Neonatal care leave policy

1. Purpose and scope

1.1 This policy supports parents of babies admitted to neonatal care within 28 days of birth, allowing them dedicated time with their baby without affecting their maternity, paternity, or shared parental leave.

1.2 RoS will not only meet legal requirements but will enhance certain provisions in particular circumstances when employees meet the required criteria outlined within this policy.

2. Guiding principles

2.1 Neonatal Care Leave and Pay gives parents the opportunity to extend their parental leave by one week for every full week that their baby is receiving hospital care if:

• their baby is admitted for neonatal care within 28 days of birth
• the treatment is for a continuous period of 7 days or more.

2.2 Neonatal care leave is a “day one” right, which means it applies no matter how long you’ve been employed by RoS.

2.3 Eligible employees include biological parents, adoptive parents, intended parents via surrogacy and biological parents’ partner (please see definition of partner in section 3) can take the leave to care for the child.

2.4 Employees can take up to 12 weeks of neonatal care leave per child, in addition to other statutory parental leave entitlements, such maternity or paternity leave.

2.5 Enhanced pay during neonatal care leave is available to employees who have completed at least 26 weeks of continuous employment by the end of the relevant week and remain continuously employed by RoS thereafter (Please see section 14 for further information).

2.6 Neonatal care leave and pay can be taken as either one block (tier 1) at the end of the family leave or in consecutive periods at minimum of 1 week (tier 2).

2.7 Neonatal care leave and pay must be taken no later than 68 weeks following the child’s birth or placement with adoptive or surrogate parents.

2.8 Employees are not required to provide medical evidence when requesting neonatal care leave.

3. Definitions

3.1 Neonatal care leave is an entitlement to time away from work in addition to other parental leave (Maternity, Paternity, Adoption and Shared Parental Leave).

3.2 Neonatal care pay refers to pay that parents/carers who meet certain criteria, will receive from RoS during their Neonatal Care Leave.

3.3 Parents – Biological parents, adoptive parents, intended parents via surrogacy and the biological parents' partner who will have responsibility for raising the child.

3.4 Partner – is defined as a person who lives with the baby’s mother or adopter and is in an enduring family relationship with them but is not a relative (parent, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew etc.) The parent must have responsibility for raising the child.

3.5 Neonatal care – is defined as:

a) Medical care received in a hospital

b) Medical care received in any other place providing:

• child was an inpatient in hospital and needs continuing care after leaving the hospital
• the care is under the direction of a consultant; and
• the care involves ongoing monitoring and visits from healthcare professionals arranged by the hospital where child was an inpatient.

c) Palliative or end-of-life care

4. Requesting support

4.1 If you are finding it difficult to cope at work because your child is in neonatal care, you are encouraged to speak to your line manager. If for any reason you are unable to approach your line manager, you can speak to the HR team.

4.2 RoS realises that this may not be an easy subject to talk about. However, we urge you to be as open as possible about any particular issues that you are experiencing to ensure that you are provided with the right level of support.

4.3 Any information disclosed by you during discussions with your line manager or the HR team will be treated sensitively and in strict confidence.

5. Entitlement to neonatal care leave and pay

5.1 Employees will qualify for neonatal care leave if they meet the following criteria:

a) Your baby is born on or after 6 April 2025

b) your child started receiving neonatal care within 28 days after the date on which they were born (the 28 days are counted from the day after the child is born);

• the neonatal care has lasted seven days or longer without interruption (the seven days are counted from the day after the neonatal care started);
• you are taking the leave to care for your child (however, please see section15, if you suffer a bereavement); and
• you have complied with the relevant notice and declaration requirements set out in this policy (Please see section 9. Notice to take neonatal care leave below).

6. Amount of neonatal care leave you can take

6.1 The amount of neonatal care leave that you can take is one week for every week your child has spent in neonatal care without interruption. A week is defined as a period of seven days starting from the day after the neonatal care began.

6.2 The maximum number of weeks that you can take as neonatal care leave is capped at 12 weeks.

6.3 Any neonatal care leave must be taken in blocks of at least one week.

6.4 You can take only up to 12 weeks' neonatal care leave, even if multiple children from the same pregnancy require neonatal care.

7. Timing of neonatal care leave

7.1 You can start your leave on any day after your child has received seven days of uninterrupted neonatal care. During the first 7 days please contact your manager who will seek advice from the HR team to process the correct leave and pay during this initial period.

7.2 The seven days are counted from the day after the neonatal care started. For example, if your child's started receiving neonatal care on 7 April, the seven-day count begins on 8 April. This means that you can start your neonatal care leave on any day from 15 April.

7.3 Any neonatal care leave must end within 68 weeks of your child's date of birth.

7.4 The right to neonatal care leave is in addition to any other statutory leave that you may be entitled to, such as maternity, adoption, paternity, ordinary parental, parental bereavement or shared parental leave (see Other statutory leave below).

8. How neonatal care leave may be taken

8.1 Neonatal care leave is available to take in two tiers:

• the ‘tier 1 period’ begins when your child starts receiving neonatal care and ends on the seventh day after your child is discharged. If you take neonatal care leave in the tier 1 period, you can take it in one continuous block or a number of non-continuous blocks of a minimum of one week at a time
• the ‘tier 2 period’ is any remaining period (within 68 weeks after your child's date of birth) that is not part of the tier 1 period. If you take neonatal care leave during the tier 2 period, you must take the leave in one continuous block.

