HR and Employment Law for Managers 2026/27
Practical training for line managers, supervisors and owner-managers in small businesses. One hour, once a week, in blocks.
Your policy is fine. From 30 October 2026 that stops being the question. The question becomes what training your managers actually had, what they did differently afterwards, and whether you can show it. This is twenty one-hour sessions that answer it.
- Tuesdays at 9.30am, and it finishes on time
- Recording within 24 hours
- Training Confirmation letter every block
Nobody handles it badly on purpose
Somebody says something in a meeting. Your manager hears it, is not quite sure whether it is a problem, waits two seconds too long, and the moment goes. Nothing gets said and nothing gets written down.
Or it goes well. Your manager handles it beautifully, has exactly the right conversation, and it works. And still nothing gets written down, because it went well, so why would you.
Six months later somebody remembers it differently, and it is one person’s word against another’s with nothing in between.
That is not a training problem about being a bad manager. It is a training problem about knowing exactly what to say, and knowing what to do with it afterwards. Those are two different skills and most managers have been given neither.
Four dates that move the goalposts
Practical training for line managers, supervisors and owner-managers in small businesses. One hour, once a week, in blocks.
| Date | What changed | What it means for a manager |
|---|---|---|
| 1 October 2026 | The tribunal time limit for most claims rose from three months to six. | Something from last September can still arrive in March. Everything about record keeping just got twice as important. |
| 30 October 2026 | “Reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment became ALL reasonable steps. | It is no longer “show me what you did”. It is “show me there was nothing left to do”. |
| 30 October 2026 | Employers became directly liable for harassment by customers, clients, contractors and visitors. | No three strikes. One incident can be enough. What you did before it happened is the whole case. |
| 1 January 2027 | The unfair dismissal qualifying period drops from two years to six months, and the compensation cap goes. | A hiring or probation decision that used to take two years to come back and bite you now takes six months. |
Written for the law as at September 2026.
One hour, once a week, and it finishes on time
Practical training for line managers, supervisors and owner-managers in small businesses. One hour, once a week, in blocks.
Tuesdays at 9.30am
After the first round of calls, before the day fills up. One hour: forty five minutes of content, then fifteen for questions. It finishes on time, every week.
Three blocks, term time
Seven weekly sessions in the autumn, seven in the new year, six in the summer. Breaks around half term, because your managers have families too.
A seat of your own
Priced per person, so the certificate and the quiz scores actually mean something. The seat is named, and it is transferable: tell us before a session and send a colleague instead, free, as often as you need to.
Recorded, every time
The recording is up within 24 hours, so nobody has to feel guilty about missing one. You keep access while you are on the programme and for a month after your last session.
Every session, the same six acts
Managers learn the rhythm within three weeks and stop being nervous about what they are walking into.
| Act | Time | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Still true | 6 min | One thing that has not changed, and that people still get wrong |
| Words in plain English | 3 min | Six words they are about to hear, explained before they hear them |
| What has changed | 9 min | The update. The only part that gets rewritten each year |
| How to do it | 22 min | The practical skill, on the actual paperwork, done live |
| Write it down | 5 min | What to record, what to get signed, and what must never go on a form |
| Your questions | 15 min | Some sent in beforehand, anonymously if you like. Those get answered first |
Got a question you would rather not ask out loud? Send it in beforehand, anonymously if you like, and it gets answered first.
What comes with every session
- A workbook, sent before the session. Type straight into it or print it, whichever suits you
- A one page card with the whole session on it. Print it and pin it up
- A practical form or template, different every session. Pop your logo in and you are off
- Six questions at the end, with your own copy of the answers sent back to you, which is what turns “attended” into “understood”
- The recording, up within 24 hours, yours for the programme year and a month afterwards
There is a lot of employment law training. Most of it tells you things.
Knowing the law and being able to do something with it on a wet Tuesday are two entirely different skills, and almost nobody teaches the second one. That is the whole reason this exists.
You practise it, you do not just hear it
Week one we fill a harassment risk assessment in together, live on screen. Week two everybody types their own version of a script into the chat and I read three of them out. Week three the same, for taking a customer off a colleague who cannot walk away. You will have said the words once before you have to say them for real.
You leave with the form, not the slides
A real document every session, with your own logo on it. Twenty across the year. And one thing to do on Monday, named, owned, with a date on it, rather than a list of forty things you will never get to.
It proves it happened
A dated register, a workbook in somebody’s own handwriting, a quiz score, and a Training Confirmation letter from us at the end of every block. That is what all reasonable steps looks like on paper. A certificate says somebody sat there. This says what changed.
