Neonatal Care Leave (Birth)

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1. Aim
2. Scope
3. Introduction
4. What is neonatal care?
5. What is neonatal care leave?
6. Entitlement to neonatal care leave
7. Amount of neonatal care leave you can take
8. Timing of neonatal care leave
9. Other statutory leave
10. Neonatal care pay
11. Your rights during neonatal care leave
12. Contact during neonatal care leave
13. Returning to work after neonatal care leave
14. Further Advice and Support
15. Code of Ethics

1. Aim

1.1 This policy sets out our commitment to supporting those whose children require neonatal care and outlines the support, leave and pay that is available from the Force.
1.2 It provides details regarding what neonatal care is and the eligibility requirements for utilising neonatal care leave and pay.

2. Scope

2.1 This policy applies to all Humberside Police Officers and Police Staff.
2.2 The policy also applies to both parents of the child who is in neonatal care.
2.3 We acknowledge the importance of using inclusive language and where possible we have used ‘gender neutral’ language in this policy.

3. Introduction

3.1 We understand that having a child in neonatal care is an extremely stressful and challenging experience. We are committed to supporting you and doing what we can to help ensure that you are able to be by your child's side while looking after your own health and wellbeing.
3.2 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 People Services.
3.3 We realise 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.
3.4 Any information disclosed by you during discussions with your line manager or People Services will be treated sensitively and in strict confidence.
3.5 Within this policy we set out your rights as an employee to neonatal care leave and pay following the birth of your child. If you have adopted a child, please refer to our Neonatal Care Leave Policy (Adoption and Surrogacy).
3.6 The supporting Neonatal Care Leave: Process and Further Guidance (Birth) should be read in conjunction with this policy and provides further detail regarding how to request and take neonatal care leave, how to make changes to your leave and the further sources of advice and support you can access.

4. What is neonatal care?

4.1. The word ‘neonatal’ means newborn and refers specifically to the first 28 days of life. Neonatal care is the type of specialist care a baby born prematurely or sick receives in a hospital neonatal unit.
4.2. Babies are admitted into neonatal care units for a number of different reasons. The main reasons for a baby to be admitted include: -

they have been born prematurely,
they have a low birth weight,
they are born with, or develop shortly after birth, a medical condition which needs treatment in hospital,
they experience a difficult birth.

4.3 Under the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023, and for the purposes of determining eligibility to the support provisions detailed within this policy, neonatal care is defined as:

medical care that your newborn child receives in a hospital;
medical care that your newborn child receives in any other place providing:
- your child was previously admitted to a hospital as an inpatient 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 your child was an inpatient; or
palliative or end-of-life care.

5. What is neonatal care leave?

5.1 Neonatal care leave is designed to assist the parents of newborn babies who are admitted into neonatal care. It aims to support parents to be by their child’s side whilst they are receiving specialist neonatal care, or where the parents are already utilising other forms of parental leave during the neonatal care period, to compensate for the time lost.
5.2 This leave is made available to parents where their baby has needed to receive neonatal care continuously for seven days or longer and the care started within 28 days of the child’s birth.
5.3 A maximum of 12 weeks of neonatal care leave can be provided subject to the meeting of specified eligibility requirements.

6. Entitlement to neonatal care leave

6.1 Whatever your length of service, you have a statutory right to take neonatal care leave if at the date of your child's birth:

you are the child's parent and have responsibility for the upbringing of the child; or
you are the partner of the child's mother/birth parent, whether of a different sex or same sex as the mother/birth parent, and you:
- live with the mother/birthparent and the child, and
- have main responsibility for the upbringing of the child (apart from the mother/birthparent).

6.2 In this policy, partners do not include individuals who are a relative of the mother/birthparent (i.e., it does not include their child, parent, grandchild, grandparent, sibling, aunt, uncle, niece or nephew).

6.3 The following conditions must also be satisfied:

your child was born on or after 6 April 2025;
your child started receiving neonatal care (as defined in 4.3) within 28 days after the date on which they were born (the 28 days are counted from the day after the child is born); including where your child is discharged then later readmitted for neonatal care within this 28-day period;
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, or in lieu of previous time accrued in neonatal care in situations where your child has sadly passed away; and
you have complied with the relevant notice and declaration requirements for taking neonatal care leave.

