Neonatal care leave and pay from 6 April 2025

Neonatal care means:

1. Medical care received in a hospital (which includes a maternity home, as well as clinics and outpatient departments).

2. Medical care received in any other place following discharge from hospital (provided that the care is under the direction of a consultant and includes ongoing monitoring by / visits from healthcare professionals arranged by that hospital).

3. Palliative or end of life care.

Neonatal care must have taken place within the first 28 days of birth and must continue for at least 7 consecutive days. This means that employees are unable to claim NCL where the baby’s medical care is required after those first 28 days.

Critically, the new rights are available to both parents. To be eligible an employee must:

1. at the date of birth, be the child’s parent, intended parent (under surrogacy arrangement) or the partner of the child’s mother, or be the child’s adopter or prospective adopter (or partner of the same);

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

3. take leave to care for the child (although this requirement is disapplied where the baby dies or an adoption placement ceases after NCL has been accrued).

Eligible employees can take one week’s leave for each week that the baby receives neonatal care without interruption. This is then capped at 12 weeks. The week begins on the day after care started.

NCL cannot be claimed twice by the same employee respect of multiple births where the babies are receiving care at the same time. The maximum amount of leave for that employee remains at 12 weeks.

NCL can be taken on top of any other leave the employee may be entitled to, including maternity and paternity leave. However, NCL must be taken within 68 weeks of the baby’s birth (or placement / entry into GB for adoption cases).

NCL can be taken while the child is still receiving neonatal care, or later, although it cannot start before the second week of neonatal care. Generally, employees will tag NCL onto the end of their family leave, given that they will likely be on some other form of family leave at the time their baby is in neonatal care (i.e. maternity or paternity leave). This then helps to compensate for the time the baby spent in neonatal care. 

In all cases, employees must tell their employer the date of the baby’s birth/placement/entry to the UK, the start and end date of neonatal care (if the end date is known – if not, they must give this information as soon as is reasonably practicable), the date they want the period of NCL to begin, how much leave they want to take, confirm that they are taking leave to care for their child, and, if it’s the first notice in respect of that child, confirm that they are eligible.

However, the notice period requirements and whether leave can be taken consecutively or non-consecutively depends on whether the leave is taken in what is referred to as the ‘tier 1’ or ‘tier 2’ period.

Note however that the employer and employee may mutually agree to waive the notice requirements.

The ‘tier 1’ period is the period during which the child is receiving neonatal care or during the week following the end of neonatal care.

In this period, employees don’t have to give their employer much notice of leave and notice doesn’t need to be in writing. Notice need only be given by the time they are due to start work on the first day of each week of leave. This reduced notice period requirement reflects the fact that, if leave is taken during the ‘tier 1’ period, it will often be taken in unforeseen and emergency circumstances.

During the ‘tier 1’ period, NCL cannot be taken for the first week that a child is in neonatal care. It can be taken as consecutive or non-consecutive weeks. Any remaining entitlement to NCL may be taken in the ‘tier 2’ period.

In practice, NCL is only likely to be taken in the ‘tier 1’ period by the child’s father or mother’s partner, since the mother is likely to be on maternity leave during this period. It might, for example, be used by the father or partner where paternity leave has run out whilst the baby is still undergoing neonatal care. In adoption cases, it is only likely to be taken during the ‘tier 1’ period by the parent who is not taking adoption leave.

The ‘tier 2’ period – which is any leave taken outside the ‘tier 1’ period – is not as flexible.

In this period, employees must give 15 days’ notice of one week’s leave, or 28 days’ notice of two or more weeks’ leave. Additionally, leave in this period can only be taken consecutively.

The lack of flexibility reflects the fact that, in practice, ‘tier 2’ leave is likely to be taken where someone on maternity or adoption leave tags on NCL to the end of their maternity or adoption leave, such that they can pre-empt the taking of leave and plan to give advance notice accordingly.

Similar protections are afforded to employees taking NCL, as to those taking other types of family leave entitlements, including, for example, the right to return to their original role, enhanced redundancy protection, and protection against dismissal and detriment.