What rights do employees have to neonatal leave and pay?

Statutory neonatal leave and pay is available to employees if their child is born on or after 6 April 2025 and requires specialist neonatal care. It can apply in birth, surrogacy and adoption cases.

What is meant by neonatal care?

The legislation includes a broad definition of neonatal care – it means:

Palliative or end of life care;
Medical care received in a hospital (including via outpatient departments); or
Medical care received in any other place if:

the child was an inpatient in hospital and the care is received upon 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.

What length of service must an employee have to be entitled to neonatal leave and pay?

Statutory neonatal leave is a day-one right.

To qualify for statutory neonatal pay, an employee must have at least 26 weeks' continuous service ending with the 'relevant week' (15^th week before the expected week of childbirth in birth cases). Their employment must also continue after the relevant week until the week before neonatal pay is claimed.

Are there any other eligibility requirements?

Yes. To qualify for neonatal leave and pay:

Employees must have a qualifying relationship with, and responsibility for, the child who is receiving or has received neonatal care (e.g. in birth cases be either the child's parent or the partner of the child's mother, and have or expect to have responsibility for the child's upbringing);
Employees must take the leave to care for the child;
The neonatal care must start within 28 days from the day after the child's birth and last for an uninterrupted period of at least 7 days (not including the day on which the leave starts); and
Employees must comply with the appropriate notice requirements.

In addition, to be eligible for statutory neonatal pay an employee cannot work for their employer during their neonatal leave (and if they work for another employer during their neonatal leave, they will lose their entitlement to neonatal pay except in limited circumstances). To qualify for statutory neonatal pay, there are also certain minimum earnings thresholds that apply.

How many weeks of leave and pay?

Employees accrue one week of neonatal leave and pay for each 'qualifying week' i.e. uninterrupted period of 7 days during which the child receives neonatal care, up to a maximum of 12 weeks. There is no additional leave entitlement in the case of multiple births.

Neonatal leave and pay are available in addition to other types of statutory leave and pay (e.g. maternity and paternity leave) - so taking neonatal leave doesn't reduce the amount of maternity or other statutory leave available.

For neonatal leave and pay there are two periods: Tier 1 runs from the day a child starts receiving neonatal care and ends with the 7th day after the day on which care stops; and Tier 2 covers any other period during which an employee can take neonatal leave.

When can neonatal leave be taken?

The earliest that neonatal leave can start is the day after the first qualifying week. It must be taken within 68 weeks of the child's birth.

Leave must be taken in blocks of one or more weeks - it can't be taken as single days or periods of less than a week. During Tier 1, employees can take leave in non-consecutive weeks. During Tier 2, employees must take leave in consecutive weeks i.e. one block.

Employees can take neonatal leave when the child is receiving neonatal care or afterwards. Employees could, for example, add neonatal leave to the end of maternity or other statutory family leave or return to work after maternity or other statutory family leave, then take neonatal leave at a later time.

How much neonatal pay?

Statutory neonatal pay is paid at the prescribed rate (currently £187.18 per week), or if lower, 90% of the employee's average weekly earnings.

You can choose to offer a higher rate of pay for all or part of neonatal leave. If you offer this, it's important to set this and any eligibility requirements out clearly in a policy.

Rights and protections

An employee absent on neonatal leave benefits from their normal terms and conditions of employment except for those relating to remuneration. They are protected from detriment and dismissal for exercising their right to take neonatal care leave and, if they have taken at least 6 weeks' neonatal leave, may have priority for vacancies in the event of redundancy.

What if the child receiving neonatal care was born before 6 April 2025?

Statutory neonatal leave and pay are not available for children born before 6 April 2025, even if they receive neonatal care after that date. Employees who are not eligible for statutory neonatal leave may however be able to take other types of leave (e.g. maternity, adoption, parental, paternity, carer's, time off for dependants) if they meet the relevant entitlement conditions for that leave.

Workbox by Brodies

Workbox by Brodies users can access a dedicated page on Neonatal Leave, which has further information and a template policy and employee notice of neonatal leave. To find out more about Workbox, or to arrange a short online demo, click the button below or get in touch with a member of our Employment and Immigration team.