The new statutory right to Neonatal care leave
The new neonatal care leave and pay rights came into force on 6 April 2025.
The aim of the new right is to allow parents dedicated time to spend with their newborn while they are receiving medical care, without taking time away from their maternity, paternity, adoption or shared parental leave. The hope is that this will provide some peace of mind to parents who find themselves in this difficult situation.
What are the leave entitlements?
Parents, or others with a personal relationship to the child who are eligable, will be entitled to take up to 12 weeks of neonatal care leave (NCL) in addition to existing parental leave entitlements where their baby is receiving, or has received, neonatal care.
NCL will be a ‘day one’ right for Employees.
Who will be eligible?
At the birth of the baby, the employee must be one of:
The baby’s parents
The baby’s intended parents – applicable to surrogacy
Partner to the baby’s mother – who are unrelated and living with them in an enduring family relationship – with the expectation they will have responsibility for raising the child.
In cases of adoption, similar principles will apply.
To qualify for NCL, the baby must be born on or after 6 April 2025.
What constitutes ‘neonatal care’?
Neonatal care must have taken place, or begun, within the first 28 days of birth and care must continue for a period of at least seven continuous days.
Neonatal care is defined as:
Medical care in a hospital, including a maternity home, clinic or outpatient department
Medical care in another place to which the child is moved on leaving hospital – provided the care is under the direction of a consultant and includes ongoing monitoring by and visits from healthcare professionals arranged by that hospital
Palliative or end of life care.
When must the leave be taken?
The idea of NCL is that it will be tagged onto the end of the employee’s family leave i.e. maternity/paternity leave so that the time their baby spent in neonatal care is compensated for. As a result, there is a distinction between when the leave is taken, referred to as Tier 1 or Tier 2 periods.
Tier 1 applies while the child is receiving neonatal care and for seven days after the care ends. Leave during this period must not be taken before the day after the first full week of neonatal care, meaning that the first week is not covered. Employees can take NCL in non-consecutive weeks during Tier 1.
Tier 2 applies to any remaining entitlement and must be taken in a single consecutive block. The maximum leave entitlement remains 12 weeks, even in cases of multiple births where more than one child requires neonatal care.
The right to take NCL must be taken within 68 weeks of the child’s birth.
What are the notice requirements?
Employees must notify their employers if they intend to take NCL and the notice requirements differ between Tier 1 and Tier 2.
In line with other parental leave, employees are expected to provide the following information to their employer:
The child’s date of birth
The start and end date of neonatal care
How much leave they want to take
Confirmation that they are eligible for leave and are taking it to care for their child.
For Tier 1 leave, notice must be given before the first day of absence or as soon as reasonably practicable. For Tier 2 leave, 15 days’ notice is required for a single week of leave and 28 days’ notice for two or more consecutive weeks of leave.
What pay will the employee be entitled to?
From 6 April 2025, eligible employees will also be entitled to statutory neonatal care pay (“SNCP”) to provide financial support during their leave.
To qualify for SNCP, employees must have a parental relationship with the child mirroring the NCL eligibility, 26 weeks’ continuous service at the relevant date, and earnings not less than the lower earnings limit for national insurance contributions.
SNCP will be paid at the same rate as statutory paternity pay or statutory shared parental pay, or 90% of earnings, if lower.
SNCP is not payable if the employee is receiving statutory sick pay, is in legal custody, or has died.
What protection will be afforded to the employee whilst on NCL?
As with other family leave entitlements, employees will remain entitled to the same terms and conditions of employment, with the exception of pay. There are also similar rules around when an employee will be entitled to return to their original role, which will always be the case for a single period of NCL.
Employees who have taken six continuous weeks of NCL also benefit from the extended redundancy protection rights – if these do not already apply via maternity, adoption or paternity leave. They have the right to be offered a suitable alternative vacancy applying from the day after the employee has taken six consecutive weeks of leave and ending on the day after the child turns 18 months old.
Employees will also be protected from detriment and dismissal for exercising their right to take NCL. Dismissal of an employee for a reason connected with their taking NCL will be automatically unfair.