Making sense of the Employment Rights Bill: How providers can prepare for changes to sexual harassment laws

The upcoming Employment Rights Bill significantly strengthens sexual harassment law in the UK, and social care providers must be prepared for this.  

In a recent webinar series that we hosted with Nectar HR, a national HR consultancy supporting SMEs, Sonia Rai and Josie Onions provided practical insights into what changes providers should expect from the new reforms, the steps they should take in preventing workplace harassment and the implications for failing to do so. 

Key changes to sexual harassment laws 

• All reasonable steps: Currently, employers have a legal obligation to prove they’ve taken “reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. Under the new Employment Rights Bill, employers must take “all reasonable steps” to prevent such behaviour. This will come into force in October 2026. 

• From April 2026, employers will be liable if staff are harassed by a third party, unless they can demonstrate they took all reasonable steps to prevent it. In the context of a care provider, a third party could be a family member, contractor or visitor. 

• The Bill adds whistleblowing protections for sexual harassment disclosures from April 2026. 

Implications of not taking all reasonable steps 

A failure by employers to show they have done everything possible to protect their staff from sexual harassment could result in serious consequences, both in terms of finance and reputation.  

Monetary risk: Under the Employment Rights Bill, if an employer is found to have breached their duty to take “all reasonable steps”, the tribunal has the power to uplift the compensation awarded by up to 25%. The average sexual harassment award is £53,000, so an uplift would take this to just over £66,000.  
 
Reputational risk: Public exposure of non-compliance, especially following a tribunal case or media coverage, can harm your organisation’s reputation, affect recruitment and retention, undermine employee trust, and impact revenue. 

Tribunal extension 

It’s also important to note that the time limit on when and employee can make a tribunal claim is expected to increase from three months to six months under the Employment Rights Bill. This gives employees more time to proceed with a claim and gather evidence, increasing potential employer exposure.  

Robust record keeping is therefore essential to mitigate risk. Care providers should keep time-stamped records of when a concern or incident was raised and what policies and procedures were put in place to support their staff. 

What defines “all reasonable steps”? 

The Employment Rights Bill doesn’t define what these “reasonable steps” may be. However, Nectar HR has outlined what care providers can do now to protect themselves and their staff. 

Here are some practical measures that all care providers should take before October 2026:  

• Implement robust sexual harassment policies: Providers should have clear, accessible and up-to-date sexual harassment policies in place that define what sexual harassment is, outline reporting procedures and describe disciplinary actions. Make sure your staff have a clear understanding of these policies – it is not enough to simply have them on file.  

• Have a tailored risk assessment in place: This should pinpoint potential vulnerabilities within your workplace, such as night shifts or third-party interactions, and identify targeted prevention strategies. A tailored risk assessment is essential because they focus on specific environments and situations your team encounters, rather than relying on general scenarios, ensuring unique risks are identified. Make sure all staff are aware of this risk assessment and that it’s regularly reviewed. 

• Provide mandatory training: This is another important step in ensuring staff understand what constitutes sexual harassment, know how and where to escalate their concerns, and are comfortable with how their concerns will be documented and dealt with. You should also train managers on how to assess and manage risks of sexual harassment. 

• Build a prevention culture: Your management team should lead by example, setting the tone that sexual harassment is never tolerated and has consequences. It’s also important to foster a culture of open reporting so that staff feel safe in raising concerns about incidents or situations where they’ve felt at risk. Finally, remain alert to changes in employee behaviour, performance and emotional wellbeing that may indicate a hostile environment.  

• Take immediate action: Do not dismiss concerns. Investigate all reports promptly and take appropriate action to address issues and support your staff members. 

Conclusion 

The Employment Rights Bill makes it harder for employers to defend sexual harassment claims. Care providers must therefore be far more proactive in preventing sexual harassment in the workplace than ever before, by taking “all reasonable steps” to protect staff from harm.  

There’s no time like the present. We recommend implementing the above prevention strategies and embedding them into your business at a manageable pace, rather than waiting for them to become a legal requirement. Introducing these changes early will help you avoid the last-minute rush, and potential penalties, of later compliance. 

We also recently hosted a webinar with Nectar HR on the Employment Rights Bill, which covered these changes in more detail and explored what they mean in practice for providers.