Monthly Archives: January 2025

Neonatal Care Leave and Pay Act 2023 – A New Family Friendly Law

The Neonatal Care Leave and Pay Act 2023 will come into force on 6 April 2025. The Conservative government had promised to implement this. It will allow up to twelve weeks paid leave to eligible employees who have had a baby subsequently receiving neonatal care and will be a day one right with a new employer. The government have stated that around 60,000 new parents may benefit.

  • Neonatal Care Leave and Miscellaneous Amendments Regulations 2025: These regulations detail the specific provisions for neonatal care leave, including eligibility criteria, the process for requesting leave, and the protections afforded to employees during their leave period. They also amend existing employment legislation to integrate the new leave entitlements seamlessly.
  • Statutory Neonatal Care Pay (General) Regulations 2025: These regulations outline the conditions under which eligible employees can receive statutory neonatal care pay, specifying the qualifying criteria, the rate of pay, and the duration for which the pay is available. They provide guidance on the administrative processes employers must follow to implement and manage these payments.

The Neonatal Care Leave and Pay Act 2023 will allow new parents to focus on their new baby. At the moment many parents have to return to work whilst their baby is still sick which will be a huge dilemma and cause a lot of stress. This new law will apply to parents of babies who are admitted into neonatal care up to 28 days old and who have a continuous stay in hospital of seven full days or longer for:

*medical care

* palliative care

*outreach care where care is provided under the guidance of a consultant doctor and includes ongoing monitoring by and visits to the baby from healthcare professionals arranged by the hospital

The Neonatal Care Leave and Pay Act will allow eligible parents to take up to twelve weeks of leave (and, if eligible, pay) on top of any other leave they may be entitled to, including maternity and paternity leave.  Neonatal care leave can be taken in blocks of one week and must taken within the first 68 weeks of the baby’s birth. It could therefore be used when maternity leave, paternity leave and shared parental leave come to an end.

To be entitled to take the neonatal care leave, employees must be taking it to care for the baby, give notice and be either the child’s parent, intended parent, or the partner of the child’s mother at the date of birth.

In cases of adoption they must be the baby’s adopter, prospective adopter, or the partner of either at the date the child is placed, or in the case of an overseas adoption, the date the child enters the UK.

Neonatal care pay is subject to continuous service eligibility and a minimum earnings threshold. Neonatal care pay is paid at either the statutory flat rate of £187.18 per week for 2025/2026, or 90% of average earnings calculated over a set reference period, whichever is lower whilst absent from work.    

The protections during and after neonatal care leave are the same as for other statutory family related leave types, including protections against redundancy, dismissal, detriment and the right to return to the same or a similar job on no less favourable terms and conditions after the leave.  

Detailed guidance from the government is awaited to clarify key aspects such as eligibility criteria, how and when employees can apply for leave and pay, notice and evidence requirements, employer obligations, and the medical conditions qualifying for neonatal care leave This will help ensure both employers and employees fully understand their rights and responsibilities under the new law.

In addition the Department for Business and Trade is also expected to issue practical guidance for employers and employees to cover topics such as handling leave requests, making payroll adjustments for statutory neonatal pay, and understanding the rights and protections available to employees. Employers should also receive instructions from HMRC on how to reclaim statutory neonatal pay through the usual systems, similar to other statutory payments like maternity pay.

The new legislation will pose challenges to employers who will need to update HR policies and the payroll system. Policies should reflect the new law and there should be processes in place to deal with employee requests with management and HR training provided. Business owners and managers should understand the new rights and how they are applied. The workforce should be informed about the implementation of any new or changed policies so they are fully aware of their rights. If you need a neonatal care leave and pay policy please contact http://www.sjbealehrconsult.co.uk

The full details of this new family friendly law can be found at https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/20/enacted

Should We Still Be Working From Home – The Debate Continues

A recent BBC programme “Should we still be working from home” aired on Monday 20 January 2025:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00276pd/panorama-should-we-still-be-working-from-home

It has started various debates on Linkedin with regards to the advantages and disadvantages. In 2012 I wrote a blog about the rise of working from home and remote working: https://sjbealehrconsult.co.uk/blog/the-rise-of-home-working/.

Since COVID working from home has increased dramatically. Now employers are kicking back with many insisting that employees return to office working with the unions stepping in to protect public sector workers rights. Many hybrid roles are being advertised with a requirement to be in the office 2 or 3 days a week with the remainder of the working week at home. The BBC programme seemed to show that working at home is mainly done on Mondays and Fridays with the number of people using the London Tube on Fridays vastly reduced. This is a lot different to pre-COVID.

In 2012 I wrote how the rise of homeworking and remote working had been facilitated by the increased use of high speed broadband (now Fibre), Skype, laptops, tablet computers and hand held devices facilitating the ability to work wherever we like.  Since 2012 there has been a huge rise in the use of Microsoft Teams and Zoom. In 2012 one in twelve people were working at home on either a full time or part time basis.  In 2022 almost ten million people were working from home. In 2012 the top 25 home office hot spots are were all in the South East and the Office of National Statistics Labour Force Survey indicated that that 2/3 of home workers were men. The BBC programme aired this week featured a male employee working from home employed by the ONS.   In 2022 the ONS published an article on whether hybrid working is here to stay:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/ishybridworkingheretostay/2022-05-23

A challenging economy in 2012 had forced employers to cut back on costs, such as office expenses, and let people work remotely. This has dramatically increased since COVID with many offices no longer in use and many being converted to homes. There was also evidence in 2012 that many people were starting home based businesses. A trend which has continued. Furthermore working from home contributes to the “green” economy and the carbon footprint with less polluting cars on the road. 

