Probationary periods

Probationary period is a trial period of employment prior to being offered a permanent contract of employment.

The trail period can be any period from a month to six months and be extended if further training or periods of satisfactory work are required.

If after the probationary or trial period the employee has not reached the required standards they will not be offered a permanent contract and their employment will be terminated.

There will be no grounds to claim unfair dismissal to an employment tribunal as the qualifying period of employment for an application is twelve months, unless the probationary period and any extendion was for a total of more than the 12 months qualifying period. Barnardo's policy on probationary periods states that the probationary period should not be extended by more than 3 months to a probationary period of 9 months in total.