The much-anticipated Regulations [1] implementing the statutory right to neonatal care leave and pay have now been laid before parliament and, if approved, will come into force on 6 April 2025. The provisions will apply to all babies born, or placed for adoption, on or after that date.
The government expects that the entitlement will benefit around 60,000 new parents. The purpose behind them is to support working parents whose babies are receiving neonatal care, by giving them the time to focus on their families without feeling pressured to return to work.
What is “neonatal care”?
For the purposes of the Regulations, “neonatal care” is defined as any:
- medical care received in the hospital;
- (where the child was an inpatient at the hospital but has now left) medical care received in another place under the direction of a consultant (including ongoing monitoring by and visits to the child from other healthcare professionals); and
- palliative or end-of-life care
which starts within 28 days of the child’s birth and continues for at least 7 consecutive days.
Entitlement and Eligibility
The entitlement will apply to all employees from day one of their employment and who are:
- either the child’s parent, intended parent or partner of (and living with) the child’s mother; or
- the child’s adopter, prospective adopter or adopter/prospective adopter’s partner;
and
- expect to have (or share with the mother/ adopter) responsibility for the child.
The purpose of the leave must be to provide care for the baby. An employee will accrue one week’s leave per week of neonatal care required. The minimum amount of leave which can be taken will be one week and the maximum, 12 weeks. The leave must be taken within 68 weeks of the child’s birth, otherwise it will be lost.
Note that for adoption cases, employees will only be able to take leave in respect of neonatal care that falls after the date the child has been placed for adoption.
How to take neonatal leave
The Regulations divide the leave into two periods: ‘tier 1’ and ‘tier 2’. The relevant ‘tier’ into which the leave falls will ultimately dictate what the notification requirements are in order to take it, and whether or not it must be taken consecutively or non-consecutively.
Tier 1 period
The ‘tier 1’ period is the period that begins on the day the child starts receiving neonatal care and ends on the 7th day after the child stops receiving that care. ‘Tier 1’ leave does not need to be taken in consecutive weeks and is subject to relaxed notification requirements. All that is required is for the employee to inform their employer that they are taking neonatal leave on the first day of their absence from work or, if this is not possible, as soon as reasonably practicable thereafter.
Tier 2 period
The ‘tier 2’ period is any neonatal care leave which the employee chooses not to take in the ‘tier 1’ period or which cannot be taken in the ‘tier 1’ period because the employee is on another type of statutory leave (such as maternity leave).
Notification requirements are more prescriptive for ‘tier 2’ leave and depend on whether the employee wants to take the leave in single or consecutive weeks. If the employee wants to take the leave as a single week, they must give their employer at least 15 days’ written notice. If they wish to take the leave in consecutive weeks, they will need to provide 28 days’ written notice.
It is open to employers to agree to waive the notification requirements if they wish.
Crucially, neonatal care leave cannot be taken at the same time as another period of statutory leave (i.e. maternity, paternity, adoption leave, etc.). Therefore, if a ‘tier 1’ leave is interrupted by another period of statutory leave, the neonatal care leave must be taken immediately after the end of the other period of statutory leave (provided the leave is still being taken in the ‘tier 1’ period). This is why the Regulations permit neonatal leave to be taken within 68 weeks of a child’s birth; it accounts for the fact that a new mother, taking 52 weeks of maternity leave (2 of which are compulsory), will be able to take the neonatal leave she was entitled to, but unable to take (because she was on another form of statutory leave), at the end of her maternity leave entitlement.
Where the employee is in the ‘tier 2’ period, the remaining entitlement to neonatal care leave must be taken consecutively with any other neonatal care leave taken in the ‘tier 2’ period. However, it is important to bear in mind that the Regulations do not permit an employee to take neonatal leave if, when they give notice to take the leave in the ‘tier 2’ period, the employee already knows that the leave will be interrupted by another period of statutory leave.
Rights during neonatal leave
As with other forms of statutory leave, employees are entitled to benefit from all terms and conditions (except remuneration) that would have applied had they not been absent on neonatal leave.
Rights on returning from Neonatal leave
Employees have the right to return to the same job they were employed in before they were absent on neonatal leave, unless the neonatal leave has followed a period of parental leave of more than four weeks, or the cumulative total of statutory leave (excluding parental leave) has exceeded 26 weeks. In such cases, they have the right to return to the same job, unless not reasonably practicable, in which case they have the right to return to another suitable and appropriate job on terms and conditions no less favourable.
Rights on redundancy
The Regulations provide for employees on neonatal leave to be given priority for any suitable alternative vacancies when a redundancy situation arises, or who have taken at least 6 weeks of neonatal care leave, and the redundancy situation arises within 18 months of the child’s birth.
Statutory neonatal care pay
Unlike neonatal care leave, entitlement to statutory neonatal care pay is not a day 1 right. Instead, employees will need to have 26 weeks’ service by the “relevant week” (in birth cases, this is the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth; in adoption cases, the week in which the adopter is notified of being matched with a child) and earn at least the lower earnings limit. If employees meet these eligibility requirements, statutory neonatal leave pay will be paid at the rate of £187.18 per week from April 2025 or 90% of the employee’s average weekly earnings, if lower.
Special circumstances
Special provisions apply in the event of multiple births (i.e. twins), death of the baby or an adoption placement failure.
Multiple births
Entitlement to neonatal care leave and pay is accrued separately for each child. However, where more than one child is receiving neonatal care at the same time, the employee’s entitlement during that period only accrues for one child (i.e. the leave accrued is not doubled if twins are receiving neonatal care at the same time).
Death
Where neonatal care leave has accrued and the baby sadly dies before the end of the period in which that leave can be taken, the employee is still entitled to take it. The requirement that the leave must be taken in order to “care” for the child, is disapplied.
Adoption placement failure
Where an employee has accrued neonatal care leave, but the adoption placement fails before the employee has had a chance to take that leave (and the employee is still within the period in which that leave can be taken), the employee is still entitled to take it.
Next steps
- Familiarise yourself with the Regulations
- Decide if you wish to pay enhanced statutory neonatal leave
- Decide if you wish to waive (or relax) the notification requirements under the Regulations
- Update your Staff Handbook to include a Neonatal Care Leave policy
- Review our practical examples here
- Contact Prettys’ Employment Team for further advice and assistance
- Look out for ACAS guidance (due to be published soon)
Prettys Employment Team can provide advice and assistance on any of the matters raised above. Please contact the team on 01473 232121 for further information or you can contact Sheilah at scummins@prettys.co.uk
[1] The Neonatal Care Leave and Miscellaneous Amendments Regulations 2025 and The Statutory Neonatal Care Pay (General) Regulations 2025.
