What do employers need to know about the new rights to time off for parents of babies in neonatal care?

Statutory Neonatal Care Leave and Pay

Two new regulations have been finalised in regards to new rights for employees:

1. The right to statutory neonatal care leave; and
2. The right to statutory neonatal care pay.

Both of these regulations will  be effective from 6 April 2025, and employers need to be aware of the new right so as to ensure they can take steps to prepare for the changes.

Statutory Neonatal Care Leave

The statutory entitlement for neonatal care leave will only apply to children who are born on or after the 6 April 2025.

The new legislation confirms that for an employee to be eligible for statutory neonatal care leave, the neonatal care must commence within 28 days of the child’s birth and must continue uninterrupted for at least 7 days beginning with the day after the care starts.

The new legislation sets out what neonatal care means:

1. Medical care received in a hospital;
2. Medical care received in any other place where:

1. The child was an impatient in hospital and the care received is upon that child leaving hospital.
2. The care is under the direction of a consultant; and
3. The care includes ongoing monitoring by, and visits to the child from, healthcare professional arranged by the hospital where the child was an in-patient.

3. Palliative or end of life care.

Please note, reference to a hospital can also mean a maternity home, as well as clinics and outpatient departments.

Entitlement to Statutory Neonatal Care Leave

This is a day one statutory right, which means that an employee is entitled to this leave from the commencement of their employment.

To be eligible to take neonatal care leave an employee must:

• At the date of birth, be the child’s parent, intended parent (under a surrogacy arrangement) or the partner of the child’s mother, or be the child’s adopter or prospective adopter (or the partner of adopter/prospective adopter), this includes where the child is adopted from overseas.
• Have or expect to have responsibility for the upbringing of the child.
• Take the leave to care for the child.

An employee would be entitled to take one week of neonatal care leave for each qualifying period that the child has spent in neonatal care. The qualifying period means a week during which the child receives neonatal care without interruption beginning:

• For the first qualifying period, on the day after the day on which care starts.
• For a subsequent qualifying period, on the day after the end of the proceeding qualifying period.

Essentially, the new legislation will allow an employee whose child is receiving neonatal care to take statutory leave in blocks of one week, for each week that the child receives neonatal care.

For instance, if an employee’s child receives two weeks of neonatal care, they will be entitled to two weeks of neonatal care leave, provided the care received by the child is not interrupted.

In adoption cases, the qualifying period only commences after the date the child is placed with the adopter.

The maximum amount of neonatal care leave is 12 weeks, and it must be taken within 68 weeks of the child’s birth. The neonatal leave can be added onto another statutory family leave i.e. maternity, paternity, adoption leave or shared parental leave.

If you use maternity leave as an example, if the employee takes 52 weeks leave, they could add 12 weeks neonatal care leave to their entitlement, if their child required 12 or more weeks of neonatal care.

Notice Requirements

In order for the employee to be able to take neonatal care leave they must make a request which contains the following:

• The employees name.
• The child’s date of birth or the date the child was placed with you (in cases of adoption).
• The date(s) the child started to receive neonatal care.
• The date the neonatal care ceased (if applicable).
• The date the employee wishes the neonatal care leave to commence.
• The amount of neonatal care leave the employee wishes to take.
• Confirmation that the leave is being taken to care for the child.

If the neonatal care has not ended when the request is submitted, the employee must inform you of the date the care ends as soon as is reasonably practicable. If a child has to recommence neonatal care, the employee should inform you of the date the neonatal care recommenced and the date it ended, as soon as is reasonably practicable.

Neonatal care will be split into two tiers:

Tier 1: will commence the day after the child starts to receive neonatal care and end on the seventh day after the treatment commenced.

Tier 2 – will commence once the tier 1 period has ended and continue for the duration the employee is entitled to receive neonatal care leave.

Where an employee requests leave in tier 1, notice must be given for each qualifying week prior to the first day of absence or as soon as practicable. There is no requirement for this notice to be given in writing.

Where an employee requests leave in tier 2, the notice requirements are as follows:

• For one week, at least 15 days’ notice before the first day of leave.
• For two or more weeks, at least 28 days’ notice before the first day of leave.

The notice for tier 2 leave can also be in writing.

An employee can also withdraw a request for tier 2 leave by following the notice provisions set out directly above.

Statutory Neonatal Pay

Again, entitlement to neonatal pay will apply to children born on or after 6 April 2025.

Entitlement to Neonatal Pay

Unlike with neonatal care leave, the pay provisions set out that an employee must have been continuously employed by you for 26 weeks by the end of the relevant week.

The relevant week is deemed to be:

• In birth cases, the week preceding the 14^th week before the expected week of childbirth.
• In adoption cases, the week in which the adopter is notified of being matched with the child.
• In any other case, the week immediately before the week in which the neonatal care starts.

If the child is born before the 14^th week, the employee will be eligible for neonatal pay:

• If the employee remained in continuous employment from the date of the child’s birth.
• The requirement to continuous service is amended so that, but for the early birth, the employee would have 26 weeks continuous service ending with the week preceding the 14^th week of childbirth.

Employees must earn above the lower earnings limit to be entitled to neonatal pay and will be paid at the same rate as statutory paternity and shared paternity leave.

Notice Requirements

Again, the notice requirements for neonatal pay are split into tier 1 and tier 2, and the employee must provide the same details within the notice (see above).

Where an employee requests neonatal pay in tier 1, notice must be given within 28 days of the date the notice relates to.

Where an employee requests leave in tier 2, the notice requirements are as follows:

• For one week, at least 15 days’ notice before the first day of leave.
• For two or more weeks, at least 28 days’ notice before the first day of leave.

If the employee is unable to give notice, as set out above, the notice must be provided as soon as reasonably practicable.

Summary

The above sets out the statutory minimum requirements that an employer must provide to employees in the situation where their child requires neonatal care.

Bear in mind, that this will be an extremely stressful period for your employee, and you should offer additional support wherever possible. The new legislation and regulations have been introduced to assist parents during an extremely difficult situation and employers have the discretion to forgo notice requirements and to extend time off and pay at their discretion.

We strongly recommend that you add details of neonatal leave and pay to your staff handbook, either alongside an existing family leave policy or as a new policy.

If you have any questions regarding statutory neonatal care leave or would like some help preparing a new policy or procedure, please do not hesitate to contact us on 01983 897003.