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Neonatal care is the medical care provided to newborns, especially those with premature births or medical conditions requiring specialised treatment. It encompasses a range of services from basic postnatal care to intensive care for ill or premature babies. The term “neonatal” refers to the first month of life after birth.

New rights to neonatal care leave and pay came into force on 6 April 2025. If one of your team is unlucky enough to find themselves faced with this situation , please do come to your Turnstone HR Consultant for advice.

To help you in the meantime we have developed a simple policy which is available on request. If you would like us to brand this up for your organisation, we’d be happy to do that. Just give us a shout.

Here are a few thoughts to give you an idea of how to handle that call ……

• Gently and sensitively get as many details as you can
• Tell the employee not to worry about work
• Offer to look into it and get back to them – maybe agree a time to call them
• Contact Turnstone HR for support with working out what they will be entitled to

The employee will qualify if hospital care starts within 28 days of the baby’s birth and lasts for at least 7 days. So, the parent’s neonatal care leave can’t start until after that initial 7-day threshold has been reached, even though the baby’s care has started.

In the case of a parent who’s still at work at this time (likely to be the father), they will probably not be able to contemplate working during the first 7 days of the baby’s care before the leave starts, so you’ll need to look at what else you can offer for that period (e.g. annual leave, flexi, unpaid time off for dependants etc.).

You may choose to go easy on the notice requirements to support the parent, particularly where they are opting to take the leave soon, whilst the child is receiving the care (more likely in the case of the baby’s father). Where your employee is the mother, her neonatal care leave is likely to be taken at the end of her maternity leave, by which stage the child’s care might have finished, so it should be more reasonable to ask for compliance with the notice requirements in those cases.

These will be difficult times for everyone involved and we welcome these neonatal care provisions which will provide support to parents experiencing a difficult start to their child’s life. We hope it’s not something any of your employees will have to face, but if they do, we’d be happy to support you to support them. Just get in touch.