The Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023, which comes into force on 6 April, introduces a new right to statutory neonatal care and leave for parents with babies (born on or after 6 April) needing specialist care after birth.
Here's a summary of the key points and what you can do to prepare for this.
Eligibility for neonatal care leave
Parents will qualify for neonatal care leave from day one of their employment if their baby is admitted to hospital within the first 28 days of birth and stays for at least seven full days. The seven days begin with the day after the day on which the care starts.
Eligible parents include biological parents, intended parents (under a surrogacy arrangement), the partner of the child's mother, or the child's adopter, prospective adopter, or the partner of the adopter/prospective adopter. The employee must have or expect to have responsibility for the upbringing of the child and take the leave to care for the child.
What is neonatal care?
It means medical care received in a hospital, or medical care received in any other place where:
- the child was an inpatient in hospital and the care is received upon that child leaving hospital;
- the care is under the direction of a consultant; and
- the care includes ongoing monitoring by, and visits to the child from, healthcare professionals arranged by the hospital where the child was an inpatient.
It also extends to palliative or end of life care.
Leave entitlement
Up to 12 weeks of neonatal leave can be taken, depending on the duration of neonatal care. Parents will be able to take one week of leave in respect of each week the baby receives neonatal care without interruption.
The leave must be taken within 68 weeks of the child's birth or, in the case of adoption, placement.
It is divided into two tiers:
- Tier 1: covers the period the baby is actually receiving neonatal care, so from the day it starts receiving care, and ends on the seventh day after the day the baby stops receiving care. Tier 1 leave can be taken in non-continuous blocks of a minimum of one week at a time; and
- Tier 2: this is any remaining leave and has to be taken in a continuous block. This will be taken at the end of the individual's period of family leave. The purpose behind this is to compensate parents for any time that the baby spent in neonatal care which coincided with some other family leave e.g. maternity or paternity leave.
Notice requirements
An employee must give notice of their intention to take neonatal care leave, including:
- The employee's name.
- The baby's birth date/date of placement.
- The date/dates the baby started to receive neonatal care.
- The date neonatal care ended if the baby is no longer receiving it.
- The date on which the employee chooses the period of leave to begin and the number of weeks of leave.
- That the employee is taking the leave to care for the baby.
- Confirmation that the employee meets the eligibility requirements.
There are different notice requirements for tier 1 and tier 2 periods. The employer and employee can mutually agree to waive these notice requirements.
Rights during the leave period
Employees retain all their terms and conditions of their employment which would have applied had they not been absent on leave, except remuneration.
They have the right to return to the same job or a suitable job if it is not reasonably practicable for the employer to permit the employee to return to the same job (there are slightly different requirements depending on the period of leave the employee is returning from).
Extended redundancy protection rights for those who have taken six continuous weeks of leave i.e. the right to be offered a suitable alternative vacancy from the day after the six consecutive weeks of leave have been taken and ending on the day after the child turns 18 months old.
Employees will be protected from detriment and dismissal for taking neonatal care leave. Dismissal for a reason connected to taking neonatal care leave will be automatically unfair.
Neonatal care pay
Pay will be available for employees with at least 26 weeks' continuous service and average earnings of at least £123 a week. The pay rate aligns with statutory paternity and statutory shared parental pay (£187.18 from 7 April 2025).
There are different notice requirements for tier 1 and tier 2 periods (which can be waived by mutual agreement). The notice of evidence of entitlement to statutory neonatal care pay requires very similar information to the notice of entitlement to leave.
Action points
Now that we have this detail it's time to prepare! You should:
- Get up to speed with how the new rights to neonatal care leave and pay work.
- Update policies to reflect the new entitlement.
- Adjust redundancy procedures to account for the extended protection for employees who have taken neonatal care leave.
By preparing now, you can ensure compliance with the new regulations and support employees effectively when these rights come into force.
