Latest Blog Posts
Statutory Payment Changes – April 20245th April 2024 - 10:14 am
How to create a carer-friendly workplace11th March 2024 - 12:34 pm
Flexible Working and Redundancy Rights21st February 2024 - 3:52 pm
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Sleeping Nights Pay Ruling
A recent ruling by the Supreme Court (Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson-Blake) has established that where a worker is paid a flat shift rate (or an allowance) for a sleeping night, when they are awake and working for any period of that shift, they should be paid no less than the national minimum wage for […]
Remember rate rises for wages and statutory payments
While many things in our world are unusual at present, one thing that never changes is the rate rises that come into effect each April. Read on to ensure you have the correct figures available when paying your April wages and salaries… Wage and Statutory Pay Increases April 2021 As many of us watching the […]
Taking care of the carers: working parents
Support for key worker parents should be a priority for employers in the care industry… If you don’t look after your staff how can they look after anyone else? As lockdown 3.0 continues, working parents are once again doing their best to work without being able to fall back on their regular childcare or traditional […]
Can you make Covid-19 vaccines mandatory for your staff?
Can you insist that your care industry employees are vaccinated? What will happen if they refuse? Read on… As the first Covid-19 vaccines begin to roll out, we can start to see a ray of light at the end of the global pandemic tunnel. And for those of us in the care industry, with the […]
Looking ahead to 2021
There has been a lot to take in over the past 10 months, with furlough schemes and lockdown laws, but before you raise a glass to the new year, take a moment to make a note of these changes… It has been a tough year for many of us in the business world, and it […]
New Immigration Rules for 2021
As we head towards the end of 2020 and the UK finally leaves the EU, this will also mean the end of free movement to the UK. The UK Government is introducing a new points-based immigration system which will treat EU and non-EU citizens equally. This change comes into effect on the 1st January 2021. […]
The extended furlough scheme: who can claim?
As the UK went into a second lockdown earlier this month, Chancellor Rishi Sunak confirmed that the furlough scheme would be extended. Find out how it applies to you and your employees… Although the second UK lockdown is set to end at the beginning of December, Rishi Sunak has recognised that companies may be affected […]
Latest Government Help for Businesses Explained
Learn how the Job Support Scheme and Test and Trace Support payment schemes work for businesses… STOP PRESS: Furlough Scheme extended from Thursday 5 November to Wednesday 2 December in line with England’s second lockdown of 2020. Please note that despite the lockdown, Embrace HR will continue to operate virtually and are here to address […]
Creating and Maintaining Mentally Healthy Workplaces
In a year of considerable change and uncertainty, we have to work harder to protect our mental health. As an HR Manager or Team Leader, your attitude and actions can also help the resilience of your team. Every employee was recruited because they offered skills, knowledge, experience and potential that your organisation needed. In a […]
Back to Work at Home
Some companies have just got staff back into the office and now they’re heading back home again. What are the employers’ responsibilities? In the wake of a second wave of Covid-19, on 22 September 2020, the Prime Minister asked for office workers to once again work from home if they were able to. Unlike the […]
Work from Home – Latest Advice from the Prime Minister
The latest advice, announced in a statement by the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, on Tuesday 22 September, is for office workers to work from home wherever possible. For professions where this is not possible, such as care work, people should continue to attend their workplace… Following a significant rise in the number of positive cases […]
Redundancy guarantee for furloughed workers
New rules will ensure that furloughed employees are not ‘short-changed’ if they are made redundant… The government has introduced new rules that will protect furloughed workers in the event of redundancy. The changes, introduced on 30 July 2020, will see employees receiving statutory notice pay calculated using their normal wages, not their furloughed rates of […]