The Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Bill will allow parents to take up to 12 weeks of paid leave in addition to other parental leave entitlements such as maternity, paternity and shared parental leave, to spend more time with their baby and delaying the requirement to go back to work if their baby is still undergoing hospital care.
Neonatal care leave will be a right available to all employees, regardless of their length of service. However, there will be a qualifying period for statutory neonatal care pay.
The leave will be designed to assist new parents whose baby requires medical or palliative care in hospital or another care setting (to be specified in the legislation).
The leave will be available to parents of babies who are admitted up to the age of 28 days, where the baby has a continuous stay in hospital of at least seven full days. It still has to go through Parliament but is anticipated to become into law Spring/Summer 2023 and we will keep you updated.