From 6 April 2025 the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023 (Neonatal Care Act 2023) will come into force introducing the entitlement to neonatal care leave and pay for eligible employees. Recently the government published draft regulations, The Neonatal Care Leave and Miscellaneous Amendment Regulations 2025 and The Statutory Neonatal Care Pay (General) Regulations 2025, which set out the detail of the new right to neonatal leave and pay.

Eligible employees who have a parental relationship with a child receiving neonatal care shortly after birth will be able to receive statutory neonatal care leave (SNCL) and statutory neonatal care pay (SNCP). It is hoped that this will address some of the employment challenges new parents face when their child is in neonatal care following birth.

In this insight we will outline the new rights in the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023 and set out steps that employers should take to prepare for this change by 6 April 2025.

Current Position

Currently, employees have no specific statutory right to leave or pay when their child requires neonatal care after birth. Unless employees reach an arrangement with their employer, they must use existing leave entitlements (e.g., statutory maternity, adoption, parental, or paternity leave) to be with their child. This often results in fathers or partners exhausting their paternity or parental leave if the baby is in neonatal care for an extended period, forcing them to use annual, compassionate, or unpaid leave.

The Definition of Neonatal Care

Neonatal care is defined in the Regulations as:

• Medical care received in a hospital (which includes a maternity home, clinics and outpatient departments).
• 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.
• Palliative or end of life care.

Statutory Neonatal Care Leave (SNCL)

Eligibility

The right to neonatal leave will be a day one right meaning that employees will be eligible to take leave from the very first day of their employment.

In order for employees to be eligible to take SNCL, the child must have received neonatal care for at least 7 consecutive days (beginning the day after the day on which the care starts) within 28 days of their birth.

The employee must:

1.      At the date of birth, be the child’s parent, intended parent or the partner of the child’s mother, or be the child’s adopter, prospective adopter or partner of the prospective adopter, including where the child is adopted from overseas.

2.      Have or expect to have responsibility for the upbringing of the child; and

3.      Take the leave to care for the child.

Leave Entitlement

Eligible employees have the right to one week of neonatal care leave for every week the baby is in neonatal care, up to the maximum limit of 12 weeks.

If an eligible employee is already on another form of statutory family leave (e.g., paternity leave), the SNCL can be added onto the end of that leave as long as the SNCL is taken within the first 68 weeks after the child’s birth/placement.

Neonatal care leave is distinguished in the Regulations between leave taken in the ‘tier 1 period’ and leave taken in the ‘tier 2 period’. To briefly summarise, a tier 1 period is the period beginning with the day that the child starts receiving neonatal care and ending on the 7th day after the child stops receiving neonatal care. The tier 2 period is any period of time which is not a tier 1 period in which the employee is entitled to take SNCL.

If an employee takes neonatal care leave during the tier 1 period, they can take the leave in consecutive or non-consecutive weeks. However, if an employee takes neonatal leave during the tier 2 period, then they must take their leave consecutively.

Statutory Neonatal Care Pay (SNCP)

In order to receive SNCP the employee must fulfil the eligibility criteria set out above and meet the continuity of employment and minimum earnings requirements.

Continuity of Employment

SNCP is not a day one right. The employee must have worked for the employer for a continuous period of at least 26 weeks by the ‘relevant week’.  In birth cases the relevant week is the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth. If the child is born early then the length of employment is calculated on the expected week of birth, not the actual week of birth. In the case of adoption, the ‘relevant week’ is the week in which the parent is told that they have been matched with a child for the purposes of adoption.

Minimum Earnings

The employee must also earn at or above the lower earnings limit (which will be £125 in April 2025) to be eligible for SNCP.

Pay Entitlement

If eligible, the employee will be paid at the same rate as statutory paternity pay (£187.18 in April 2025) or 90% of the employee’s average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.

Notice Provisions

An employee must give notice of their intention to take SNCL and notify their employer of the date the neonatal care ends, as soon as it is reasonably practicable.

The notice requirements also vary based off whether the leave is being taken in a tier 1 period or a tier 2 period.

If an employee is intending to take leave during the tier 1 period, then notice must be given in respect of each week of leave before the employee is due to start work on the first day of absence in that week, or as soon as reasonably practicable. For leave during the tier 1 period, the notice does not need to be in writing.

If an employee is intending to take leave during a tier 2 period, then the notice must be given in writing. The length of notice depends on the length of the leave. For a single week of leave notice must be given in writing no later than 15 days before the first day of intended leave. For two or more consecutive weeks of leave the notice must be no later than 28 days before the first day of intended leave.

An employer and employee can mutually agree to waive notice requirements.

Legal Protections

Employees taking statutory neonatal care leave are also entitled to various employment law protections:

• An employee is entitled not to be subjected to any detriment by an employer because they received or intended to receive neonatal leave benefits.
• An employee will be automatically unfairly dismissed if the reason or principal reason for dismissal or redundancy selection is due to the employee taking or seeking to take neonatal leave.
• An employee that has taken neonatal care leave is entitled to the benefit of all the terms and conditions of their employment which would have applied had they not been absent on leave.
• An employee taking neonatal leave has the right to return to their previous job or, if not reasonably practicable, a suitable alternative.
• If the employee’s job becomes redundant during a period of neonatal leave or the additional protected period, they are entitled to a suitable alternative vacancy.

Steps for Employers to Take Prior to 6 April 2025

1. Introduce a new Neonatal Care Leave and Pay policy or update existing family leave policies to account for neonatal care leave and pay; and
2. Training – employers should familiarise themselves, managers and HR with the new rights prior to their introduction.

If you require assistance with preparing for these changes, please contact our Employment Team below.