If your newborn baby needs neonatal care for 7 days or more, you may get up to 12 extra weeks of paid leave on top of your other parental leave. Enter the dates and your earnings to see how many weeks you can claim and how much Statutory Neonatal Care Pay you would get.
For employees in England, Scotland and Wales
Neonatal care leave and pay are for babies born on or after 6 April 2025. If your baby spends 7 days or more in a row in neonatal care, you can get one week of leave for every 7 full days of care, up to 12 weeks. The 7-day periods are counted from the day after care starts. You and your partner may both be able to claim, and the leave and pay come in addition to your other parental pay and leave.
Neonatal care is care that starts in the first 28 days after the birth. It covers hospital care, medical care after leaving hospital that is under a consultant and includes ongoing visits or checks arranged by the hospital, and palliative or end of life care.
| Statutory Neonatal Care Pay | 2026/27 | 2025/26 |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly rate | £194.32, or 90% of earnings if lower | £187.18, or 90% if lower |
| Earnings threshold | £129 a week | £125 a week |
| Most weeks | 12 | 12 |
Statutory Neonatal Care Pay is £194.32 a week or 90% of your average weekly earnings, whichever is lower, and tax and National Insurance are deducted in the usual way. The full 12 weeks at the standard rate come to £2,331.84 before deductions. Where the 90% figure includes a fraction of a penny, the regulations round the payment up to the next penny.
To get the pay, rather than just the leave, you need to have worked for your employer continuously for at least 26 weeks up to the end of the qualifying week, still be employed up to the week before the pay starts, and earn on average at least £129 a week before tax over an 8-week period. The qualifying week is the week before your baby enters neonatal care, unless you get maternity or paternity pay (then it is the 15th week before the baby is due) or adoption pay (the week you were told you had been matched with the baby). Neonatal care leave only needs you to be an employee, however long you have worked there.
Your employer averages your gross pay over the relevant period, usually the 8 weeks before the qualifying week, which HMRC's employer guidance calls the relevant week. HMRC's method for monthly pay is to add up the pay in the period, divide by the number of months, multiply by 12 and divide by 52. For weekly pay, divide the total by the number of weeks. Only earnings that count for Class 1 National Insurance are included, and pay given up through salary sacrifice is left out.
Leave and pay must be taken within 68 weeks of the birth. While your baby is in neonatal care, or in the week after, you can take leave in separate blocks of at least one week and tell your employer on the day. Leave taken more than a week after your baby leaves neonatal care must be one continuous block, with 15 days' notice for one week or 28 days' notice for two weeks or more. If you are on maternity or adoption leave, neonatal care leave is added to the end of it.
Work out the rest of your entitlement with the maternity pay calculator, the paternity pay calculator and the shared parental pay calculator. If you are adopting, use the adoption pay calculator.
£194.32 a week or 90% of your average weekly earnings, whichever is lower. It was £187.18 a week in 2025/26. Tax and National Insurance are deducted in the usual way.
One week for every 7 full days your baby is in neonatal care without a break, counted from the day after care starts, up to a maximum of 12 weeks. Your baby must be in neonatal care for at least 7 days in a row.
Employees who are the baby's parent, or the partner of the baby's mother, with caring responsibility for the baby, including adoptive parents and intended parents in a surrogacy arrangement. You need 26 weeks with your employer by the end of the qualifying week and average earnings of at least £129 a week. The baby must be born on or after 6 April 2025.
Yes. Neonatal care pay and leave come in addition to other parental pay and leave. If your baby enters neonatal care while you are on maternity or adoption leave, the neonatal care leave is taken when that leave ends.
Within 68 weeks of your baby's birth. Leave while your baby is in neonatal care, or in the week after, can be taken a week at a time. Leave taken later must be one block, with 15 or 28 days' notice.
Yes. Neonatal care leave only requires you to be an employee, and it does not matter how long you have worked for your employer. The 26 weeks' service and £129 earnings conditions apply to the pay.
