Neonatal care leave and pay

Parents of babies who are admitted to neonatal care within 28 days from birth are entitled to some additional family leave.

Last updated on 27 March 2025

From 6 April 2025, the University offers an enhanced Neonatal Care Leave and Pay scheme (NCLP) for parents, or others who share formal responsibility with the mother or primary adopter, for care of babies who are admitted to neonatal care within the first 28 days after birth for a minimum of seven full days.

Policy summary

All employees have a statutory entitlement of up to 12 weeks of Neonatal Care Leave and Pay (see criteria in ‘scope’) if their child is admitted to neonatal care within the first 28 days after birth and they need to take leave away from work to care for the child.

The length of leave available mirrors the length of the Neonatal care required by the child, and length of the leave the parent needs to take to provide care.  It is added to the end of any other statutory family leave period that is taken by that parent, which means that a parent may be on statutory maternity, adoption, shared parental or paternity leave whilst the child is in hospital and take NCLP long after the child’s neonatal care has ended.

NCLP effectively extends other statutory family leave schemes to allow the parent to have the same amount of time at home with their new child as they would have had, had the child not required neonatal care.

The University tops up statutory Neonatal Care Pay to the employee’s normal full rate of pay, and pay is available as a day one entitlement.

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The Neonatal Care Leave and Pay scheme (NCLP) is available to:

  • Employees who have responsibility for, and are caring for, a baby (or babies) where the baby has been admitted into neonatal care prior to being to 28 days old and who has a continuous stay in hospital of 7 full days (starting with the day after admission) or longer.
  • All employees regardless of length of service with the University as long as their employment has commenced before the baby is born, and as long as they have a contract of employment in place for the whole of the intended period of NCLP.

Relevant definitions include:

  • Neonatal care – neonatal care includes: care within a hospital setting; care under the direction of a consultant following an inpatient stay and requiring ongoing monitoring and visits from healthcare professionals; or, palliative care.
  • Full pay – the appropriate rate of pay for the period of neonatal care leave is the employee’s normal full rate of pay calculated in the same way as maternity and paternity pay (ie the rate of pay they are receiving the day before the leave starts).
  • Parent or carer - the baby’s parents, intended parents (in relation to surrogacy) or partner to the baby’s mother with (or the expectation of) having responsibility for raising the child.
  • A week – is a period of 7 full consecutive calendar days and can start on any day of the week. 

  • Any member of staff who qualifies for neonatal care leave and pay is entitled to up to 12 weeks leave at the rate of full pay, depending on number of full weeks the child has been in receipt of neonatal care, provided that they comply with the requirements for notification set out below.
  • Neonatal Care Leave and Pay can only be taken where there is a continuous care requirement of 7 days or more, starting on the day after the date of admission.
  • The length of the period of NCLP that a member of staff is entitled to is based upon the number of full weeks the baby spends in neonatal care, and is payable in full weeks.
  • NCLP is only available to be taken after any statutory family leave (and before any additional non-statutory leave, including Oxford University Additional Paternity/Partner Leave (OUAPPL)). For fathers/partners this may mean that they need to adjust their planned dates of Statutory Paternity Leave.  In such circumstances the normal notice requirements could be waived.
  • All NCLP must be taken within 68 weeks of the baby’s birth.

  • Whilst the baby is in neonatal care and where the parent is not in a statutory family leave period (ie statutory maternity, adoption, paternity or shared parental leave) notice must be given as soon as reasonably possibly (this is referred to as the ‘tier one’ period).  This will typically only apply to fathers/partners where the two weeks of statutory paternity leave (SPL) period has been exhausted whilst the child is still in receipt of neonatal care, or they did not qualify for SPL), so they are starting NCLP immediately.
  • Where a parent has started an extended period of statutory family leave (maternity, adoption or Shared Parental Leave) during the period that the child is in receipt of neonatal care, and is therefore going to take NCLP after the end of such planned statutory family leave but outside of the ‘tier one’ period (ie the period when the child is still in hospital) the notice to take the leave are:
    • If they are eligible for only a single week of leave and pay, written notice at least 15 days before the first day of neonatal care leave. 
    • If they are eligible for two or more weeks of leave and pay, written notice at least 28 days’ notice before the first day of leave in which the period it relates to. 
  • A form to provide notice is available in ‘resources’ and a sample acknowledgement for the Department.

