
New employment legislation on 6th April 2025 – Neonatal Care Leave
Published Jan 18, 2025
On 6th April 2025 a new right to Neonatal Care Leave (NCL) and pay will come into effect and is expected to benefit about 60,000 new parents each year.
The new right to additional time off will be a day one right and it will apply to employees with children who are born on or after 6th April 2025.
NCL will apply to employees who are the parents of a baby who is admitted into neonatal care within the first 28 days of birth and have a continuous stay in hospital of seven days or longer. Eligible parents will be entitled to up to 12 weeks of leave and can take a minimum of 1 week.
To qualify for paid NCL an employee will need to have been employed for a minimum of 26 weeks prior to the leave being requested. Employees who do not have 26 weeks service will still be entitled to the leave but not the pay.
We are expecting the weekly rate of pay to be the same as other family-related statutory pay such as for maternity and paternity leave.
The new right will be in addition to existing parental leave such as maternity leave and paternity leave.
We are still waiting for the Government to publish the regulations on Neonatal Care Leave and once these are released, we will provide further advice and guidance to our HR members.