A new starter turns up on Monday morning and, before you have even finished the office tour, tells you their baby is due in eight weeks and they want paternity leave. If your first response is to do the rota maths in your head, you’re not alone. The problem is that from April 2026, paternity leave becomes a day one right in the UK, and many small business managers are about to have these conversations with zero training and a lot of assumptions.

We break down what the Employment Rights Act 2025 changes in practice, including the expansion of day one rights for paternity leave and unpaid parental leave. Then we get into the bit the law text doesn’t teach you: how to talk about it. The biggest trip-up is mixing up leave and pay. Leave is the time off and it becomes available from day one. Statutory paternity pay has its own qualifying rules, so a brand new starter may be entitled to take leave while not yet qualifying for statutory pay. Getting that sentence right can save you a complaint, a grievance, or a resignation.

You’ll also hear the three most common manager mistakes we see: the gut reaction that reads as irritation, denying a right because pay rules are misunderstood, and being flexible for one person but strict with another. We give you clear scripts for interview disclosure and day one announcements, a quick consistency check, mythbusting on records and “small business exceptions”, and a seven-point action list to update contracts, templates, and onboarding.

If you want plain-English HR guidance you can actually use, subscribe, share this with the person who onboards your new starters, and leave a review so more small businesses find it.

If you’re not 100% sure how your HR is really holding up, take our free HR Health Check. It’s short, jargon-free, and gives you a clear score on what’s working — and what needs a bit of love.

And if you do it before 1st April 2026, you’ll get a bonus 7 Pillar Strategy-on-a-Page, tailored to help you manage HR brilliantly for the year ahead. That’s it for today, but if you fancy a bit of friendly HR advice in your inbox (with zero waffle), come and join our newsletter.

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If you're not sure how your HR is really holding up, take the free HR Health Check. It's short, jargon-free, and gives you a clear score on what's working and what could do with a bit of love.

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe so you never miss one, and leave a review if you've got thirty seconds. It honestly does help more small business owners find the show, and it's the cheapest good deed you'll do all week.

Got a question or need actual HR support? Find Kate at kateunderwoodhr.co.uk, email [email protected], or follow along on social.

Until next time, keep buzzing, and take care of your people.