Day one rights

Neonatal bereavement leave is a day one right from 6 April 2026

Updated 6 October 2026

Six concrete rights to know. First, the leave is a day one right from 6 April 2026, with no minimum service. Second, you qualify if your baby is stillborn from 24 weeks of pregnancy, or dies within 28 days of birth, or you were the intended parent of a surrogacy arrangement that ends this way. Third, you can take up to 52 weeks of leave, and you can choose to take less. Fourth, the first two weeks are paid at the statutory rate, the rest at the same rate as ordinary statutory maternity or paternity pay. Fifth, you do not have to give a specific notice form, but you should tell your employer as soon as you can, and they cannot require a particular format. Sixth, you have the same right to return to your job, and protection from dismissal or detriment because you took, asked for, or might take this leave.

Who is covered by neonatal bereavement leave

The right sits in the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023, which is now in force. The leave part, which is what gives you the right to be away from work, applies from 6 April 2026, and the pay part follows shortly after once the government confirms the start date through regulations. The right is for employees. It is not, at the time of writing, available to workers or the genuinely self employed, although the wider employment rights reforms are reshaping who counts as an employee across this period.

You qualify if you are the mother of the baby, the other parent such as the father or the second legal parent, the intended parent in a surrogacy arrangement, or the adopter who was matched before the death. You do not need to have given birth yourself to qualify. A couple who lost a baby together can each be entitled in their own right, and the leave can run at the same time as your partner takes statutory paternity leave for the same bereavement.

How much leave you can take

You can take up to 52 weeks. You do not have to take all of it. You can decide to take one week, six months, or the full year, and you can agree to bring it forward or push it back with your employer within the 52 week window.

The first two weeks are paid as a separate pot called statutory neonatal bereavement pay, and the government has said the rate will mirror statutory maternity pay. The remainder of the 52 weeks follows the ordinary rules for statutory maternity pay or statutory paternity pay, depending on which parent you are and which leave you are using, with the same six week at higher rate, 33 weeks at the flat rate structure for birth parents, and the same up to 37 weeks at the flat rate for the other parent.

Your employer can run the leave alongside your ordinary statutory maternity or paternity leave if you are taking it as well, so you are not forced to use one pot then the other. They can also let you split the leave into blocks, for example to phase a return to work, although the default is one continuous period.

When the leave has to start and finish

The leave starts the day after the baby's death, or, if you are still in hospital or in neonatal care at the time of the death, the day after you are discharged. That second point matters, because many parents are not in a position to deal with HR paperwork while their baby is still in a special care unit.

What evidence your employer can and cannot ask for

Your employer cannot demand to see a death certificate as a condition of granting the leave, because in a neonatal loss there is often no registration at all, particularly for very early losses before 24 weeks. They can ask for enough information to confirm that you qualify, and that usually means the date of the birth, the date of the death, and your relationship to the child.

They can ask you to provide this in writing. They cannot require a particular form. They cannot require you to provide a medical certificate if a death was not registered. They cannot delay the start of the leave because the paperwork is not yet ready. If the baby is stillborn, the hospital will give you a medical certificate of stillbirth, and that is usually enough.

If you are not the birth mother, the employer may ask for a declaration that you are the other parent or the intended parent, and they may check it against what they already hold for shared parental leave or paternity purposes. They should not cross check with your partner without your consent.

Protection from dismissal and detriment

It is automatically unfair to dismiss you, or to subject you to a detriment such as demotion, cut in hours, or refusal of a promotion, because you took, asked for, or might take neonatal bereavement leave. The same protection covers you if you exercise, or are thought to exercise, the right to time off for antenatal care, or to attend a pregnancy related appointment after a loss.

You do not need any minimum service to bring a claim for automatic unfair dismissal on this ground, and you can bring a claim in the employment tribunal. The usual six month time limit for bringing an unfair dismissal claim will apply from the date of the dismissal, not from the end of your leave.

If you are treated worse by colleagues or by a manager because of the leave, that is also a detriment, and the route for raising it is the same as for any other protected leave. The internal grievance process is the usual first step, although you can go straight to Acas early conciliation if you would rather.

How to ask for the leave at work

You do not need a specific form, and your employer should not insist on one. A short email or letter is enough. It should say that you are entitled to neonatal bereavement leave under the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023, the date of the baby's death or stillbirth, the date you want the leave to start, and how long you intend to take. If you are the other parent and not the birth mother, say what your relationship to the child is.

Give as much notice as you reasonably can. The law does not set a fixed notice period for this leave, because in most cases there is no realistic opportunity to give notice, and the legislation recognises that. The expectation is that you tell your employer as soon as you reasonably can, and that your employer acts on it.

What to do in the meantime

Tell your employer as soon as you can, in writing, and keep a copy. State your relationship to the baby, the date of the loss, the leave start date, and how long you want to take. Ask for confirmation of your right to return to the same job, and ask about pay for the first two weeks.