Neonatal Care Leave and Pay

The Government announced on 20 January that the right to Neonatal Care Leave and Pay will come into force in relation to children born on or after 6 April 2025.

A summary of the provisions is:

Neonatal Care Leave (NCL)

• Eligibility: Available to employees with a parental relationship with a child receiving neonatal care
• Neonatal care: means
  • medical care received in a hospital
  • medical care received in any other place where:
    • the child was an inpatient in hospital and the care is received upon leaving the hospital;
    • the care is under the direction of a consultant; and
    • the care includes monitoring by, and visits from, healthcare professionals arranged by the hospital
  • palliative or end-of-life care
    
    Neonatal care must have commenced within 28 days of birth and care must continue for a period of at least 7 continuous days
• Duration: Up to 12 weeks, within the first 68 weeks of the child’s birth. There is a distinction drawn between:
  • leave taken whilst the child is receiving neonatal care (which can be taken in non-continuous blocks of a week) (“Tier 1 Leave”)
  • leave taken whilst the child is not receiving neonatal care (i.e. leave taken at the end of a period of maternity and paternity leave to set-off the maternity/paternity time spent whilst the child was in neonatal care) which must be taken in a continuous block (“Tier 2 Leave”).
• Notice requirements: Employees must notify their employer by providing specific details.
• Rights during leave: Employees retain all employment terms and conditions except remuneration (which is the same as other forms of family leave)
• Job protection: In the same way as other forms of family leave, there is a right to return to the same or a suitable job, protection from detriment, and, for those who have taken at least 6 continuous weeks of NCL, priority for suitable alternative employment in redundancy situations.

Statutory Neonatal Care Pay (SNCP)

• Eligibility: Employees must have at least 26 weeks of continuous service by the relevant week and meet the same earnings criteria as for other forms of statutory family leave.
• Duration and rate: Payable for up to 12 weeks at the same rate as statutory paternity or shared parental pay.
• Notice and evidence: Employees must provide written notice and evidence of eligibility to their employer.

Employers should not therefore now consider:

• Whether to introduce a policy for Neonatal Care Leave
• If they currently enhance other family leave payments, to what extent they will enhance neonatal care payments