Will you become an Employer with Heart?
Will you go above and beyond the new statutory neonatal leave and pay requirements?
Born too soon, premature babies can spend weeks and months in hospital before their parents are able to bring them home.
Anxiously, parents wait beside incubators hoping for the precious moment they can finally hold their baby or babies. From that moment they are thrown into an uncertain and often traumatic world of Neonatal Intensive Care.
Life after neonatal intensive care
But the journey doesn’t end there. Parents and carers have told us of the ongoing medical needs of babies born too soon, the complex array of mental health difficulties they’ve experienced and the financial pressures placed on them. Returning to work so soon after a baby has come home from hospital, whilst the trauma remains raw and babies are still fragile, is an enormous strain on families – emotionally, financially and logistically. For many, the strain is too much and they are left with no choice but to leave the workforce.
Our research report, After NICU 2021, revealed that over half of premature babies were readmitted to hospital to after being discharged. Almost 1 in 4 parents were diagnosed with PTSD after a neonatal stay and over three quarters experienced anxiety.
That is why The Smallest Things has been asking employers since 2018 to support parents and carers of premature babies by extending paid parental leave and signing up to our Employer with Heart 2.0 Charter.
Our Charter goes above and beyond the new statutory requirements, understanding not only the emotional and financial cost of spending time in neonatal intensive care, but also the ongoing journey faced by families. It acknowledges that babies born prematurely have unique needs, often coming home from hospital before their due date.
How is the Employer with Heart charter different to Neonatal Leave and Pay?
The Employer with Heart 2.0 Charter goes above and beyond the forthcoming statutory requirements, making it the true gold standard for compassionate, neonatal family-friendly employers who value their workforce.
New statutory requirements will apply to parents of babies who are admitted into hospital up to the age of 28 days and have a continuous stay in hospital of seven days or more. It will be paid at around £160 per week, up to a maximum of 12 weeks.
The Smallest Things Employers with Heart 2.0 extends leave for the number of days between premature birth (before 37 weeks) and due date for both parents at full pay. This gives families full financial security at a time of great uncertainly, and them and their baby or babies the time they need to recover once home.
Click a button below to find out more and access resources.
What do you want to do today?
“It’s a small thing we can do that will make a huge difference for families. I don’t understand why more employers don’t do this.”
“The most traumatic experience of my entire 35 years: PPROM (Preterm, Prelabour Rupture Of Membranes) at 26 weeks; delivery of a 1lb 4oz (567g) baby I was scared to even look at, let alone allow myself to love; 98 days of touch and go; ventilators; infections; procedures; and heartache. One thing is for certain, this is not maternity leave.”
“It’s so important for new parents to feel supported. In that moment, everything else takes a back seat and it’s wonderful that Sony Music are acknowledging that by introducing this.”
“My employer had signed up to The Smallest Things Employer with Heart charter so I got an extra 10 weeks of paid maternity leave. If this had not been in place, I would have missed out on Spencer walking for the first time. It has made a huge difference to my family.”
Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) legislation
Stuart C McDonald MP presents the third reading of his Bill to Parliament.
Since the charity’s birth in 2014, we have called on the government to extend parental leave for families whose babies are born prematurely. More than 357,000 people signed our petition, we organised a march to Parliament and we met various Business Ministers and MPs to keep the issue high on the agenda. In 2022, after successful campaigning, we were pleased to support Stuart C McDonald MP with his Private Member’s Bill, Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay). For a full rundown of a decade of campaign milestones, visit our Story so far page.
The Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Bill received Royal Assent and became law in 2023. It will be available to parents and carers from April 2025. But employers don’t have to wait or only update policies to meet statutory minimums: we continue to ask all businesses and organisations to become Employers with Heart.