Ask any training provider this one question: what will my managers be able to do on Monday that they could not do on Friday? If the answer is a list of topics, it is a lecture.
| Feature | A one off seminar | An online module | This |
|---|---|---|---|
| Someone answers your question | Sometimes | No | Every week, fifteen minutes of it |
| You practise the skill | Rarely | No | Every session |
| You leave with a usable document | A handout | No | Twenty of them |
| It produces evidence for a tribunal | A certificate | A completion report | Register, workbook, score, letter |
| It keeps up with the law | On the day | When they rebuild it | Rewritten every year, dated |
| Time out of the business | A day | Whenever they get to it | One hour, and it finishes on time |
It is a curriculum, not a series of talks. Twenty topics that follow the law through the year and build on each other. The three harassment sessions land before 30 October on purpose. Recruitment opens the new year because the unfair dismissal rules moved on 1 January. Nothing is scheduled because it was topical that month.
And it says where it got that from. The law moved four times in 2026 and again in January 2027. A great deal of what is sold online is still teaching the pre-2026 position, which is worse than no training at all, because people act on it. Every session is checked against ACAS, GOV.UK, the HSE, the ICO and the EHRC, and the sources are recorded and dated.
Twenty sessions. Same twenty titles every year, rewritten for whatever the law has done.
Practical training for line managers, supervisors and owner-managers in small businesses. One hour, once a week, in blocks.
Block 1, Autumn: Behaviour and Boundaries
Seven sessions, Tuesdays 13 October to 1 December 2026, with a week out on 3 November. All three harassment sessions land before the 30 October deadline, and the last of them is three days before it.
- 01
All Reasonable Steps: what the word “all” actually costs you
Run a harassment risk assessment
- 02
Banter, Bullying or Harassment? Telling them apart in real time
Say something in the moment, three different ways
- 03
The Customer Is Not Always Right: third party harassment
Handle it live, and log it
- 04
Notes That Save You: what to write down and what never to
Write a meeting note that stands up
- 05
The Conversation You Keep Putting Off
Open a difficult conversation. The first sixty seconds, word for word
- 06
Conduct or Capability? Two doors, one decision
Choose the right route, and be able to say why
- 07
Probation and Short Service: what changes on 1 January
Run a probation review meeting
Block 2, New Year: Hiring and Fair Process
Seven weekly sessions, Tuesdays 12 January to 9 March 2027. Recruitment opens the block because the unfair dismissal rules changed on 1 January.
- 08
Hiring Without Tripping Up: the advert, the criteria and the shortlist
Write an advert and a scoring grid that will not embarrass you
- 09
Interviews That Stand Up: what you can ask, what you must not
Run and score an interview
- 10
Investigations for People Who Are Not Investigators
Plan one, and ask questions that do not lead
- 11
Grievances: handle it yourself or hand it over?
Acknowledge and triage a grievance in 24 hours
- 12
When Somebody Tells You Something in Confidence
Answer “promise you won’t tell anyone”, in the right words
- 13
Performance: objectives, support and the paper trail
Write a support plan people actually meet
- 14
Data and Nosy Managers: GDPR for line managers
Handle a request to see somebody’s file
Block 3, Summer: Health, Family and Flexibility
Six weekly sessions, Tuesdays 18 May to 6 July 2027.
- 15
Sick Pay from Day One, and the Return to Work Interview
Run a return to work interview properly
- 16
Triggers Without Tripping Up: short and long term absence
Run an absence review meeting and a welfare call
- 17
Reasonable Adjustments Without the Panic
Have the conversation, and record it
- 18
Mental Health, Menopause and the Conversations Managers Dread
Use a Wellness Action Plan
- 19
Family Leave and Flexible Working: saying yes and saying no properly
Write a refusal that holds up
- 20
The Annual MOT: what a well run team actually looks like
Audit your own team’s paperwork
Buy as many as you like. The more you buy, the cheaper each one gets.
Per person. Plus VAT.
| Client tier | 1 to 4 sessions | 5 to 9 | 10 or more | The whole year, all 20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HR Business Partner and HR Excel clients | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| HR Protect and HR Advice Line clients | £55 | £40 | £30 | £400 |
| Ad hoc clients | £70 | £50 | £35 | £500 |
| Not a client yet | £75 | £55 | £40 | £550 |
- Every price is per person. The seat is named, so the certificate and the quiz score belong to somebody.
- The seat is transferable. Tell us before a session and send a colleague instead, free, as often as you need to.
- Take the whole year and the Manager’s Evidence Pack is unlocked for your whole business. Buy part of the year and it is £195, or £95 if you are a client.
- Everything includes the workbook, the card, the form, the six questions and the recording. There is nothing extra to buy. Sessions must be used within the programme year, 13 October 2026 to 6 July 2027.
- Move up to the whole year whenever you like and every penny you have already spent comes off the price.
At nine sessions every band crosses over, whichever tier you are in. Buy a tenth and you would pay more than the whole year costs, so we simply give you the year instead, at the year price, with everything you have already paid taken off.
Nobody should ever pay more for part of something than the whole thing costs.
