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 29 May 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’ below) 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.

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, if the child had not required neonatal care. This may mean that a parent takes statutory maternity, adoption, shared parental or paternity leave whilst the child is in hospital and takes NCLP after the child’s neonatal care has ended.

The actual length of leave available depends on the length of the neonatal care required by the child, and length of the leave the parent needs to take to provide care.

Only periods of neonatal care which are more than 7 days qualify.  For each complete week of neonatal care (starting and ending on any day of the week) a week of NCLP is accrued.

The University tops up statutory Neonatal Care Pay to the employee’s normal full rate of pay, and pay.  A week is the number of days the employee normally works in each week.

 

NCLP 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 NCLP is entitled to up to 12 weeks leave at the rate of full pay, depending on the number of full weeks the child has been in receipt of neonatal care, provided that they comply with the  notice requirements set out below. 

  • NCLP can only be taken where the child has had 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. It can only be taken in full weeks but a week can start and end on any day. 
  • NCLP can only be taken after statutory maternity or adoption leave has ended.
  • If the employee had planned to take statutory paternity or shared parental leave or Oxford University Additional Paternity/Partner Leave (OUAPPL) immediately after the birth, NCLP is added to the end of these.
  •  If the employee had planned to take statutory paternity or shared parental leave or Oxford University Additional Paternity/Partner Leave (OUAPPL) later on in the child’s first year, NCLP can be used before these other types of leave are used to enable them to care for the child during the period of neonatal care, or the week immediately following a period of neonatal care. In cases of multiple birth, parents can accrue entitlement and take NCLP for each child but the maximum amount of leave and pay available to each parent remains capped at 12 weeks.  
  • All NCLP must be taken within 68 weeks of the birth.

 

The notice that the employee needs to give depends on when the employee is taking the leave.  

  • For NCLP to be taken whilst the baby is in neonatal care, or during the first week after care ends (referred to as the ‘tier 1 period) notice must be given as soon as reasonably practicable.  
  • For NCLP to be taken more than a week after the baby has left neonatal care (referred to as the ‘tier 2 period).
    • 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

 

A form to provide notice is available in ‘resources’ together with 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
  • keeping records

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.  

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, adoption,  paternity or shared parental 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.

 

Where a mother or primary adopter is taking maternity or adoption leave, the statutory maternity or adoption leave period starts from the date that the baby is born/placed, 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/adoption leave period and is added after   maternity or adoption entitlement has been exhausted. Leave taken after the child has left neonatal care, and after other statutory family leave is exhausted is called the ‘tier 2’ period.

Where a father or other parent had booked a period of paternity or shared parental leave to be started/taken during the 28 days after birth, then NCLP accrues as for maternity/adoption leave,  and may be booked and taken at a later date.

However, if the father/other parent had not booked any other family leave to be taken during the first 28 days period and the child is admitted to neonatal care, they may take NCLP immediately (referred to as the 'tier 1' period).

The NCLP Plan template (available from the Documents column) will help you with booking leave.

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.

Where more than one child is born/placed the parents can accrue and take leave for any or all of the children where the eligibility criteria are met, but the maximum amount of leave and pay available remains at 12 weeks. 

Examples:

  • premature twins are born and both need to stay in hospital for 16 weeks neonatal care.  The  parents can take up to 12 weeks NCLP each to care for them (they can do this at the same time),  they do not get 12 weeks NCLP per child. For the additional leave they can use other leave options.
  • A pair of twins are born and one needs immediate neonatal care and stays in hospital.  Two weeks later the first twin is well enough to go home,  but the second twin is then admitted to neonatal care.  As the leave for the second twin started within 28 days of birth,  NCLP is available but the amount  available is reduced by the period of leave each parent has  taken with the first twin.  So if both had taken 2 weeks NCLP, they would each have up to 10 weeks available.

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