CIPP survey on Neonatal Leave and Pay

29 August 2019

The CIPP policy team have produced a survey on the consultation which is asking for views on a proposed new entitlement to Neonatal Leave and Pay for parents of babies who require neonatal care following birth.

 

An internal review by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) highlighted that parents of premature, sick and multiple babies can experience significant challenges, particularly in cases where their baby or babies need neonatal care for a number of weeks or months.

 

During this time parents may need to travel significant distances between their home and the hospital on a daily basis or even stay in temporary accommodation closer to the hospital. This could introduce issues such as childcare arrangements for other children; parents’ ability to return to work at the end of their period of arranged leave; as well as the financial costs arising from all of the above.

 

Prospective parents and new parents enjoy a range of family-related leave and pay rights which enable them to take time off work prior to the birth of their child and subsequently. In addition, all employees have the right take a reasonable amount of time off work to deal with emergencies involving family and other dependants; and employees with 26 weeks’ service have a statutory right to request flexible working.

 

Nevertheless, evidence gathered so far through the BEIS internal review suggests that current leave and pay entitlements do not adequately support parents where the baby or babies need to spend a prolonged period in neonatal care.

 

CIPP surveys

To help inform the CIPP’s response to the consultation which proposes a new entitlement to Neonatal Leave and Pay, please spare around 20 minutes to complete our survey. Closes at 23:45 on Friday 6 September 2019.

 

We appreciate that there are several surveys out at the moment due to the plethora of consultation publications from government, so your time is particularly valued. Thank you in advance for your input.

 

Details of all our current surveys can be found in the consultation area of the CIPP’s policy hub – you can log in under My CIPP on the homepage of our website.