Neonatal Care Leave and Pay
About TinyLife
TinyLife are Northern Ireland’s only dedicated premature baby charity here to help provide support services both in the Neonatal Unit and in the community .
Our Mission is that a premature or sick baby who starts life in a neonatal unit in Northern Ireland has the best start to life and is supported to reach their full potential.
To achieve this we support, advocate and champion for their rights to receive the best support in the right place and at the right time for them, from birth to preschool. We achieve this by empowering families, collaborative working and influencing practice and policy.
Respond to the consultation online here
Question D15
Do you agree that parents of babies who enter neonatal care in the first 28 days following birth and who spend at least 7 continuous days in neonatal care should have an additional week of statutory leave and/or pay from work for each week that their child is in hospital, up to a maximum number of 12 weeks?
Response:
Strongly Agree
TinyLife agrees with this proposal, but requests that there should be additional flexibility for parents whose baby/babies are in hospital for longer than 12 weeks; i.e. those who are born extremely premature or very sick. Just 36 babies leaving neonatal care across Northern Ireland in 2021 had a total stay of more than eight weeks. The proportion of those with a total stay of more than 12 weeks is unknown, but is presumably a very small fraction of total admissions.
Extending the maximum amount of leave to 18 weeks will help to ensure that the very small number of families who will be impacted by extreme prematurity and/or neonatal ill health have vital additional time to care for their child.
Question D16
Do you agree that employees who would have had the main responsibility for caring for the child, had their baby not been admitted to neonatal care, should be eligible to receive neonatal care leave and/or pay?
Response:
Strongly Agree
We also seek confirmation that the proposed pay and leave applies to both parents equally, rather than on an either/or basis. Extending entitlements to pay and leave to both parents/caregivers would ensure parity with the GB Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act.
Fathers and non-birthing parents are often excluded from their child’s care by a restrictive parental leave system. With only two weeks of paternity leave available, many fathers and non-birthing parents return to work while their child is still on the neonatal unit – and occasionally while their partner is still in hospital too. Extending neonatal care leave and pay to both caregivers in a family will help to keep families together and engaged in important caregiving activities, achieving better outcomes for parents and babies.
Question D17
Do you agree that access to neonatal care leave and/or pay should be open to parents whose babies have spent a minimum of 7 continuous days in neonatal care, i.e. are seriously ill or likely to be in hospital for an extended period of time?
Response:
Strongly agree
The average length of stay in neonatal care across all gestations is around seven days. Statutory paternity leave and pay in the UK is, at most, two weeks, meaning that dads and non-birthing parents will be impacted the hardest by any minimum length of stay threshold. The seven-day minimum stay will mean that dads and non-birthing parents whose baby is admitted to a neonatal unit for just less than seven days, will still lose around half of their paternity leave to the neonatal unit.
Under current parental leave rights, parents have to choose between taking their paternity leave while their baby is in hospital (to be with their baby while they are unwell) or taking paternity leave post discharge (to help settling in at home, and bond with their baby). Under a one-week threshold, many dads and partners will still have an extremely limited time at home with their baby. Not only does this restrict their time to adjust to their new home routine and to bond with their baby at home, but it also limits the time they have to recover and process the traumatic experience they have been through.
Question D18
Are there other circumstances that you think should be considered for inclusion within the scope of neonatal care leave and/or pay? What are they?
Response:
Yes
We can confirm there are other circumstances that will require long term support at home or in the community after discharge, including oxygen treatment, intensive physio support and tube feeding. Parents of babies under 28 days of age who receive hospice care and those receiving at-home palliative care should also be included within the scope of this legislation.
We endorse Bliss’s suggestions for additional circumstances under which parents and caregivers should be entitled to neonatal leave and pay, including:
Question D19
Do you agree that neonatal care leave should be a ‘day one right’ in line with maternity leave, adoption leave and parental bereavement leave?
Response:
Strongly Agree
Question D20
Do you agree that the qualifying conditions for statutory neonatal care pay should mirror the qualifying conditions for other family-related statutory pay?
