Employee Relations and Policy Manager

Welford Healthcare; Wheathampstead; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 72,000; Full time

Job summary

Welford Healthcare is seeking an Employee Relations and Policy Manager to strengthen HR practices across our care home portfolio. You will provide expert ER advice, lead policy development, and coach managers across multiple sites to ensure fair, consistent people decisions.

You will combine strong employment law knowledge with practical, commercially aware HR leadership. Travel between care homes countrywide will be required, with the head office in Wheathampstead.

Qualifications

• Significant experience in employee relations within multi-site settings.
• Strong knowledge of UK employment law and ACAS guidance.
• Experience developing and implementing HR policies and procedures.
• Excellent report-writing and formal correspondence skills.

Responsibilities

• Provide expert advice on disciplinary, grievance, capability, performance, conduct and sickness absence matters.
• Lead development and implementation of HR policies and procedures across the portfolio.
• Coach Home Managers and regional leaders to strengthen management capability.
• Monitor ER trends, absence and turnover using management information for improvements.
• Support integration of newly acquired care homes, including TUPE activities.
• Collaborate with HR and operational teams to support staff wellbeing and resident safety.

Skills

Employee relations

UK employment law

ACAS guidance

Policy development

Communication skills

Education

CIPD Level 5

CIPD Level 7

HR qualification

Tools

HRIS

Case management

Job description

Job title:Employee Relations and Policy Manager

Location: Wheathampstead (Head Office), with sometravel to Care Homes across country

About the role

Are you an experienced HR professional with a passion for employee relations, strong employment law knowledge and the ability to support managers in making confident, fair and consistent people-management decisions?

We are seeking an Employee Relations and Policy Manager to join our team and play a key role in strengthening HR practices across our growing portfolio of care homes.

Key responsibilities

• Employee relations: Provide expert advice and practical support on disciplinary, grievance, capability, performance, conduct and sickness absence matters, ensuring cases are managed fairly, consistently and in line with employment legislation and company policies.
• HR policies and procedures: Lead the development, review and implementation of HR policies, procedures, guidance documents and standard operating procedures across the care home portfolio.
• Management coaching and support: Build strong relationships with Home Managers and regional leaders, providing coaching, guidance and practical tools to strengthen management confidence and capability.
• Reporting and continuous improvement: Monitor employee relations trends, absence, turnover, policy compliance and case outcomes, using management information to identify improvements and reduce avoidable employment issues.
• Acquisitions and organisational change: Support the integration of newly acquired care homes, including the alignment of HR policies and processes, identification of employment risks, TUPE-related activities and organisational change initiatives.
• Partnership working: Collaborate with HR colleagues, operational leaders and other internal teams to ensure HR practices support staff wellbeing, resident safety and operational effectiveness.

About you

You will be a confident and experienced HR professional who combines sound technical knowledge with a practical, approachable and commercially aware style. You will be comfortable managing complex employee relations matters, advising senior stakeholders and influencing managers to achieve fair and consistent outcomes.

You will ideally have:

• Significant experience in employee relations and HR within a multi-site organisation.
• Strong working knowledge of UK employment law and ACAS guidance.
• Experience developing, reviewing and implementing HR policies and procedures.
• Excellent communication and report-writing skills, including experience preparing investigation reports and formal correspondence.
• A high level of professionalism, discretion and integrity when handling confidential and sensitive information.
• Flexibility to travel regularly between care homes and regional locations.

Desirable experience and qualifications include:

• CIPD Level 5 or Level 7 qualification, or equivalent relevant HR experience.
• Experience within the care home, health or social care sector.
• Understanding of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulatory framework and the relationship between people management, safe staffing and quality of care.
• Experience delivering management training and using HR information systems or employee relations case management platforms.

About Us

Welford Healthcare was founded in 2017 with the goal of building a boutique collection of quality care homes across the UK. Our strategy is to grow our business by acquiring mature care homes with quality foundations and strong potential for improvement and by investing in our people and our properties to ensure our homes are always inviting and homely. Whilst we are a growing business, we never lose sight of our primary and enduring purpose which is to provide good quality care for vulnerable adults. As we acquire new homes, we leverage our resources and expertise to ensure that the homes we run always have our residents' wellbeing at their hearts.

Our senior leadership team has extensive experience of operating, opening and acquiring quality care homes with proven track records in regulatory compliance and running commercially successful businesses where meeting the needs and ensuring the happiness of our residents and our teams are the cornerstones of our approach.

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