In the UK, a new policy introducing Neonatal Care Leave and Pay will come into effect on 6 April 2025. This initiative aims to support parents whose babies require neonatal care within 28 days of birth and will represent a significant enhancement of parental support, recognising the challenges faced by families with newborns requiring specialised care.
What qualifies as neonatal care?
Neonatal care refers to the specialised care provided to newborn babies who require extra attention and medical support after birth. It typically applies to babies who are born prematurely or have health conditions that require them to stay in a hospital’s neonatal unit (also known as a neonatal intensive care unit or NICU).
The Act sets out three categories of medical care which will count as neonatal care, these are:
- Any medical care received in hospital.
- Medical care received elsewhere following discharge from an inpatient stay hospital. The care must be under the direction of a consultant and includes ongoing monitoring and visits to the child by healthcare professionals; or
- Palliative or end of life care.
Eligibility for neonatal care leave and pay
Neonatal leave is a day one right which means employees are entitled to this leave from their first day of employment. You will also need to meet the following conditions:
- You must be an employee.
- The policy applies to babies born on or after 6 April 2025.
- At birth of the baby, you must be the baby’s parents, intended parents (in relation to surrogacy) or partner to the baby’s mother and you must have or expect to have responsibility for raising the child.
- The newborn must be admitted to neonatal care within the first 28 days of birth and must remain in neonatal care for at least 7 continuous days. The first period of 7 days begins with the day after the day your baby first receives neonatal care.
- Neonatal care leave must be taken to provide care for the baby
- Neonatal care leave must be taken in blocks of a week.
To qualify for neonatal leave pay, the following additional conditions must be met.
- Must be employed and have worked for their employer for at least 26 weeks by the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth.
- Your average gross weekly earnings must be at least equal to the lower earnings limit for National Insurance (NI) purposes. In April 2024/2025, this is £123 per week.
- As a general rule, your earnings will be averaged over a period of at least 8 weeks up to and including the last pay day before the end of the relevant week. This period is called the ‘relevant period’.
How much leave can I take and when?
Eligible employees can take up to 12 weeks of leave, corresponding to each week their baby receives neonatal care. This leave is in addition to other statutory leave entitlements, such as maternity, paternity, adoption, and shared parental leave.
Neonatal care leave can be taken at any point within 68 weeks of the baby’s birth, allowing flexibility for parents to take leave after other forms of family leave. The leave must begin no earlier than the second week of neonatal care.
Neonatal care pay is available for up to 12 weeks. The exact payment amount is subject to the employee’s earnings and the statutory pay rates at the time.
Employer Responsibilities
Whenever new Acts or policies are introduced it’s important to communicate this to your employees, so they understand their rights. This will include providing information about the eligibility criteria, how to apply and the entitlements. In some cases, this may require updating your firm’s internal employee policy documents.
It would also be advisable to familiarise yourself with the new regulations and prepare to administer neonatal care leave and pay from 6 April 2025 and to ensure compliance and effective utilisation of the new leave entitlements.
Our experienced payroll team are always on hand to assist with payroll related queries and understanding these new regulations so please feel free to get in touch with us if you wish to discuss this further.