Response:
Don’t Know
TinyLife believes that statutory neonatal care pay should be a day-one entitlement and we are also aware of the administrative and cost implications of this. We do, however, believe that the financial and emotional burden and impact on parents should outweigh any potential administrative or cost implications.
The cost implications of making neonatal care pay a day-one right should be relatively small. In 2021, 337 babies across Northern Ireland had a neonatal stay of 8 days or longer. While it is not possible to calculate how many parents/caregivers of those children had less than 26 weeks’ continuous service with their employer at the relevant week, it is likely that this number will be small.
We do, however, understand that making neonatal pay a day-one right will entail changes to administrative and IT systems, and this will require a longer lead-in time.
Question D21
Do you agree that the entitlement to neonatal care leave and/or pay should be available for up to 12 weeks (each week to be comprised of 7 continuous days) that a baby is in neonatal care?
Response:
Agree
TinyLife agrees with this proposal, but request that there should be additional flexibility for parents whose baby/babies are in hospital for longer than 12 weeks; i.e. those who are born extremely premature or very sick. As Bliss has noted in their own consultation response, babies born premature can generally expect to stay in hospital until their due date. Therefore, a baby born at the earliest gestations may spend up to 18 weeks in hospital. Please see our answer to Question D15 for more detail on why consideration should be given to extending the maximum period beyond 12 weeks.
Question D22
Do you agree that a father/partner should be required to give notice as soon as is reasonably practicable after their child is admitted to neonatal care, and has a stay of at least 7 continuous days, in order to take neonatal care leave and/or pay?
Response:
Agree
TinyLife request that the term “reasonably practicable” be clearly defined to ensure clarity for employers and employees.
Question D23
Do you agree that a person taking neonatal care leave and/or pay after maternity/ adoption leave should be required to give notice, akin to that which is required for taking annual leave, in order to take neonatal care leave and/or pay
Response:
Agree
TinyLife recommend that employers should be required to take a flexible approach to notice periods depending on individual circumstances. For example, many premature births take place spontaneously or with little to no notice for either parent. In these circumstances it may not be practicable for an employee to give the required period of notice.
Question D24
Do you agree that employers should be allowed to ask for a declaration of entitlement to neonatal care leave and/or pay?
Response:
Agree
TinyLife agrees that self-declaration is acceptable and we emphasise the need for employers to be transparent regarding the requesting and storage of this information. Support should also be provided to workers who might need assistance with this process, e.g. due to language barriers.
Question D25
Do you agree that when and how neonatal care leave and/or pay is to be taken should be sufficiently flexible to accommodate other periods of pre-booked family-related leave and in a way that balances the needs of parents and employers?
Response:
Don’t know
TinyLife prioritises the benefit of additional leave for parents. We are very aware of the need for neonatal leave to be flexible and responsive to the needs of the parent and baby/s. This may mean that in some cases it is not practical or beneficial for leave to be taken in a single continuous block. We emphasise again that employers should be required to treat requests flexibly on a case-by-case basis.
For example, at the end of maternity/adoption leave, parents may have a period of months where they are required to attend hospital with their baby/s for day appointments or procedures, or overnights stays. In these instances, it would be much more appropriate for accrued leave to be taken as and when required.
Question D26
Do you agree that parents on neonatal care leave should have the same protections as employees on other family-related leave?
Response:
Agree
Question D27
Do you agree that neonatal care pay should be paid at the same rate as existing family related statutory payments?
Response:
Don’t Know
TinyLife fully appreciates there is a balance to be sought between fair recompense for parents and costs to employers, so the application of a similar rate would seem to be sensible.
However, this does not take into account the many additional and hidden costs faced by families who have to spend long periods of time in hospital and at home caring for their sick newborn, including transport, the cost of accommodation, food and drink, childcare for siblings and much more.
We urge the Northern Ireland Government to consider providing neonatal care pay at a higher rate than other statutory benefits and to encourage employers to pay at an enhanced rate when the Bill is implemented.
[2] https://pure.ulster.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/121237275/Child_In_Hospital_Hidden_Costs_Report_v20.pdf