Neonatal care leave | New right from 6 April 2025
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Neonatal care leave | New right from 6 April 2025


On 20 January 2025, the Government announced that the right to neonatal care leave and associated pay (where eligible) will take effect from 6 April 2025. This follows the introduction of the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023 (the ‘Act’) and marks one of the many changes to employment law that we expect to see over the coming years.

Seeing as 6 April 2025 is just over 9 weeks away, here is what you need to know.

Who will neonatal care leave cover?

Neonatal care leave will cover working parents whose baby is admitted into neonatal care:

  1. before the end of a period of 28 days beginning with the day after the child’s birth; and
  2. who have a continuous stay in hospital of 7 full days or longer.

This will be a day one right and will entitle parents who meet the above requirements to take up to 12 weeks of leave on top of any other leave they may be entitled to, such as maternity and paternity leave.

The Act confirms that ‘neonatal care’ will include any care of a medical or palliative kind specified in the regulations.

As this is a day one right, an organisation will be required to offer this leave to all of their employees provided they meet the eligibility requirements. This is despite any qualifying service, or lack of. However, please see below on statutory neonatal care pay which requires continuity of service.

Organisations should ensure that their policies are up to date to account for this day one right and manage its existence within the structure of the organisation.

Statutory neonatal care pay

This will only be available to those parents above who meet the continuity of service requirements and also a minimum earnings threshold.

Eligibility will be subject to:

  1. having at least 26 weeks of continuous service as at the ‘relevant week’; and
  2. earning average weekly earnings over the lower earnings threshold (see below).

Lower earnings threshold

The lower earnings threshold is currently £123 a week but is set to increase in April 2025 to £125 a week.

This is measured from the individual’s normal weekly earnings for the period 8 weeks ending with the ‘relevant week’. The earnings must not be lower than the lower earnings limit in force at the end of the ‘relevant week’.

What is the relevant week?

When calculating eligibility for statutory neonatal care pay, the test refers to having at least 26 weeks continuous service as at the ‘relevant week’.

The Act defines ‘relevant week’ as any case:

  • where the person is entitled to statutory maternity pay in respect of the child, it will be the week immediately preceding the 14th week before the expected week of confinement;
  • where the person is entitled to statutory paternity pay in respect of the child, it will be the same week as the relevant week (including statutory paternity pay as it relates to adoption);
  • where the person is entitled to statutory adoption pay in respect of the child, it will be the same week as the relevant week.

Alternatively, in any other case, the relevant week will be the week immediately before the one in which the neonatal care starts.

Restrictions on contracting out

The Act places a restriction on attempting to contract out of this right. Specifically, the Act states that an agreement is void where it purports to exclude, limit or otherwise modify the right OR where the agreement purports to require a person to contribute towards any costs incurred by that person’s employer or former employer.

What should organisations do to prepare?

It is always best to be proactive rather than reactive to legislation changes. If you are an organisation, we would urge you to ensure that your policies are up to date to address this right ahead of 6 April 2025.

If you would like help in reviewing or amending your existing policies in regard to neonatal care leave, please do reach out to a member of our Employment team. Please also visit the Employment and Immigration sections of our website to see a full range of services we can assist you with.

 

We publish blogs and social media posts to give a general overview of legal and commercial issues, relevant at the time of publication, which we hope you will find interesting. Please note that legal rules often change depending on the specific facts of a situation. The law also changes over time following changes in legislation or new court cases. We do not actively update our blogs or posts once they are published to reflect changes in the law.

As such, our blogs and posts are not intended to advise you on the law and must not be relied upon as legal advice. If you require advice on a particular issue then please contact us and we will be pleased to help.



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