From 6 April 2025, new rules will give eligible employees a statutory right to paid time off if their baby requires neonatal care. This time off is in addition to their other statutory rights, such as maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave, and it will be important for employers and employees to understand how the new right works. This blog explains the upcoming changes, considers issues arising and describes how employers can prepare and manage the impact.
What’s happening?
At the moment, parents whose babies need neonatal care do not have any specific rights over and above the right to maternity, paternity, adoption or shared parental leave (as may be applicable to them). After years of lobbying by charities for premature and sick babies, this is about to change with an additional right to paid neonatal care leave, allowing affected parents to take extra time off to support their family in these difficult circumstances. The government estimates that the new rules will benefit 60,000 new parents.
When does it come into force?
6 April 2025 (although the legislation is – at the time of publication – still in draft form).
Who is entitled to leave?
The statutory right to neonatal care leave (SNCL) is a day-one right, but to be eligible the employee must have a parental or other personal relationship with the baby who is receiving or has received neonatal care.
To be eligible, employees must meet these three criteria:
- At the date of birth, be the baby’s parent or intended parent (e.g., under a surrogacy arrangement), or the partner* of the child’s mother; or, in adoption cases be, at the time of placement (or arrival in Great Britain for overseas adoptions) be the child’s adopter, prospective employer, or their partner*.
- Have or expect to have (together with the other parent) responsibility for the child’s upbringing.
- Be taking leave to care for the child. This requirement is disapplied in the event of the baby’s death, or if an adopted baby is returned after having been placed.
*Partner for this purpose is someone who lives with the parent in an enduring family relationship but is not a relative. A relative for this purpose is a full or half-blood child, parent, grandchild, grandparent, aunt, uncle, niece or nephew. In adoption cases, the same relationship definitions apply.
What is meant by neonatal care?
Neonatal care means:
- Medical care received in hospital; or
- Medical care received elsewhere in circumstances where the baby has been an inpatient but continues care after they have left hospital, remaining under the direction of a consultant and subject to ongoing monitoring and visits by health care professionals arranged by the hospital where they were an inpatient; or
- Palliative or end-of-life care.
For the purpose of the new rules, neonatal care must start within 28 days of the baby’s birth and continue uninterrupted for at least seven days, beginning with the day after the care started. Time spent travelling between places of neonatal care does not break this continuity.
How much statutory neonatal care leave can be taken?
Eligible parents can take one week of leave for each week the baby requires neonatal care, up to a maximum of 12 weeks. It should be taken in full weeks.
When can statutory neonatal care leave be taken?
The leave must be taken within 68 weeks of the baby’s birth or, in the case of adoption, within 68 weeks of placement (or entry to Great Britain in overseas adoption cases).
How does statutory neonatal care leave fit with other statutory leave?
SNCL is in addition to other statutory rights such as maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave.
Where other statutory leave has already started, the neonatal care leave should be taken at the end of that period.
Where neonatal care leave has started before the employee starts another type of statutory leave, their neonatal care leave comes to an end and any remaining entitlement can be taken after the other statutory leave ends.
How can statutory neonatal care leave be taken?
How the leave can be taken depends on when it is taken.
If neonatal care leave is taken while the baby is receiving neonatal care, or in the period up to seven days after they stop receiving such care, it can be taken in non-continuous blocks of a minimum of one week at a time. This is known as ‘tier 1 leave’.
Neonatal care leave taken at any other time is known as ‘tier 2 leave’ and must be taken in one continuous block.
For parents already on maternity or adoption leave, neonatal care leave is most likely to fall into tier 2 as they will exhaust their maternity or adoption leave first. Tier 1 leave is more likely for parents who are not entitled to or have exhausted their statutory leave (e.g., the child’s father, mother’s partner or, in adoption cases, the parent not taking adoption leave).
What if more than one child needs neonatal care?
Where two or more babies from the same pregnancy require neonatal care, the right to neonatal care leave can be accrued in respect of each baby. However, where two or more babies require neonatal care at the same time, it only accrues once in respect of that period.
The maximum number of weeks’ leave (12) remains unchanged, and the period in which it must be taken (68 weeks) applies from the birth of the first baby.
How much notice of leave should be given?
This depends on when the leave is taken.
- For leave taken in tier 1, 15 days’ notice is required before each period of absence.
- For leave taken in tier 2, 28 days’ notice is required.
However, it is open for the employer and employee to mutually agree to waive these notice requirements.
When does leave start?
Leave starts on the day set out in the notification, provided the requisite notice has been given. Where the notice requirements have been waived, leave starts on the date agreed.
