Neonatal Care Leave Policy

Employees must satisfy the following conditions to qualify for neonatal leave.

They must be one of the following:

• The birthing or non-birthing parent, including same-sex partners.
• The child’s adopter
• The intended parent (if you are having a baby through a surrogacy arrangement)

Your baby must be admitted to neonatal care for more than 1 week before they reach 28 days of life.

Entitlement to Neonatal leave will be available to all employees from the first day of employment at the University.

Eligible employees’ length of leave will be based on how long their baby receives neonatal care, up to a maximum twelve weeks. i.e. if the baby is in neonatal care for 3 weeks the employee will be entitled to 3 weeks, if the baby is in neonatal care for 3.5 weeks the employee is entitled to 4 weeks.

Dividing leave into tiers 

Neonatal Care Leave is classified into two tiers based on when it is taken, total leave that can be taken is 12 weeks across both tiers:

Tier 1 (During Neonatal Care): Can be taken in non-continuous blocks of at least one week. Employees must provide at least 15 days’ notice for each block of leave.

Tier 2 (After Neonatal Care Ends): Must be taken in a single continuous block. Employees are required to give 28 days’ notice. 

The University may waive these notice periods through mutual agreement if special circumstances arise and the option of being able to give any type of notice is not possible.

This leave can be taken in one block (e.g. at the end of the parental leave) or taken as non-consecutive periods of at least one week.  Tier 2 leave ends at 68 weeks after the child’s actual birth.

The right to neonatal care leave is per child therefore if an employee has multiple births (e.g. twins) and both require neonatal care, the total neo-natal care leave will be added together. This will be capped at 12 weeks in total.

In the unfortunate event that a baby is admitted to neonatal care (for a period of at least 7 consecutive days), discharged, and then readmitted to neonatal care (for a period of at least 7 consecutive days), providing that the second admittance occurs before 28 days of birth, both instances will count towards neonatal care leave.

We recognise this will be a difficult time and want to ensure we are doing everything we can to support you. Please reach out to your line manager or the HR team if you feel we can provide any support for you. This communication can come from you, your partner or a nominated family member and we would ask that you regularly touch base with your line manager or HR team to keep them informed.

Although Neonatal Care leave is available to all employees from their first day of working at the University, you will be paid for the period of neonatal leave if you have been working for the same employer for at least 26 weeks, and you earn an average of at least £125 per week.

The employee is entitled to Statutory Neonatal Care Pay from the University for up to twelve weeks of Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP).

Neonatal Care Pay is tagged onto the end of Statutory Maternity Leave (SML) or Statutory Adoption Leave (SAL).

Employees must inform their Line Manager as soon as is reasonably possible if their baby is currently receiving neonatal care and the expected likely duration of this care if known. This notification can come from you, your partner or a family member.

Once the dates of neonatal care have been confirmed, your line manager will discuss leave options with you. Leave can be taken immediately after the relevant family leave or at a later date within 68 weeks of the child’s birth.

If the employee is the primary carer (and taking a period of maternity or adoption leave), the leave can be taken after their maternity/adoption leave has ended or curtailed (if moving onto Shared Parental Leave). They can choose to take this leave immediately after maternity/adoption leave (before they return to work) or at a different time (no later than 68 weeks after the baby’s date of birth).

If the employee is taking their Statutory Neonatal Care Leave (SNCL) at a later date (e.g. not immediately after family leave), employees should give their line manager notice of at least twice the length of the period of leave to be taken, capped at 4-weeks (e.g. if the employee is requesting 1 week of Statutory Neonatal Care Leave (SNCL), they should request this at least 2 weeks in advance).

On the very rare occasion that a request for neonatal care leave (if not taken immediately) may be declined due to operational demands, the line manager should ensure that the employee is given appropriate opportunity to take the leave at the earliest possible time and confirm to the employee the reason for declining/delaying the request.

Employees are entitled to the benefit of their normal terms and conditions of employment throughout their neonatal leave. Other types of statutory leave will be unaffected. A period of neonatal leave counts towards a period of continuous employment for the purposes of statutory employment rights. It also counts for contractually agreed arrangements based on length of service such as pay increments.

In the devastating event that neonatal loss occurs, the employee would be allowed to take the accrued Statutory Neonatal Care Leave and Pay (SNCL&P) within 68 weeks of the child’s birth in the normal way.

Please see the resources for support heading below which includes the Employee Assistance Programme and links to various charities and support organisations. 

Employees are entitled to return to the same job following Neonatal leave on the same terms and conditions of employment as if they had not been absent, unless a redundancy situation has arisen.  The line manager can seek OH advice via referral if there are any concerns raised about returning to normal working hours.

If you have any questions about this, you should contact your line manager, HR department or Occupational Health.  There are also several charities which can offer further support, and these are detailed below.  You can also access the Wellbeing Hub on the intranet to access options for support.

The University also has an Employee Assistance Programme with an external organisation, Health Assured. This is a confidential support service for all employees that includes counselling. This service is free and available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. They can be contacted on 0800 030 5182 or via https://wisdom.healthassured.org/login  using the username ‘Loughborough’ and the password ‘University’.

The University Chaplains are also available to provide support, and their details can be found here.