Unfair dismissal from six months: what January 2027 changes about probation

Right now, if any employee has been with you for less than two years, you can part ways without much risk of a claim. The exception is things like discrimination and whistleblowing, which apply from day one of employment.

From 1 January 2027 that safety net shrinks to six months. And there’s no longer a ceiling on what a tribunal can award if you get a dismissal wrong.

One more date, and it has already passed: anyone who joined you on or before 1 July this year will have six months’ service by the time the rule kicks in, so they’re covered from day one of the change. If someone is in probation right now, they’re the last group you can assess under the old rules, and only if the exit takes effect before New Year.

(This applies in England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland has its own rules and its own clock, so if you employ people there, check the position separately.)

The notice period maths

One thing to know: qualifying service isn’t counted to the day you dismiss someone. It runs to the date their statutory notice would have expired, even if you pay in lieu. After one month of service everyone gets at least a week of statutory notice, and your contractual notice is probably longer.

So if you leave a probation decision until month six, their notice period can carry them over the six-month line and into a claim. Act by month four or five. A four-week notice period pulls your real decision point back to around month five at the latest.

Which means a six-month probation that quietly drifts along until someone remembers to review it is about to become an expensive habit.

What to do between now and January

Treat probation as a real decision point, not a formality. That’s the whole game. In practice:

1. List everyone hired since summer 2026 and note where each person sits against the six-month line. Anyone drifting needs a decision, calmly, now.
2. Look at your probation clause. Five months with a built-in review beats six months with none, because of the notice maths above.
3. Proper check-ins, written up. A short conversation every couple of weeks, and a real mid-point review with honest feedback. Shared with the person, not sat in a private folder.
4. Get managers raising problems early and putting them in writing. Most cases are lost on sloppy process, or no process at all, not the decision itself.
5. Decide your confirm, extend or exit routine before you need it: who decides, by when, and what each letter says.

None of this needs an HR department. It needs about two hours of structure and the discipline to follow it. Same foundations thinking as my HR checklist for founders, applied to the first six months of every hire.

And to be clear: nothing in this change stops you exiting someone who isn’t working out. It just raises the bar on the process and paperwork when you do.

Get the probation pack

I’ve put all of this into a free eight-page probation pack: the timeline, a check-in template, a mid-point review template, the confirm-extend-exit guide and letter checklists. Written for founder-led teams, not HR departments. Pop your details in below and it’s yours.

TL;DR: from January, probation is where your protection lives. Use it properly.

If you’d rather someone just made this happen inside your company, that’s the kind of foundation work I do with growing tech, creative and AI businesses, usually a few days a month. Here’s what fractional People leadership means in plain English, the fractional HR Director and CHRO support I offer, or book a call and we’ll look at your probation setup together.