N.B. Use of compassionate leave may be considered where you wish to be with your child who is currently receiving neonatal care, but they have not yet received seven continuous days of care and you are not currently on any other form of statutory family leave. Please refer to our Time Off for Dependants Policy (points 5.12 to 5.14).

7. Amount of neonatal care leave you can take

7.1 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 calendar days, and in calculating the time spent in neonatal care, the count starts from the day after the neonatal care began.
7.2 The maximum number of weeks that you can take as neonatal care leave is capped at 12 weeks.
7.3 Any neonatal care leave must be taken in blocks of at least one week (i.e. seven continuous calendar days).
7.4 You can take only up to 12 weeks' neonatal care leave, even if multiple children from the same pregnancy require neonatal care. Where you have more than one child in neonatal care at the same time, only one week of neonatal care leave is accrued (i.e. entitlement to leave is per week spent in care, not per child).

8. Timing of neonatal care leave

8.1 You can start your leave on any day after your child has received seven days of uninterrupted neonatal care.
8.2 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.
8.3 Any neonatal care leave must end within 68 weeks of your child's date of birth.
8.4 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.
8.5 Please refer to the Neonatal Care Leave Flowchart (Birth) and Neonatal Care Leave: Process and Further Guidance (Birth) documents for further information regarding how and when neonatal care leave may be taken.

9. Other statutory leave

9.1 You are entitled to take neonatal care leave in addition to any other statutory leave that you may be entitled to, including maternity, adoption, maternity/adoption support leave (paternity), ordinary parental, parental bereavement and shared parental leave.
9.2 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.
9.3 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.

9.4 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.

10. Neonatal Care Pay

10.1 Regardless of your length of service, you will continue to be paid your normal rate of pay while taking neonatal care leave provided:
• you are entitled to take neonatal care leave;
• you have complied with the relevant notice and evidential requirements and are able to provide the required declarations; and
• you have confirmed when you wish to start receiving neonatal care pay within your Neonatal Care Leave Request Form.
10.2 Payment of enhanced neonatal care pay includes any entitlement to statutory neonatal care pay that may be due to you for the same period.

11. Your rights during neonatal care leave

11.1 During neonatal care leave, all the terms and conditions of your contract will continue. All other benefits such as holiday entitlement will continue to accrue and pension contributions will continue as set out below.
Holiday entitlement
11.2 You will continue to accrue your holiday entitlement during your neonatal care leave.
11.3 Any statutory holiday entitlement that has not been taken because of neonatal care leave can be carried over into the next holiday year.
Pension contributions
11.4 We will continue to make pension contributions based on your normal pay during any period of paid neonatal care leave.

12. Contact during neonatal care leave

12.1 We reserve the right to maintain reasonable contact with you during your neonatal care leave. This may be to discuss your plans for taking leave, to discuss any special arrangements to ease your time away from work, or to update you on developments at work during your absence.

13. Returning to work after neonatal care leave

13.1 You have the right to resume working in the same job and on the same terms and conditions if returning to work from a period of isolated neonatal care leave.
13.2 If you return from a period of neonatal care leave that follows on immediately from another period of statutory leave (such as maternity, adoption, maternity/adoption support (paternity), parental bereavement or shared parental leave) and your total time on leave is more than 26 weeks, you have the right to return to the role you left on the same conditions of service as before your leave. The exception to this is if there has been organisational change resulting in the post no longer existing. In these cases, the Change Management policy would apply.
13.3 This also applies if you have taken neonatal care leave consecutively with a single period of more than four weeks of ordinary parental leave.
13.4 If you are taking neonatal care leave which follows immediately on from a period of maternity, adoption or shared parental leave, and your total time on leave is four months or greater, you will be eligible to utilise the Phased Return to Work provision after your neonatal care leave, as detailed within our Maternity, Adoption and Shared Parental Leave policies.

14. Further Advice and Support

14.1 If further advice or guidance is required, please contact People Services – Advice and Guidance.

15. Code of Ethics

15.1 The College of Policing launched the Code of Ethics and Code of Practice in January 2024, which applies to everyone in policing. The Ethical Policing Principles which form the Code of Ethics are Courage, Respect and Empathy, and Public Service. These principles aim to help people in policing do the right things, in the right way, for the right reasons. The principles should be observed and adhered to at all times and in line with this policy.

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