As of 6 April 2025, employees can now take up to 12 weeks’ leave and pay when their baby requires neonatal care.
The right to neonatal leave applies to employees from the first day of work. Parents will now be able to take one week of leave in respect of each week the baby receives neonatal care, but the care must be without interruption. There is a stringent time limit, as the neonatal care must have occurred or started within the first 28 days of birth (counting from the day after the baby is born) and care must continue for a period of at least 7 continuous days (beginning on the day after neonatal care starts).
For the avoidance of doubt, neonatal leave is additional to any other forms of statutory family leave employees may be entitled to, e.g. maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental or parental bereavement leave.
Who is eligible?
To qualify for neonatal care leave, the employee must be one of the following:
- the mother or birth parent
- the father
- married to, the civil partner of or partner of the mother or birth parent – this includes same-sex partners
- adopting a child, including fostering to adopt
- intended parents in a surrogacy
What is neonatal care?
What counts as neonatal care is categorised into the following circumstances:
- medical care received in a hospital
- care given to the baby after leaving hospital, under the direction of a consultant
- palliative or end-of-life care
- care or monitoring under the direction of a consultant but away from the hospital
When can leave be taken?
Neonatal care leave must be taken within 68 weeks of the baby’s birth. Typically, neonatal care leave will be added onto the end of the employee’s family leave. The reason being is that an employee whose baby is admitted for neonatal care is highly likely to be on some other family leave at that time, usually maternity or paternity leave. The idea is that parents would be able to take neonatal care leave at the end of their planned family leave, so that the time their baby spent in neonatal care is compensated for.
Of course, emergency situations also need to be catered for, especially when the employee isn’t already on leave whilst the baby is in neonatal care. This is most likely to occur where a father or partner’s paternity leave has run out while the baby is still in hospital.
To provide an element of flexibility and to cover emergency situations, leave and pay can be taken in 2 tiers and the employee must give the following notice:
- Tier 1 period (whilst in/within one week of exiting neonatal care): in respect of each week of leave, notice must be given before the employee is due to start work on the first day of absence (or as soon as it is reasonably practicable to give notice). This will be after the child has already had 7 consecutive days of neonatal care.
- Tier 2 period (i.e. when the baby has stopped receiving neonatal care and the leave occurs more than one week after leaving neonatal care to 68 weeks from birth):
- for a single week of neonatal leave – notice must be given no later than 15 days before the first day of leave; or
- for two or more consecutive weeks of neonatal leave, notice must be given no later than 28 days before the first day of leave.
Neonatal care pay
Although neonatal care leave is a day one right for employees, Statutory Neonatal Care Pay (SNCP) is not.
The eligibility requirements for SNCP mainly mirror those for neonatal care leave but to be eligible for SNCP the employee must also have:
- at least 26 weeks’ continuous service. The 26 weeks must be completed before the ‘relevant week’.
- earned at least £125 a week on average for 8 weeks before the relevant week.
The relevant week depends on any other pay a parent qualifies for. If a parent is also taking statutory maternity or paternity pay, the relevant week is the 15th week before the week the baby is due. For statutory adoption pay or paternity pay for adoption, the relevant week is when they are notified of being matched with the child. For any other pay for family leave, the relevant week is the one immediately before the week that neonatal care starts.
An eligible employee is entitled to one week of statutory neonatal care pay (SNCP) for every continuous week the child is in receipt of neonatal care, up to a maximum of 12 weeks. SNCP is paid at a fixed statutory rate.
If you are experiencing any issues in relation to neonatal care leave or pay, please do not hesitate to get in touch with the Employment Department on 0345 646 0406 or fill in our online enquiry form and we will be in touch.