The Neonatal Care Leave and Pay Act 2023 comes into force on 6 April 2025. Are you ready?
There will be a new statutory right to neonatal care leave, and in some cases, pay for parents of premature or seriously ill babies that are born on or after the 6 April 2025. So how are you going to practically implement these changes in your organisation?
Why has this Act been introduced?
According to the charity Bliss, one in seven babies born in the UK receive neonatal care, which is approximately 90,000 per year. The average stay in neonatal care is seven days, but the length of stay can vary significantly depending on how early the baby is born and where babies are born at up to 27 weeks of gestation, the average stay can be as long as 92 days.
What should employers be aware of?
The new legislation will only be eligible when a baby remains in neonatal care for at least 7 consecutive days, so is only likely to be taken by parents of premature babies and those requiring complex medical care.
Neonatal care is defined as medical care provided to a baby after birth in specific settings, such as medical care provided in a hospital. The regulations also clarify that routine post-natal check-ups and general health monitoring are not covered under the Act.
In summary, the new Act will consider the right to leave and the right to pay separately. This means employers will need to be clear on eligibility rules for any staff who request the leave and pay.
- Neonatal care leave is a day-one right, which means any employee will be eligible regardless of length of service or earnings. This means that if the employee’s baby meets the above eligibility (i.e. remains in neonatal care for seven consecutive days), then an employee can take up to 12 weeks of leave in addition to any other family friendly leave entitlements.
- Neonatal care pay is subject to length of service and earnings qualifying criteria.
With this in mind, employers will need to be mindful of how to discuss this with employees who may not realise that they may not be entitled to both.
Neonatal care leave
As stated above, eligibility for leave is when the employee’s baby remains in neonatal care for seven consecutive days. In this case, the employee can take up to 12 weeks of leave and this is in addition to any other family friendly leave entitlements. Further criteria are as follows:
- The seven consecutive days requirement of neonatal care must be immediately after the birth and fall within the first 28 days of life
- Leave cannot be taken for the first week of care and the leave is accrued in arrears
- The leave must be taken within 68 weeks of the baby’s birth.
The above is useful to think about when considering how other periods of leave could be taken at this time, e.g. paternity leave could be taken before neonatal care is.
The leave is available for birth parents, intended parents in surrogacy arrangements, adoptive parents and partners.
The leave has been divided into two tiers which specify when the leave can be taken and the associated notice requirements:
- Tier 1 applies when the baby is still receiving neonatal care. It can be taken in non-consecutive blocks. Employees need to advise their manager before their first day of Neonatal care leave, or as soon as reasonably practical
- Tier 2 will apply after the baby has been discharged from neonatal care, and needs to be taken in one continuous block. Employees need to give at least 15 days’ notice to take a single week, or 28 days’ notice for two or more consecutive weeks- although employers could decide to waive the statutory notice requirements.
Neonatal pay
To be eligible for pay as well as leave, employees must have at least 26 weeks’ continuous service at the ‘relevant week’, which is the week preceding the 14th week before the estimated week of childbirth, or the week when the adopter is notified of the match. They must also earn at or above the lower earnings limit.
Employees can receive up to 12 weeks of pay, depending on how long their baby remains in neonatal care. The pay is set at the statutory rate or 90% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.
Further guidance
The government is planning to publish guidance to support both employers and employees in understanding the new right to neonatal care leave and pay. At the time of writing, this guidance is expected before the end of March, so do watch out for further updates.