Departments are responsible for:

  • supporting their employees to take their neonatal care leave and pay in line with the provisions set out above, acknowledging that these will be difficult times, and notice requirements may sometimes be challenging.
  • ensuring that individuals are paid in line with the policy.

Individuals are responsible for:

  • notifying their line manager that they are taking neonatal care leave and pay in accordance with the procedure.

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For every full week that the child is in neonatal care a week of NCLP is available. So, for example if the child is in hospital for 2.5 weeks, 2 weeks of NCLP is available.

In line with the statutory scheme, the maximum amount of Neonatal Care Leave and Pay that can be taken is 12 weeks. Departmental HR teams can provide support with other leave options that may be available.  

Where a parent is taking maternity leave, the statutory maternity leave period starts from the date that the baby is born, and must be taken continuously. During this period, if the eligibility criteria are met, entitlement to NCLP can accrue, but it cannot be taken during the statutory maternity leave period and is added after the statutory maternity leave period has been exhausted (leave taken after the child has left neonatal care, and after other statutory family leave is exhausted is called the ‘tier two’ period).

Where a parent is taking any other statutory parental leave (maternity, adoption, shared parental or paternity, but not OUAPPL) , these must also be used prior to any NCLP that has accrued.

Neonatal care leave and pay entitlement accrues whilst the child is in hospital (or other eligible medical care) - in most cases it will be taken at a later date, after the other forms of leave are exhausted.  It serves, in effect, to increase the period of maternity or paternity leave by the period of time the child is in hospital so that parents can benefit from the amount of time they had planned to be at home with their new baby.

If Neonatal Care Leave and Pay is accrued and taken after other statutory family leave periods and outside the ‘tier one’ period it must be taken as a single, continuous block.

If it is being taken by a father/partner who is not within a period of statutory paternity or shared parental leave, it can be taken in discontinuous blocks of a minimum of one week whilst the baby is in neonatal care and provided that period of care begin within 28 days of the baby’s birth (this may happen if a baby had several periods in neonatal care in their first month).

In the event that a member of staff has booked a period of OUAPPL to start during a period when their baby is in a qualifying period of neonatal care and after any statutory entitlement to maternity/paternity leave has ended, they should move onto NCPL before commencing OUAPPL. They should then discuss with their department whether they will take the OUAPPL directly after the NCLP or choose to take it an agreed time later within the baby’s first 52 weeks (following the notice requirements for OUAPPL).

In these cases, the department should seek further advice from their HR Business Partner. In order to benefit from contractual (ie full pay) NCLP the employee will require a contract of employment to be in place throughout any paid leave.  However, parents who have taken extended periods of NCLP may qualify for the Protection from Redundancy (pregnancy and family leave) Act 2023 provisions requiring special efforts to be made to redeploy them. In the event that redeployment is not possible outstanding any statutory pay entitlement will be paid by the University in a lump sum.

In these cases, the parents will not qualify for statutory leave and pay under the NCLP scheme but the department should seek further advice from their HR Business Partner as to other options to support the parents.

The types of care that are included within scope are hospital treatment, including treatment in a special care baby unit (SCBU), local neonatal unit (LNU) or neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), as well as treatment in a maternity home, clinic or hospital outpatient department. It also includes ongoing monitoring and home visits from healthcare professionals directed by a consultant and arranged by the hospital where the child was an inpatient. It can include palliative or end of life care. It does not cover standard monitoring or home visits from healthcare professionals, only where these relate to a period of neonatal care as defined above.

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