What information needs to be provided when giving notice of leave?
The following information must be provided when giving notice to take SNCL:
- The employee’s name.
- The baby’s date of birth and, in adoption cases, the date of placement or the date the baby entered Great Britain.
- The date(s) neonatal care started.
- The date neonatal care ended (if it has). If care is ongoing, the employee must notify their employer as soon as practical if care ends. Likewise, if care that has stopped starts again, they must notify their employer of the start (and end) dates.
- The date on which the employee wants their SNCL to start.
- The number of weeks of SNCL the notice is being given for.
- Confirmation that the employee meets the eligibility criteria, including that leave is to care for the baby.
Notice must be given in writing for tier 2 leave. There is no requirement for written notice in respect of tier 1 leave.
Can leave be cancelled?
Yes, in relation to tier 2 leave the employee can give notice to withdraw their leave request. There must be 15 days’ notice given for leave of one week and 28 days’ notice if the original request was for two or more weeks of leave.
There are no provisions for withdrawing SNCL taken in the tier 1 period.
What are an employee’s rights during and after statutory neonatal care leave?
As with other statutory leave, employees continue to be entitled to all terms and conditions of employment (except in respect of pay – see below) during SNCL.
Employees are entitled to return to their previous job after an isolated period of SNCL, or after the last of two or more consecutive periods of leave that did not include (a) parental leave of more than four weeks, or (b) statutory leave which, when added to other statutory leave (excluding parental leave), meant statutory leave in relation to the same child is more than 26 weeks. In other cases, they are entitled to return to their same job unless that was not reasonably practical, in which case to a job that is suitable and appropriate.
In a redundancy scenario, employees who have taken six consecutive weeks of SNCL are entitled to priority protection for suitable alternative employment (if such a vacancy exists), starting with the day after that six-week period has been attained and ending 18 months after the child was born, placed for adoption or entered Great Britain (if adopted from overseas).
Employees are also protected from suffering a detriment and will be treated as unfairly dismissed if the principal reason was due to taking or seeking to take SNCL or the employer believed they were likely to take it.
Is the leave paid?
Employers are only obliged to pay employees on SNCL if they meet the eligibility criteria.
What are the eligibility criteria to qualify for paid SNCL?
Employees who meet the eligibility criteria for SNCL, have at least 26 weeks of continuous service and earn above the lower earnings limit (which will be £125 from April 2025), are entitled to paid SNCL. It is paid at the lower of the prevailing statutory rate (which will be £187.18 from April 2025) or 90% of normal weekly earnings.
Practical considerations for employers
- Employers should consider having a specific neonatal care leave and pay policy reflecting at least the requirements set out in the legislation. This will need to sit alongside existing policies and ensure nothing in these conflicts or undermines any of the new statutory rights, for example, with respect to length of leave, notice requirements, cancellation, etc.
- Employers can enhance the statutory position, not only in respect of pay or length of leave but also in terms of flexibility around how it is applied, for example, extending the timeframe over which leave can be taken. The regulations specifically allow notice requirements for taking neonatal care leave to be waived, so employers should consider any circumstances under which they are prepared to do this.
- As neonatal care leave will typically be taken at the end of other statutory leave, employers should be prepared for lengthy absences from work. For example, if a baby needs 12 weeks of neonatal care, this 12-week period could be added on to 12 months of maternity or adoption leave and taken in conjunction with parental leave. As neonatal care leave can be taken up to 68 weeks after birth or adoption, this may mean 68 weeks of absence in some cases, before accrued holiday is added to the equation.
- Some employees may elect to bring maternity or adoption leave to an end early, certainly when pay stops, and start their neonatal care leave at that time to allow some continuous pay, even if it is at statutory rather than enhanced rates.
- Finally, employers need to be mindful of the enhanced redundancy protections applicable to certain employees on neonatal care leave and ensure the processes put in place to reflect changes to the law in this area in April 2025 are updated.
The legislation
The Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023 (the ‘Act’) received Royal Assent in May 2023, and in January 2025, the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023 (Commencement no 2) Regulations 2025 were made, bringing all remaining aspects of the Act into force.
The Act provides powers to make additional regulations to give effect to the rights to neonatal leave and pay. The Neonatal Care Leave and Miscellaneous Amendments Regulations 2025 and the Statutory Neonatal Care Pay (General Regulations) 2025 were laid before Parliament in January 2025. These regulations act to insert new provisions into the Employment Rights Act 1996 and the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 to provide for the statutory right to neonatal care leave and pay.