Employment Rights Act 2025 — Consultation on reforms of zero hours and similar contracts

A message from the Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care, Deborah Sturdy

"As Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care, I strongly support these reforms to strengthen fairness and stability for our workforce. Introducing a right to guaranteed hours alongside reasonable notice of shifts will help ensure care staff have the security, predictability and recognition they need to deliver high quality care"

The government is running a public consultation to inform the detail of the implementation of the reforms of zero hours and similar contracts under the Employment Rights Act 2025 and we would encourage those working in adult social care to share their views.

We are committed to ending one-sided flexibility and making sure that all jobs provide a baseline of security and predictability so workers can better plan their lives and finances. 

This includes the delivery of the following two measures:

a right to guaranteed hours, with the number of hours offered reflecting those worked during a reference period, which will be set in regulations following consultation and is expected to be 12 weeks new rights to reasonable notice of shifts, with proportionate payment for shifts cancelled, rescheduled or cut short at short notice

These rights apply to qualifying directly engaged and agency workers. The rights apply differently to agency workers compared to directly engaged workers, and regulations may set out further differences in their treatment.

The consultation is running for 12 weeks and will close on August 25 2026 at 23:59. It provides an opportunity for all stakeholders to give their views on how the zero hours contract measures should be implemented.

All current consultations, along with details of closed consultations and published outcomes, are available at Make Work Pay.

Following consultation, the government will develop final policy positions.

We encourage everyone with a view on these reforms to answer as many consultation questions as they feel comfortable with. We strongly encourage you to respond via the online platform. Using the online survey will assist our analysis of the responses, enabling more efficient and effective consideration of the issues raised.

Zero hours contract consultation team, Department of Business and Trade

https://socialcare.blog.gov.uk/2026/06/17/employment-rights-act-2025-consultation-on-reforms-of-zero-hours-and-similar-contracts/

seen at 12:04, 17 June in Social care.