HSC England August 2026 release notes

Welcome to the August 2026 policy updates. Please note policies are rapidly changing to a new format. Quality Statements are evidenced clearly at the start of the policy, and a detailed Procedures section has been clearly separated out in the policies. For structured details on these policy updates, please see this>

This article will be updated throughout August.

This update restructures the Grievance Policy into the seven-section format, adds a full set of step-by-step procedures aligned to the Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures, quotes the relevant CQC quality statements in Section 1, corrects the equality statement to the required wording, and removes both personalised fields in favour of fixed standard text. The organisation’s underlying grievance commitments are unchanged.

Released 1 August

This update restructures the policy into the seven-section format, adds step-by-step procedures, standardises the service-user terminology to “people we support”, corrects the equality statement, and removes all six personalised fields by adopting a standard smoke-free-site position.

Released 1 August

This update restructures the policy into the seven-section format, rebuilds the investigation, hearing and appeal stages as step-by-step procedures aligned to the Acas Code, quotes the relevant quality statements in Section 1, corrects the equality statement, adds abuse or neglect of a person we support to the gross-misconduct examples, and removes the single personalised field.

Released 1 August

This update restructures the policy into the seven-section format, adds step-by-step procedures, quotes the relevant quality statements in Section 1, corrects the equality statement, and reduces the personalised fields from eight items to one by resolving the “delete as applicable” choices and free-text inserts to lawful defaults or to the contract of employment.

Released 1 August

This update restructures the policy into the seven-section format, adds step-by-step procedures with the statutory timescales, quotes the relevant quality statements in Section 1, corrects a materially incomplete equality statement, and removes all personalised fields by deferring the optional enhanced maternity-pay scheme to the contract of employment and maternity-related annual-leave carry-over to the Annual Leave Policy.

Released 1 August

Day One rights have been clearly stated under the Agency Workers sub-heading.

Released 15 August

This update restructures the policy into the seven-section format, adds step-by-step procedures, quotes the relevant quality statements in Section 1, corrects the equality statement, and removes the single terminology field. The appraisal and fit-and-proper content is preserved.

Released 15 August

This update restructures the Menopause Policy into the seven-section format, quotes the relevant CQC quality statements in Section 1, removes an outdated regulatory reference, makes the language inclusive of everyone who may experience the menopause, adds step-by-step procedures, and removes the single personalised field. The policy now applies across all settings. The support and adjustments offered to staff are unchanged.

Released 15 August

This update restructures the policy into the seven-section format, adds step-by-step procedures, quotes the relevant quality statements in Section 1, and — most importantly — corrects the eligibility rule to reflect that ordinary unpaid parental leave became a day-one right on 6 April 2026. It also removes both personalised fields.

Released 15 August

This update restructures the policy into the seven-section format, rebuilds the capability process as step-by-step procedures aligned to the Acas Code, quotes the relevant quality statements in Section 1, corrects the equality statement, and removes all four personalised fields.

Released 15 August

This update restructures the policy into the seven-section format, adds step-by-step procedures, quotes the relevant quality statements in Section 1, corrects the equality statement, removes the enhanced-pay personalised fields, and corrects the eligibility and ordering rules to reflect the day-one paternity leave right introduced on 6 April 2026.

Released 15 August

This update restructures the policy into the seven-section format, adds step-by-step procedures, quotes the relevant quality statements in Section 1, corrects the equality statement, and removes all personalised fields by deferring enhanced shared-parental pay to the contract and carry-over to the Annual Leave Policy. The statutory scheme is retained in full.

Released 15 August

The main change defines the short-term absence trigger inside the policy — as a personalised field — instead of referring out to “the organisation’s HR procedures”. Six external links were also corrected (including a wrong legislation citation), and the document was aligned to the current house styling. No other wording of substance changed.

Released 15 August