(5 min read)
From 6 April 2025, employees in England, Wales and Scotland will be able to take up to 12 weeks’ statutory neonatal care leave (paid, where eligible) if their child requires a week or more of neonatal care within 28 days of birth. The new entitlement will be in addition to other leave and pay entitlements, including maternity and paternity leave and pay.
The Government expects the new right to benefit around 60,000 new parents each year.
We explain how the new rights will work and how to prepare for these changes.
Background
Around 1 in 7 babies born in the UK are admitted to neonatal care each year, with around 40,000 babies remaining in neonatal care for over a week. Currently, parents can only use their existing maternity, adoption, shared parental or paternity leave entitlement to be with their baby at this time, unless they use annual leave or take compassionate leave, unpaid parental leave or unpaid time off for dependents.
In 2020, the Government committed to providing a statutory right to neonatal care leave and pay. The Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act received Royal Assent in 2023 but required regulations to detail the new rights. Now, the Neonatal Care Leave and Miscellaneous Amendments Regulations 2025 and the Statutory Neonatal Care Pay (General) Regulations 2025 (Regulations) have been laid, and, subject to Parliamentary approval, will take effect from 6 April 2025, with government and ACAS guidance to follow.
What is neonatal care?
Under the Regulations, neonatal care is defined as:
- Medical care in a hospital (including maternity homes, clinics and outpatient departments);
- Medical care after the baby leaves hospital that is under the direction of a consultant (including monitoring by, and visits to the child from, healthcare professionals arranged by the hospital);
- Palliative or end of life care.
Eligibility and pay
For babies born on or after 6 April 2025, Statutory Neonatal Care Leave (SNL) will be available as a 'day one' employment right where:
- At the date of the baby's birth, the employee is:
a. the baby's parent,
b. the baby's intended parent (in a surrogacy arrangement), or
c. the partner of the baby's mother or adopter/prospective adopter (or partner of)
who has, or expects to have, responsibility for the upbringing of the baby and is taking the leave to care for the baby; and
- The neonatal care starts before the baby is 28 days old and continues without interruption for at least 7 days (beginning with the day after the day on which the care starts).
To be eligible for Statutory Neonatal Care Pay (SNP), employees must also:
- Have at least 26 weeks' continuous service with their employer ending with the relevant week (either the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth, the week in which the adopter is notified of being matched with the child for adoption purposes or the week before the neonatal care starts in all other cases); and
- Have normal weekly earnings over an 8-week period ending with the relevant week that aren't less than the lower earnings limit (£125/week from 6 April 2025).
SNP is paid at the statutory prescribed rate (£187.18 from April 2025) or 90% of earnings if lower.
Employers will be entitled to recoup an amount equal to 92% of an SNP payment, or the whole of an SNP payment if they qualify for small employers' relief.
Duration, timing and notice
Eligible employees are entitled to one week of SNL for each full, uninterrupted week of neonatal care, up to a maximum of 12 weeks. For example, if a baby received 20 days of neonatal care, their parents would be entitled to 2 weeks' SNL. All SNL must be taken within 68 weeks of the child's birth. If more than one child is receiving neonatal care at the same time, SNL can only be accrued in respect of one child during that period and the maximum length of leave remains capped at 12 weeks.
Unless employers and employees mutually agree to waive any notice requirements, employees must give notice of intention to take SNL by providing:
- their name and confirmation that they meet the SNL eligibility criteria;
- their child's DOB (or, in adoption cases, the date of placement or entry to Great Britain);
- the date(s) their child received / ended neonatal care;
- the date they wish SNL to begin and the number of weeks of SNL the notice is for; and
- confirmation that they are taking the leave to care for the child.
SNL is split into two periods:
- Tier 1 leave begins the day the baby starts receiving neonatal care and ends on the seventh day after they stop receiving it. During this time:
- SNL will only start the day after the first qualifying week (i.e. Day 9 of neonatal care);
- SNL may be taken consecutively or non-consecutively in blocks of one week;
- Notice need only be given by the time of starting work on the first day of each week of leave and doesn’t need to be in writing.
Tier 1 leave is likely to be taken by the baby's father or mother's partner (or the parent not taking adoption leave), since the mother or primary adopter is likely to be on maternity or adoption leave at that time.
- Tier 2 leave is any time outside Tier 1 where an employee is entitled to take SNL. During this time:
- Any remaining SNL must be taken consecutively;
- Employees must give written notice of 15 days’ notice of one week’s leave, or 28 days’ notice of two or more weeks’ leave.
Tier 2 leave is more likely to be taken where someone on maternity or adoption leave tags on SNL to the end of their maternity or adoption leave.
Protections
Employees taking SNL are entitled to the same employment protections as other types of family leave including the right to return to their original role and protection against dismissal and detriment.
Employees who have taken 6 continuous weeks of SNL also benefit from the extended redundancy protection rights (if these do not already apply via maternity, adoption or paternity leave), with the right to be offered a suitable alternative vacancy applying from the day after the employee has taken 6 consecutive weeks of leave and ending on the day after the child turns 18 months old.
How can employers prepare?
Ahead of the new rights coming into force on 6 April 2025, employers are advised to:
- Update family leave policies or draft a new policy to refer to SNL and SNP;
- Update or train line managers and payroll teams on the new rights, including the impact on returning to work, handling redundancy processes and processing pay;
- Take steps (e.g. tracking) to ensure that employees returning from 6 continuous weeks of SNL will receive enhanced protection in a redundancy situation until their child turns 18 months old;
- Consider the steps needed to comply with the data protection obligations of handling/processing details of a baby’s medical condition and the fact an employee is taking neonatal leave to ensure that this information is dealt with sensitively and confidentially;
- Consider signposting any other assistance for parents (e.g. EAP or counselling) to help them deal with the mental and/or physical health impacts of having a child in neonatal care.
What should be addressed in a policy?
With employees likely to be accessing these policies at an emotionally distressing time, policies should be easy to find, accessible and drafted as clearly as possible. As well as outlining eligibility requirements and relevant processes, consider:
- Relationship with other family leave rights: It could be helpful to explain how SNL and SNP interact with other types of family leave. For example, that entitlement to other family leave and pay will be unaffected and explaining that, as maternity leave is unable to be curtailed and restarted, mothers taking maternity leave are likely to add on SNL at the end of maternity leave.
- Enhancements: Do you enhance any other types of family leave? If so, will you also wish to enhance SNP (either pay and/or duration) and whether this will be discretionary.
- Notice: Do you want to waive the detailed notice provisions (or any part of them?) Consider providing a template form to make it easier for employees to provide the required details. Government or ACAS guidance may provide such a template in the coming weeks.
