performance and conduct concerns must be documented properly from day one.

The ERA changes are important, but they sit alongside a set of ongoing compliance requirements that apply to all schools and MATs year-round. Use this section to check the fundamentals are in place.

Safeguarding

☐  Single Central Record (SCR). Every school is legally required to maintain an up-to-date SCR recording all pre-employment checks carried out on teaching and support staff, supply staff and volunteers. It must be available for inspection at any time. Check that your SCR is current, that no entries are missing and that it includes all the required check types.

☐  DBS checks. Make sure all DBS checks for staff and volunteers are in date and recorded correctly on your SCR. Put a process in place to flag renewals before they lapse - this is particularly important for staff in regulated activity with children.

☐  Safer recruitment. At least one person involved in every recruitment process should have completed safer recruitment training. Check that this is the case, that training is recorded and that it hasn’t expired.

Payroll and data

☐  Payroll accuracy. Errors in pay can cause real stress for staff and create compliance risks for your school. Check that pay scales, contract types, absence records and parental leave are all reflected correctly in your payroll. Make sure someone reviews payroll before it runs each month to catch any errors before pay day.

☐  Teacher Pension Scheme (TPS) and LGPS. Pension administration in schools is complex. Check that contributions are being calculated correctly for both teaching staff (TPS) and support staff (LGPS), that new starters are enrolled on time and that any changes to contracts or hours are updated promptly.

☐  GDPR. As a school, you are a data controller and are legally responsible for how you store and handle staff personal data. Make sure staff records are held securely, that access is restricted to those who need it and that you have a clear process for responding to subject access requests within the statutory 30-day deadline.

Reporting

☐  Schools Workforce Census. The annual Schools Workforce Census is a statutory DfE data collection submitted each autumn. The data it draws on - including staff absence, contract types, qualifications and headcount - needs to be accurate throughout the year, not just at submission time. Check that your HR records are kept up to date, so the return is straightforward when the time comes.

☐  Teacher pay reporting. Schools are required to report on teacher pay as part of statutory obligations. Make sure you understand what your school needs to submit and that the relevant data is accurate and accessible.

Policies and documentation

☐  Employment contracts. Review your standard employment contracts to make sure they reflect the April 2026 changes - particularly around paternity leave, parental leave and sick pay eligibility. Out-of-date contracts can create confusion and legal risk.

☐  Flexible working. All employees have had the right to request flexible working from day one since April 2024. Make sure you have a documented process for handling these requests, that requests are responded to within the two-month statutory deadline and that any refusals are based on one of the permitted business reasons.

☐  Disciplinary, grievance and capability procedures. Your procedures need to be clearly written, consistently followed and well documented. With tribunal time limits extending to six months from October 2026, the quality of your records matters more than ever. Check that managers know how to follow your procedures correctly.

☐  Policy acknowledgement. Staff should formally acknowledge that they have read your key policies - things like your code of conduct, safeguarding policy and disciplinary procedures. Check that acknowledgements are recorded centrally and that new starters complete this as part of onboarding.