There are many advantages to this type of working, which we can all recognise; the work-life balance is much improved without the stress of struggling to work every day on the congested road and increasingly disorganised rail systems.  So much time is saved by not having to get up at the crack of dawn to get to the office on time and exhaustion is a distant memory. We can now wake up, leisurely eat a decent breakfast in the comfort of our home then get the kids to school before sitting down to the computer to start the working day either in a spare bedroom or bespoke office in the house or garden. 

As long as we meet our targets and maintain our usual output, the hours we work need not be fixed if our work (and where relevant our manager) dictates, so that by working flexibly we have the time to do that bit of shopping or attend that dentist appointment during the day.

Having set up and completed a risk assessment on the work area to comply with health and safety what could be easier than working from home?

The reality is, however, that it doesn’t suit everyone.  Working from home can be very isolating.  How many of us actually see our neighbours and friends during the day now – they are all out at work!  Being alone day after day with no social interaction can be very lonely without that “over the photocopier” chat, gossip with the tea-lady or the office Friday pub lunch where we can look forward to the weekend. 

For those individuals prone to depression working from home can become a nightmare with the distinction between work and home becoming a blur. 

The saying “out of sight out of mind” might apply with a perception of being ignored by the company, if we are an employee, can set in, only getting the odd phone call to check that performance targets have been reached and to find out when the monthly figures will be sent in where relevant.  In such circumstances a feeling of de-motivation and being under-valued can occur and lead to a drop in performance.

Working from home is ideal for self-starters who can discipline themselves to work set hours so that there is a clear distinction between work and home.  Line managers of such individuals have to have the experience and skill to be able to manage at a distance and understand the issues that may arise.

First and foremost, the type of work needs to be adaptable to home-working such as administration, freelance interviewing and sales.

The company needs to ensure there is a home working policy in place that covers issues such as health and safety, equipment safety, data protection, communication and performance management. There should be consideration to having a home working checklist.  These documents should be communicated well to the workforce with clear procedures in place.

The line manager needs to be able to encourage team interaction by organising team meetings at a single location on a regular basis to provide valuable information on what is happening within the business, eg and training & promotional opportunities.  Perhaps video conferencing with Teams and Zoom could replace physical group meetings when these are not possible.  Such get-togethers should be supplemented by phone calls and emails to keep in touch. 

The line manager needs to be able to communicate clear goals and the standards expected within the home-based role and be equipped with the tools for measurement and assessment of work quality to ensure that everything is satisfactory.  Training for line managers in managing home-workers should be considered.

Recruitment to a remote based role must be geared around employing individuals who are used to remote working or have the ability to adapt if they have always worked in an office. Management of their probation period is important to ensure the new employee is settling in and performing well.

Security of information and data protection should be a high priority.  A decision should be taken whether to give remote workers full or controlled access to network links using an IT security risk assessment.  The issue of company laptops with encryption software, for example, would reduce the possibility of disaster with important corporate documents getting mixed up with the children’s homework or theft from the boot of a car.

Also the installation of virus protection and guidelines on authorised use of additional software and prohibition of USB sticks and floppy discs (now outdated) to transport data should be essential.

Information on using secure servers and taking daily back ups should be incorporated into an IT security policy both for remote (and office) workers giving details on not sharing passwords, not opening suspicious email attachments and visiting work-related websites only.  Clear instructions for not modifying any company spreadsheets and macros without authorisation can also help to provide guidelines on what is acceptable IT use. 

Companies considering implementing home or remote working should think about running a pilot scheme to see if it is feasible and practical for business and individual needs before making a commitment.    

Working from home and remote working is now embedded in the UK work culture much more so than it was in 2012 supported by modern technology. The debate will continue for years to come I am sure.

Employment Rights Bill – How Employers Will be Affected

The Employment Rights Bill is currently proceeding through Parliament brought in by the Labour Government. In this blog the implications for employers and employees are explained. It was introduced in October 2024 after the Labour Government came to power and seeks to secure job security, working conditions and pay as well modernise employment legislation. The majority of today’s employment law was implemented in the mid 1990s. The Employment Rights Bill is part of the Plan to Make Work Pay and will come into force in August 2026 with substantial consultation in the meantime. The aim as listed on https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/employment-rights-bill-factsheets is to address one sided flexibility, support family friendly rights, prioritise fairness, equality and wellbeing of workers, ensure workers get fair pay, modernise the union laws and improve enforcement of employment rights.

The provisions of the Employment Rights Bill are as follows:

Right to unfair dismissal from day one of employment removing the requirement for two years continuous service before being able to make a claim.

Statutory sick pay from day one of sickness and the lower earnings threshold removed. Currently employees begin to receive SSP on day four of sickness with the first three days referred to as “waiting days” where nothing is paid.

Paternity and parental leave rights from day one of employment. Eligibility currently for paternity leave is 26 weeks continuous employment in the qualifying week. With parental leave employees must have worked continuously for a company for a year.

Bereavement leave will be extended to a wider range of relatives and must be taken within 56 days of the death. Currently there is no legal entitlement to bereavement leave.

The prohibition of zero hours contracts

Enhanced protection for pregnant and new mothers from dismissal and for six months on returning to work. This includes redundancy.

The right for employees to join a union and greater access for trade unions in the workplace

Between now and 2026 employers will have to keep an eye on how the Employment Bill progresses. As implementation looms employers will have to review their policies, procedures and employment contracts to ensure they comply with the new law.