Probation periods and performance reviews in the UK
Probation has always been treated as the period where employment can be ended informally. From January 2027 that assumption stops being safe, because the unfair dismissal threshold moves to six months — and six months sits inside a lot of probation arrangements.
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Key takeaways
- A probation period is contractual, not statutory — it does not remove the right to notice or protect against day-one claims
- From 1 January 2027 the unfair dismissal qualifying period falls from two years to six months, and compensatory awards become uncapped
- That change lands squarely on probation: a review that slips past six months is no longer a low-risk conversation
- Discrimination and whistleblowing claims need no qualifying service at all, at any point
What a probation period is — and is not
Probation is a contractual device. Nothing in statute creates it, and nothing in statute is switched off by it. What it usually does is provide a structured review point and, often, a shorter contractual notice period during the initial months.
What it does not do is remove the statutory minimum notice — one week once someone has a month's service — or protect against claims that require no qualifying service. Discrimination, whistleblowing and dismissal for asserting a statutory right are all available from day one, and none of them cares what the probation clause says.
If you extend a probation period, do it before the original one ends, in writing, and say specifically what needs to change and by when. An extension applied retrospectively is worth very little, and it signals that nobody was managing the review in the first place.
Why January 2027 changes the calculation
The Employment Rights Act 2025 cuts the unfair dismissal qualifying period from two years to six months on 1 January 2027, and removes the cap on the compensatory award for ordinary unfair dismissal from the same date. The original proposal for a day-one right did not survive the Lords, so six months is the number that matters.
What this means in practice
- A six-month probation now runs right up to the threshold. A review that slips by a fortnight can cross it.
- Anyone starting on or after 1 July 2026 reaches six months' service as the change takes effect.
- An uncapped award changes the arithmetic of getting a marginal dismissal wrong.
- The habit worth building this year is simply reviewing on time — not a new process, an existing one that actually happens.
The rest of the timetable, including the shift-notice duties that matter most for rota-based businesses, is in our Employment Rights Act 2025 guide.
Running a review that would survive scrutiny
A fair performance process is not elaborate. It answers four questions, and the honest test is whether someone outside the business could see the answers in your records.
| Question | What it looks like in practice |
|---|---|
| Did they know what was expected? | A role description and standards set out at the start, not implied |
| Were they told where they fell short? | Specific, dated, factual feedback — not "attitude" |
| Were they given a chance to improve? | A realistic period, with support and training where relevant |
| Did they know what would happen if not? | Consequences stated plainly, in writing |
The failure is almost never the first row. It is the second and third: feedback that was vague, or an improvement period that existed on paper while the decision had already been made. Both are visible in the records, which is exactly why the records matter.
Conduct, capability and absence
These three get conflated constantly, and each needs a different route. Conduct concerns choices — repeated lateness, no-shows, ignoring a rule. Capability concerns ability, whether through skill or ill health. Absence may be either, or neither.
Absence deserves the most care. Statutory sick pay has been payable from day one with no earnings threshold since April 2026, and a trigger score such as the Bradford Factor is a prompt for a conversation rather than a decision — particularly where a disability may be in play and reasonable adjustments are the actual question. Sickness records are special category data, so handle them per the UK GDPR rules on employee records.
Where a process does end in dismissal, the mechanics — notice, the final payment and the P45 — are covered in notice periods and dismissal and final pay when someone leaves.
Making reviews happen on time
Everything above assumes the review happens. In shift-based businesses it frequently does not, because there is no diary entry, no owner, and no obvious moment — the manager is running a floor, not a calendar.
That was a tolerable failure while the qualifying period was two years. With six months from January 2027, a missed probation review is no longer an administrative slip. The remedy is unglamorous: a date attached to the employee record when they start, an owner, and a reminder that arrives before the date rather than after it — the same discipline that keeps right to work follow-up checks from lapsing.
RosterElf's HR software keeps the review dates, notes and documents against the employee rather than in a manager's inbox, onboarding sets the probation date at the point of hiring, and the attendance record that any conduct discussion depends on is already there in clocked hours rather than being reconstructed from memory.
Never miss a probation review again
Review dates set at hiring, notes and documents held against the employee, and the attendance record already in place when you need it.
This guide summarises UK probation and performance practice in general terms and is not legal advice. Dismissal outcomes turn on the facts, the contract and the process followed. Check GOV.UK or Acas, or take advice, before acting in an individual case. It does not constitute legal, HR, or professional advice and should not be relied on as a substitute for advice specific to your business, workforce, or circumstances.
Probation and performance review questions
- No. Probation is a contractual arrangement. It is useful as a structure for review and often carries a shorter contractual notice period, but it is not created by statute and it does not change the statutory minimum notice.
- Yes. Once someone has a month’s service the statutory minimum of one week applies, whatever the probation clause says. A contract can offer more; it cannot offer less — see notice periods and dismissal.
- Where the contract allows it, yes — and it should be done before the original period ends, in writing, with the specific concerns and what needs to change. An extension decided after the date has passed is difficult to justify and easy to challenge.
- No. Claims that need no qualifying service — discrimination, whistleblowing, and dismissals for asserting a statutory right — are available from day one. And from January 2027 the general unfair dismissal threshold is six months, which sits inside many probation arrangements.