Government to introduce paid neonatal leave

• Law allows no flexibility around parental leave
• One in seven babies in the UK needs neonatal care

The Government is planning to introduce paid neonatal leave for working parents of premature babies.

Currently, working parents of a premature newborn child in hospital have to take annual leave to spend time with them, rather than returning to work.

Every year, more than 100,000 families have a baby or babies born needing specialist, and often life-saving, neonatal care.

Despite one in seven babies requiring neonatal care in the UK, some for many weeks or months, current parental leave laws offer no flexibility to account for this.

The Government’s proposal would introduce a Neonatal Leave and Pay entitlement, which would allow every employed parent – mothers, fathers and partners – to receive one week of paid leave for every week their baby is in neonatal care, subject to qualifying conditions.

Aside from the emotional impact on parents, the financial impact of neonatal care can be overwhelming. It costs an average of £282 a week due to unexpected expenditures such as extra travel, food and childcare for older children.

A consultation by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) closed on Friday (11 October).

Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom said, ‘I am committed to ensuring that every baby and new family is given the best possible start in life. Parents facing the unimaginable pain of looking after an unwell or premature baby in the hospital have enough to worry about.’

The plan is backed by the neonatal charities, Bliss, TAMBA and The Smallest Things.

In a joint statement, the chief executives of the charities said, ‘For the families we collectively support, this policy has the potential to be life-changing.

‘We know that babies do best when parents are able to be fully involved in their care in hospital – they go home sooner, gain more weight and their parents experience less anxiety. But this requires parents to be at their baby’s cotside on a daily basis.

‘Currently, two-thirds of dads and partners say they have no choice but to return to work while their baby is in neonatal care. A right to neonatal leave will mean not having to make this impossible decision.

‘Many mums do not feel ready to return to work at the end of their maternity leave when the first days, weeks or months of their leave have been full of anxiety and worry about their baby’s future. Many babies will require frequent follow-up appointments and ongoing medical care, making it difficult to find appropriate childcare when statutory leave ends.

‘Employers, too, are missing out under the current system. It is not good for them when valued employees are either struggling to do their jobs while under immense stress worrying about their sick baby, or having to sign off sick or leave work altogether.

‘We welcome the Government’s proposal to address this imbalance. This is a significant step towards ensuring parents can be exactly where they need to be when their baby or babies are in hospital, and once they are recovering at home – right by their side.’

Andy Reid, who works for a youth charity in Surrey, has a son Gabriel who was born 15 weeks early. While in neonatal care, he suffered heart, brain and lung problems and developed sepsis.

Andy and his wife shared parental leave so he could take care of their older daughter Betsy and visit his son in hospital. But this meant his wife only had six months’ paid leave, which ended two weeks after Gabriel came home, and she gave up her job.

He said, ‘Extended parental leave would have meant being able to fully focus on my son and not worrying about letting my employer down. The pressure of returning to work, needing the money to live, was a huge weight on top of constant anxiety for my son’s survival.’

Case study

Suzy Yates, a former primary school teacher from Essex

‘My son Joshua spent nearly six months in neonatal and specialist hospital care because of his extreme prematurity and congenital heart condition. Joshua needed multiple surgeries and had endless complications including six cardiac arrests.

‘By the time we were finally allowed to bring him home, he was only 5lb and still had lots of ongoing health issues. We spent most of the time in and out of our local hospitals as he could become poorly very quickly and require immediate medical intervention.

‘Having suffered six months of trauma on the neonatal unit not knowing day to day if my son would survive, I was not in a position to go back to work when my maternity leave ran out. I needed time to recover and come to terms with what we had all been through. Because of this I had no choice but to resign.

‘If my maternity leave had started when I returned home with my son, it would have given me time to focus on his health and me the recovery time that I needed. I believe that had I been given extended parental leave, my decisions about my career would have been very different.’