Using Neonatal leave with Shared Parental Leave as a Teacher

Neonatal care must start withiin 28 days of the birth, whether this is premature or not.

Neonatal leave cam into effect on 6th April 2025, under the Neonatal Care Leave and Pay Act 2023. It provides additional leave for anyone whose baby requires neonatal care within 28 days of their birth (though this does not have to be on a neonatal ward). This often applies to babies born prematurely, but is not only for those circumstances and would apply for a baby who becomes ill after birth and is admitted to hospital after time at home.

Am I eligible for neonatal leave?

To be eligible for neonatal leave your baby must be admitted to neonatal care within 28 days of their birth. They must then also receive care for a continuous period of 7 days - and this stats counting from the day after admission. This means that if your baby is born on 1st June and needs neonatal care straight away, the 7 days begins counting from 2nd June. If you were discharged before 9th June you would not have met the 7 day threshold. A maximum of 12 weeks can be accrued. (This also applies to adopters who are adopting a baby within the first 28 days of their life - note that the 7 consecutive days will only begin being counted at the placement date - not for any care that happened prior to that)

Neonatal care can include consultant led care at home, if you think this may apply to you the best person to speak to will be the consultant/ hospital leading your babies care.

Nenoatal leave is a day 1 right, so there is no length of employment test for leave - if you have the legal status of employee you are have a right to this leave. If you are a worker you may be eligible for pay.

To be eligible for statutory pay (up to 12 weeks of £194.32 (correct as of April 2026), you must meet the continuity of employment test - you must have been employed by your employer for 26 weeks before the 15th week before your due date (this is the same test as for statutory patenrity and maternity pay).

When can I take neonatal leave?

The mother will always start maternity leave the day after the birth, if she was not already on it. In nearly all cases the mother is best staying on maternity leave for some time - this ensures she benefits from any occupational pay.

Neonatal leave can be taken in two ways. The first is as a single block (known as tier 2 leave), within 68 weeks of the birth. For Teachers planning on using Shared Parental Leave (SPL) it is usually recommended that this is taken as extra block at the end, because it can be taken much later than maternity leave (which must end within a year of it starting) and SPL (which must end by babies first birthday). We have worked with several families since the law came into place, and find it works well in three possible ways, as illustrated below.

1) To take a fourth block of leave after the last holiday the mother can return for, enabling her to stay off beyond babies first birthday.

2) To end SPL earlier and swap the last weeks that would have been unpaid SPL for neonatal leave as this is paid at the statutory rate (both the second options below show ways in which this could work depending on when you want to go back/ how much unpaid leave you can afford to take off/ how much neonatal leave is accrued.

Examples of how neonatal leave might be used with SPL

The second way to take neonatal leave is tier 1 leave - this is leave taken while the child is still receiving neonatal care, and up to one week after it ends. This is typically taken by the partner who can take it either after or before paternity leave.

Notice

For tier one leave - taken whilst the baby is in neonatal care, employees should tell their employer before they are due to start work on the first day of leave - or as soon as is possible after. Notice does not have to be in writing. The employer should be updated be at the start of each week of leave that is being taken.

For tier two leave (which is taken after the baby has left care) - notice must be given in writing (a letter or email), with two different notice periods:

1) For 1 week off 15 days notice before the start must be given.

2) For 2 or more weeks off 28 days otice must be given.

For more info and what to include in your notice see the ACAS guidelines here

Support

We will always include advice on when to take any neonatal leave you have accrued, when planning your Shared Parenal Leave through our support packages - and can come back to this with you at a later date if it isn't something that was known about when you initially planned your leave, or if your baby is in neonatal care now and you don't know how long they will be in there for.

Details on all of the support we offer can be found here .