Following widespread speculation and debate, the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023 is set to come into force in the UK on April 6 2025. The new legislation is designed to support parents with premature babies in neonatal care units and must be enforced by all employers.
With the introduction fast approaching, this article outlines what the new legislation means for employees and what employers must do to prepare.
Who is applicable for neonatal care leave?
Neonatal care leave applies to those with parental responsibility for a baby admitted to neonatal care within the first 28 days of birth. This includes mums, dads and adopted parents, together with partners of the baby’s mother.
Once in receipt of neonatal care, the babies must require neonatal hospital care for seven full days or longer.
Day one right
As part of the new legislation, all employees, with the exception of workers and self-employed contractors, have the right to receive up to 12 weeks’ extra leave and potentially extra pay, providing they meet certain eligibility criteria. As the new legislation is a day-one right, eligible staff members are entitled to benefit from neonatal leave immediately after starting their employment.
A ‘top up’ of maternity/paternity leave
Parents of newborn babies in need of neonatal care are currently not permitted to receive any extra time off or pay. As a result, many parents use their annual leave entitlement or ask for time off at the discretion of their employer to spend the required time with their babies.
In some circumstances, parents return to work while their children are still receiving neonatal care, especially when paternity leave has been exhausted.
Neonatal care leave can be used to effectively ‘top up’ maternity/paternity leave arrangements. This provides parents with even more quality time with their babies without having to worry about using up all of their annual leave or rushing back to work for fear of potentially losing their job.
Neonatal care leave: stipulations
However, there are some stipulations surrounding neonatal care leave pay. To qualify for the statutory pay due in neonatal leave situations, employees must have completed at least 26 weeks’ continuous service and earn at least £123 a week from April 6 this year to qualify for this financial support.
Parents who are successful in securing neonatal care leave pay will receive it for up to a maximum of 12 weeks, provided the leave is taken within the first 68 weeks of their child being born.
The implications for employers
While the new legislation looks set to deliver numerous benefits for parents, and quite rightly so given the highly sensitive and delicate nature of neonatal care, the implications for employers aren’t so advantageous.
Increased costs
It’s been widely acknowledged that the new legislation could result in increased costs for many employers, who may have to employ temporary cover for longer, which will invariably involve increased salary expenditure.
Increased administration
Of course, there’s the administrative side of things to factor in too. Employers should ideally update all of their relevant policies and procedures, making sure they clearly and adequately set out their new neonatal care leave duties.
This guidance should sit alongside their adoption leave and shared parental leave-type policies as a new addition to their overall suite of family-friendly policies and procedures.
Increased risk
In addition to being practical and updating their policies, employers should also be wary. Parents who have been off for 12 weeks or more are legally entitled to return to their role.
But if it has changed while they have been off or is no longer required, then employers are legally obliged to provide the employee with an equivalent role or priority to apply for other suitable positions if their job is at risk of being made redundant.
Neonatal care leave also provides employees with protection against redundancy and dismissal and being treated detrimentally for taking the leave.
Supportive employers
While employers are no strangers to embracing new legislation, this new law is yet another statutory duty employers are required to understand and embrace from every possible angle.
Those employers who are already familiarising themselves with the new legislation, are reinforcing their commitment to being a supportive workplace. But for those who are yet to get started, the Neonatal Care Leave Act is essentially forcing their hand to make the necessary changes and implement the legalities behind them.
Numerous past governments have spoken about introducing neonatal care leave, but now we know the full details and the mechanics behind the legislation. Employers must get on the front foot, further support their employees, and protect themselves from getting caught out by the arrival of yet another key piece of employee-focused legislation.
