Neonatal care leave: maximum weeks

The ceiling on neonatal care leave, accrued a week at a time for every seven unbroken days a baby spends in neonatal care.

12weeks

Corroborated Statutory Instrument Great Britain in force since 2025-04-06

Checked against its sources: statute verified 2026-09-21·guidance verified 2026-07-29

Scope: Twelve weeks is the maximum, not an entitlement: a week accrues only for each full seven days of neonatal care. Where two or more children are in neonatal care at the same time the twelve weeks are not multiplied (reg 9(e)). The matching twelve weeks of statutory neonatal care PAY is a separate figure in separate Regulations (Statutory Neonatal Care Pay: maximum weeks, SI 2025/376 reg 7(2)), and the two instruments even spell the number differently — "twelve weeks" here, "12 weeks" there.

Current sources

Source A · Legislationhttps://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2025/375/made (SI 2025/375 reg 7(1) as made: "The maximum number of weeks in respect of which a person is entitled to take neonatal care leave is twelve weeks"; in force 6 April 2025, reg 1(2), and applying in respect of children born on or after that date, reg 2(1))

retrieved 2026-09-11

Source B · Official guidancehttps://www.gov.uk/neonatal-care-pay-leave ("You can get one week's leave for every 7 full and continuous days your baby is in neonatal care, for up to 12 weeks")

retrieved 2026-07-29

History

Value	From	To	Status	Sources
12	2025-04-06	—	Corroborated	Legislation: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2025/375/made (SI 2025/375 reg 7(1) as made: "The maximum number of weeks in respect of which a person is entitled to take neonatal care leave is twelve weeks"; in force 6 April 2025, reg 1(2), and applying in respect of children born on or after that date, reg 2(1)) retrieved 2026-09-11 Official guidance: https://www.gov.uk/neonatal-care-pay-leave ("You can get one week's leave for every 7 full and continuous days your baby is in neonatal care, for up to 12 weeks") retrieved 2026-07-29

Receipt

Everything above is reproducible and independently checkable — no trust in this site required (how verification works).

Figure ID: employment.leave.neonatal_care_weeks
Record fields (source type · unit · jurisdiction · status): si·weeks·GB·corroborated
Record hash (canonical JSON, SHA-256): sha256:47ae9908e1df1120bea0158d868be34a9c91aadbc752ef11fce05f1a215ce709
Source snapshots (SHA-256): Legislation: sha256:f069a6a1ff8e8c4457d2c795e8d82376282947a93f3310cde9567ef03312a28e; Official guidance: sha256:c5c0cbc7ca7dd1c3807bdc550fee5750299227c757dc5cedc337f98bcb4f0032
Listed in the signed manifest: release 3.0.0 manifest · record_hashes["employment.leave.neonatal_care_weeks"]
Machine-readable record: /v1/figures/employment.leave.neonatal_care_weeks · current only: /v1/figures/employment.leave.neonatal_care_weeks/current

Compiler's notes

An SI carry (ADR-0014), and a HOST-STATES one: no textual amendment touches regulation 7, so the 2025 Regulations state the value by their own words. GOV.UK's combined guide states the twelve weeks as LEAVE, which is what this record is — the pay record cites the same sentence because the page states no separate duration for pay, and says so in its own scope note.