8.2 You should be aware that the relevant notice requirements differ depending on whether you take your leave in the tier 1 or tier 2 period (see Notice to take neonatal care leave below).

9. Notice to take neonatal care leave

Notice during the tier 1 period:

9.1 For each week of neonatal care leave that you wish to take in tier 1, you should notify your line manager and or the thevHR team preferably before your first day of absence in that week. However, we understand that this is likely to be a challenging time for you, so please give notice as soon as is reasonably practicable for you to do so.

9.2 You are also required to give notice of your intention and entitlement to take neonatal care leave using our Form to provide notice of intention and entitlement to take neonatal care leave (birth). This form contains a declaration that will need to be signed by you and returned to your manager and the HR team (your manager can submit this to HR on your behalf).

9.3 There is no expectation on you to complete this form straightaway while your child is receiving neonatal care. However, we do request that the form is sent to us within 28 days of the first day of your neonatal care leave, or if this is not possible, as soon as it is reasonably practicable.

Notice during the tier 2 period:

9.4 If you wish to take neonatal care leave in the tier 2 period, you will need to give notice in writing of your intention and entitlement to take neonatal care leave using our form to provide notice of intention and entitlement to take neonatal care leave (birth). This form contains a declaration that will need to be signed by you and returned to your manager and the HR team (your manager can submit this to HR on your behalf).

9.5 If you are taking a single week of neonatal care leave, your notice should be received by us at least 15 days before the first date that you have chosen for your leave to start, or if this is not possible, as soon as it is reasonably practicable.

9.6 If you are taking two or more consecutive weeks of neonatal care leave, your notice should be received by us at least 28 days before the first date that you have chosen for your leave to start, or if this is not possible, as soon as it is reasonably practicable.

9.7 There may be exceptional circumstances where managers refuse a neonatal care leave request (if not taken immediate after family leave) due to operational demands. When requests are refused, managers must engage with the HR team and provide the employee with the opportunity to take neonatal care leave at the earliest possible time, propose time for the leave to be taken and confirm the reasons for refusing to the employee.

10. Changing your neonatal care leave plans

10.1 If you have submitted a notice of intention and entitlement to take neonatal care leave during the tier 2 period but wish to cancel your leave, you must inform your line manager and or the the HR team.

10.2 If you intended to take a single week of neonatal care leave, you must submit this form at least 15 days before the first date that you had chosen for your leave to start.

10.3 If you intended to take two or more consecutive weeks, you must submit this form at least 28 days before the first date that you had chosen for your leave to start.

11. Starting your neonatal care leave

11.1 Your neonatal care leave will start on the date that is specified in your notice.

11.2 Alternatively, if you give notice on the same day that you want to begin your leave and you are already in work on that day, your neonatal care leave will start on the following day.

11.3 If we have agreed to waive the notice requirements, your neonatal care leave will begin on a day that is mutually agreed between us.

12. Other statutory leave

12.1 You are entitled to take neonatal care leave in addition to any other statutory leave that you may be entitled to, including maternity, adoption, paternity, ordinary parental, parental bereavement and shared parental leave

12.2 If you have already started a period of statutory leave, but subsequently become eligible for neonatal care leave, you can take your neonatal care leave after completing the other statutory leave, provided that your neonatal care leave is taken within 68 weeks of your child's birth date.

12.3 If you have already started a period of neonatal care leave during the tier 1 period but need to begin another type of statutory leave, your neonatal care leave will be temporarily paused immediately before the other statutory leave begins. You can then resume the remaining weeks of your neonatal care leave in one of two ways:

• if you are still within the tier 1 period - immediately after the end of the other period of statutory leave; or
• if you have transitioned into the tier 2 period - immediately after any other neonatal care leave taken during the tier 2 period.

12.4 You cannot take neonatal care leave in the tier 2 period if, at the time of giving notice, you are aware that the leave will overlap with another type of statutory leave.

13. Neonatal care pay

13.1 If you meet the eligibility criteria below, you will receive your normal rate of pay during neonatal care leave — this is referred to as enhanced neonatal care pay. If you do not meet the criteria below, you will still be entitled to take neonatal care leave but will not receive any pay during this period:

• you are entitled to take neonatal care leave;
• you have at least 26 weeks' continuous employment with us at the end of the relevant week;
• you remain in continuous employment from the end of the relevant week (or from the child's birth if they were born before the relevant week);
• your average weekly earnings are not less than the lower earnings limit for national insurance contributions;
• you have complied with the relevant notice and evidential requirements and are able to provide the declarations as set out in this policy; and
• you have confirmed when you wish to start receiving statutory neonatal care pay within your form to provide notice of intention and entitlement to take neonatal care leave (birth)14.2 Payment of enhanced neonatal care pay includes any entitlement to statutory neonatal care pay that may be due to you for the same period.

13.2 Payment of enhanced neonatal care pay includes any entitlement to statutory neonatal care pay that may be due to you for the same period.

14. If you suffer a bereavement

14.1 Employees who have accrued entitlement to neonatal care leave can still take the neonatal care leave that they have accrued if their child passes away.

14.2 Employees may also be entitled to parental bereavement leave in these circumstances under our Parental bereavement leave policy.

14.3 If you have suffered a bereavement, please contact your line manager or the HR team, so that we can discuss other support that we may be able to offer you.

15. Approval and review

15.1 This policy will be reviewed and approved by the Strategic People Authority every 24 months, unless earlier review is appropriate.