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From 6 April 2025, eligible employees have a statutory right to leave and pay if their baby requires specialist neonatal care after birth. The government has published a suite of guidance documents to help navigate the new laws and Acas has published separate guidance on the topic.
In this article, we provide an overview of the new right to statutory neonatal leave and pay and look at what employers should be doing as a result.
What does the statutory right to neonatal care leave (NCL) and pay (NCP) entail?
‘Neonatal care’ means:
- hospital care.
- medical care after leaving hospital – this care must be under the direction of a consultant and include ongoing visits or checks arranged by the hospital where the child was treated.
- palliative or end of life care.
Neonatal care must begin within 28 days of the child’s birth and last for at least seven continuous days. The right applies in respect of children born on or after 6 April 2025.
Below is a very broad overview of the key elements of NCL and NCP.
NCL
- NCL is a day-one right.
- An employee is entitled to one week of NCL for each qualifying week their child spends in neonatal care, capped at 12 weeks.
- The employee must:
- Be:
- the mother or birth parent;
- the father;
- married to, the civil partner of or partner of the mother or birth parent – this includes same-sex partners;
- adopting a child, including fostering to adopt; or
- intended parents in a surrogacy; and
- Take the leave for the purpose of caring for the child; and
- Have caring responsibility for the child (an Eligible Parent).
- Be:
- NCL must be taken within the first 68 weeks of a child’s birth.
- Employees must comply with the relevant notice requirements.
- NCL will ordinarily be tagged onto the end of another period of statutory family leave.
- The rights of the employee during and after NCL are broadly similar to other periods of family leave (e.g. right to return to same job, protected from detriment/dismissal relating to NCL, entitled to be offered priority for suitable alternative employment in a redundancy situation etc.).
NCP
- An employee must be an Eligible Parent.
- An employee must have at least 26 weeks’ continuous service, ending with the Relevant Week, to be entitled to NCP.
- The “Relevant Week” depends on what, if any, other pay the parent qualifies for:
- If the parent is receiving statutory maternity or paternity pay, the Relevant Week is the 15th week before the week the baby is due.
- If the parent is receiving statutory adoption pay or paternity pay for adoption, the Relevant Week is when they are notified of being matched with the child.
- If the parent is receiving pay for any other type of family leave, the Relevant Week is the one immediately before the week that neonatal care starts.
- An employee must have earned at least £125 a week on average, for a period of eight weeks ending with the Relevant Week.
- NCP is paid at the same rate as statutory paternity pay or statutory shared parental pay.
- NCP is capped at a maximum of 12 weeks and is payable only within the first 68 weeks after the child’s birth.
- Employees must comply with the relevant notice requirements.
What should employers be doing now?
First, it’s worth noting that the government has published a suite of guidance to assist employers with getting to grips with NCL and NCP. The employer guide provides a helpful overview of the rights, but there are more detailed guides dealing with specific issues like how employment status impacts NCP and the manual calculation of NCP. Acas has also produced guidance on this topic, setting out advisory steps to help employers adapt to the new laws. It’s certainly worth employers familiarising themselves with the guidance available.
In terms of more general advice on next steps, employers should consider:
- Updating policies and contracts – consider introducing a new policy to cover NCL and NCP or amend existing family leave policies to cover this topic. Try and clearly set out eligibility requirements and processes for requesting NCL and NCP so that it easy for employees to understand. Template forms might be particularly helpful. Also consider whether your contracts need to be updated (for example, if your contracts explicitly refer to the circumstances in which employees are permitted to carry-over holiday).
- Training/updates – HR and relevant managers should be trained on the new entitlements and any specific company policy and be ready to deal with requests. It’s a good time to offer general refresher training on family friendly rights.
- Offering flexibility and enhancements – the Acas guidance encourages employers to be flexible, particularly in relation to the notice requirements, mindful that this is inevitably going to be a stressful period for the employee. Employers may wish to waive the complex notice requirements and/or reserve the right to exercise discretion in relation to notice. They may also want to consider whether they will offer any discretionary enhancements in terms of leave and pay.
- The impact on redundancy – HR should be mindful that employees on NCL for 6 weeks or more are entitled to extended redundancy protection rights. Given the extended protection lasts until the child turns 18 months old, employers will need to keep track of this carefully.
Should you have any questions relating to NCL or NCP or wish to discuss this topic further, please do not hesitate to contact Lynsey Blyth.
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