Welcome to the community Rachel

You have no rights in practical / legal terms.

a) Sue your company for 'breach of contract'?
b) For breach of contract, there must be a loss and what is your loss?
c) Strictly speaking for a breach of contract to succeed there has to be both, 'offer' and 'acceptance' which I assume you didn't do in writing.

It wouldn't really make much difference even if you'd got the contract in your hand as evidence.

Trying to enforce the company you currently working in to give you the role they proposed isn't going to work is it? Potentially if this happened all they may well do is make that role (and you) redundant.

Perhaps circumstances have changed. This does happen, although in this case it doesn't appear to have been very well planned given whats happened.

For your own curiosity and future learning you may wish to find out exactly why this situation (the job created then suspended)

In reply to David Perry:

Thank you David.

Some provisional exploring of the gov.uk site and legal sites seemed to suggest that where a job offer is given, even verbally, then an employment contract has been created at the point of acceptance and should be honoured - a written contract isn’t necessary at this stage. I had verbally and via email accepted this role.

I am worse off after this scenario as there was another internal position at the same level that was offered to me that I turned down as my chosen role was this one, and I had been informed that this position was secure. Now the alternate role has been filled, so that position has been jeopardised.

I understand that the business is streamlining resource and cutting costs, however the morality of giving me a guaranteed role (this was the way it was put to me - that there absolutely is a role, there is no doubt that it it mine etc) when there was the potential for it to be withdrawn feels very shaky.

Do these circumstances impact on where I stand?

Thank you in advance for any advice.

In reply to Rachel:

Hi Rachel
I understand how disappointed you must feel. Before going forward you really need to think about the outcome you want to achieve. You clearly cannot have the job that has been scrapped and it is unlikely that the company will cancel the appointment of the person in the other job.
What redress, if any, are you looking for?
Contractually you could probably make a case in the civil courts for breach of contract, and seek damages for any actual losses that you have suffered - this would be a long and expensive route with an uncertain outcome and probably very little compensation. It would certainly irreparably damage your relationship with your employer, and I'm not sure what it would achieve in practical terms, except to demonstrate you've had a hard deal...
As David says, try to understand what has actually happened and what other actions the company could have taken. Make your dissapointment known in a non confrontational way and if you want to stay with the company, maybe ask for a commitment to be first in line for the next available suitable job.

In reply to Ray:

One final remark - if your company is a good employer and you are able to demonstrate resilience by bouncing back and moving forward, then that can only be good for your image.

In reply to Ray:

In theory they have offered you the job and could/should probably make you redundant from that job.

I guess they then offer you your current job as suitable alternative employment. Would you say yes and stay where you are or no and leave?

In reality it’s best to be positive. They have offered you two promotions and like buses a third will be along shortly. You might even get them to promise something along these lines. .

In reply to Ray:

Thank you Ray. I appreciate your advice and guidance.

It is true that mine, and the company’s, options are limited in this scenario, I understand that. I won’t go into detail about my personal feelings on the matter, and the impact this has had upon me as I really want to have objectivity on this, but re your comment on resilience - I completely agree and if this were not the third time this has happened to myself during my time at this organisation I would be able to demonstrate resilience more readily. As it is, I probably need some time to gather that together.

Again, I appreciate you taking the time to respond to me.

In reply to Keith:

Hi Keith - thank you very much for your input and guidance.
You are right in that deciding whether to stay or leave is what I need to weigh up.
Thank you for the positivity reminder. In time I will see it like you do.
Thank you again.

In reply to Rachel:

If in a relatively short space of time they have made concrete offers to you if promotion ( rather than vague suggestions) and withdraw them all then this could be argued to go to heart of contract and be grounds for a co structure dismissal case. But these are incredibly hard to win and I would only go down that route if I had decided to leave anyway regardless.

It should like they hold you in high esteem just are a little chaotic. It’s therefore always going to be ups and downs with them.

The real positive here is they see you as someone they kinda want to promote !!

In reply to Rachel:

Something that's helped me in the past Rachel is being aware of the acceptance curve - it helps you understand where you are in the process of bouncing back after a major disappointment or being let down, eg something out of your control that's upset you etc. I can't post a pic of it for copyright reasons but if you click on the image in the link here you should be able to read it.
silverlobster.wordpress.com/.../

In reply to Johanna:

Hi Johanna,
Great thank you so much - the acceptance curve is a great resource!