The whole year, credits or a client rate
Book a call with Kate or email us and we will set you up at the right price for your tier, send the calendar invites and sort the Manager’s Evidence Pack if it is included.
A single session, one person
Single seats at the open rate of £75 plus VAT go through Eventbrite, one listing per session. Every session on the list above gets its own ticket.
First up: Session 1, All Reasonable Steps, Tuesday 13 October.
Not sure which ones yet? Buy credits and decide later.
One credit is one seat at one session. Choose your sessions when you book and we will send calendar invites for each one. Or bank the credits and pick as you go, using the booking reference in your confirmation email.
- Valid until
- 6 July 2027. We email you six weeks before, listing exactly what is left, so nobody loses one by forgetting.
- Booking
- Up to 4 hours before a session, on our online form. Groups are kept small so people actually ask things, and if a session fills we open another rather than cram it.
- Cannot make it?
- Tell us before it starts, even five minutes before, and the credit goes straight back. No questions.
- Buying in stages
- The rate drops as you buy more, and the new rate applies to what you buy next. Take the whole year at any point and everything you have already paid comes off the annual price.
- Who can come
- The seat is named, but it is transferable. Tell us before the session and send somebody else instead. What you cannot do is treat one seat as a pass for the whole team.
The optional extras
The Manager’s Evidence Pack
The forms that answer “show me”. A training and briefing register, a harassment risk assessment, an informal concern record, a third party incident log, an annual evidence checklist, and a short guide on how to use them. Every session adds another form as the year goes on.
£195 per business, or £95 for clients, and one licence covers everybody there. Free to any business with somebody on the whole year. Reissued every August with the law updated, at £75.
Managing People, from Upskill People
Short online episodes covering the developmental half of managing people: preparation, wellbeing, recruitment, induction, coaching, appraisals and talent. They pair with the live sessions rather than repeating them, and they have nothing on harassment, discipline or the 2026 and 2027 law changes, which is exactly why the two work together.
£95 per person per episode. Pick the ones you want. Most people start with Coaching and Performance Management.
Recordings only
If you cannot commit to a Tuesday morning, take the library instead. Every session recorded and up within 24 hours of the live one.
£250 per person, or £150 for clients.
Anybody who manages people, and has never been trained to
Line managers, supervisors, team leaders and owner-managers in small businesses. No HR background needed, and no legal knowledge assumed. If somebody in your business has to have the conversation, they should be in the room.
It suits businesses with anything from three managers to thirty. If you are bigger than that, talk to us rather than buying four of everything.
What it is not
It is not a law lecture and there are no case citations. It is not a webinar somebody reads slides at you from. And it is not a policy set: if your policies themselves need work, that is a different conversation and we should have it.
Questions people ask
What if we can only make some of them?
That is what credits are for. Buy three, buy six, buy the lot. And the recording comes with every session anyway, so a missed morning is not a wasted one.
Can we send different people to different sessions?
Yes, as long as you tell us before the session so we can swap the name over. The seat is named because the certificate and the quiz score have to belong to somebody, but it is transferable and there is no charge for swapping.
What you cannot do is treat one seat as a pass for the whole team. A register with one name on it and eight people in the room does not prove anything to anybody.
How do you prove somebody actually attended?
Four things together. The joining report, which shows who was connected and for how long. A short code that appears on screen part way through and gets asked for in the questions, so we know somebody was watching rather than just logged in. The six questions themselves, submitted under a named account. And the workbook, in their own words.
Then at the end of each block we send your business a Training Confirmation letter on our letterhead, listing who attended what, on which dates, for how long and what they scored. That is independent evidence, which is worth rather more than your own record of it.
Is it accredited?
It is practical training rather than a qualification. What you get is the confirmation letter, completed workbooks and knowledge check scores, which is the evidence somebody actually asks for. That is more useful than a certificate nobody looks at.
We are not in Hampshire. Does that matter?
Not at all. Every session is online, and the law is the same everywhere in England, Wales and Scotland. Where Scotland differs, we say so.
Will this be relevant to us? We are quite small.
It is written for small businesses specifically. The examples are a team of eight, not a team of eight hundred, and none of the recommended steps cost real money.
Somebody needs captions. Is that a problem?
Not at all, and you do not need to explain why. The booking form asks what you need and we sort it. Captions, materials in advance, a larger font, a break part way through, joining by phone, whatever helps.
Tell us once and it carries through the whole year. You will not be asked again every week.
What happens next year?
The same twenty titles run again, rewritten for whatever the law has done. Your managers get the refresher and the update in the same hour, which is the point of doing it this way.
Train your managers. Protect your business.
One hour, once a week, and your managers will be able to do something on Monday they could not do on Friday.
- Named seat, transferable
- Recording with every session
- Training Confirmation letter each block
Book a free, no obligation call and we will work out what your managers actually need, including telling you if one block would do the job just as well as the whole year.
Kettle on, standards up.
