Statutory Neonatal Care Pay (SNCP)

Matt Jennings Updated by Matt Jennings

To view the Statutory Neonatal Care Pay (SNCP) article for the desktop version click HERE

Statutory Neonatal Care Pay (SNCP) is a new statutory payment available to employees from the start of the 2025/26 tax year. This allows employees whose babies (both birth and adopted) enter neonatal care to claim leave and pay.

Employees are entitled to 1 week of leave per week of neonatal care the child receives up to a maximum of 12 weeks

This is visible in two areas of the system: on the employee record and on the payroll on the Statutory payments tab.

From the employee record, once navigated to the tab, you are able to view any existing statutory payments or add new ones.

To add a new instance of SNCP, click the Add new instance of statutory pay button. From here you will need to select the payment type. Here you select Statutory Neonatal Care Pay (SNCP).

When SNCP is selected, you will need to select whether this is a birth or an adoption. If the employee also has an instance of SMP, SAP or SPP then this can be linked via the dropdown. If not linking, then select Neither (SPP not taken). The baby's date of birth and Start of Neonatal care must then be entered. Click Next to continue to the next page.

The Start of Neonatal care must be within 28 days of the baby's date of birth to be eligible

From here you will be able to save the record once an initial End of Neonatal care date has been entered. You can enter the rest of the details for the instance of SNCP either now or later when they are known.

SNCP leave (and pay) instances may be later than the actual dates of care, and as such both are recorded in the system. Employees are entitled to 12 weeks of leave; one week for each week the baby is in care.

Instances of care dates

SNCP care dates are the physical dates the child was in neonatal care. This can be made up of multiple instances, but the start of all instances must be within 28 days of the baby's date of birth. Each instance must be in full weeks as leave is payable in whole weeks only.

The start and end dates are required for each instance of neonatal care, and to add extra instances, click the + button underneath the latest instance of care.

To delete an entry, simply click the bin button next to the row in question. Once entered clicking the Save button will store update the record.

Instances of leave dates

Leave dates are the weeks that the employee takes as leave. SNCP cannot be paid along with any other statutory payment, therefore the dates of leave may not correspond directly with the dates of care. For example, employees receiving SMP payments may take the SNCP leave at the end of their SMP.

If an employee takes leave whilst the baby is still in neonatal care, or the first week after, this is classed as tier one leave, and the notice period is before the employee is due to start work on the first day of leave or as soon as is reasonably possible, and multiple instances of tier one leave are permitted

If an employee takes leave after this period, it is classed as tier two leave and 15 days notice is required for one weeks leave or 28 days notice for 2 or more week leave.

To enter leave dates, click the Instances of leave dates tab and input the Notice date, Start date and End date of each instance of leave. To add extra instances, click the + button underneath the latest instance of care.

To delete an entry, simply click the bin button next to the row in question. Once entered clicking the Save button will update the record.

If you need to, you are able to overwrite the Average weekly pay in qualifying week. The Offset to gross checkbox will offset the SNCP against any gross paid during the SNCP pay period.

Once the card has been saved, you can see how much has been processed and how many weeks have been processed, as well as the status of the SNCP.

The weeks paid and total amount paid shown under manage employees will only show closed payroll cycles. To see this information inclusive of open pay cycles, navigate to the open payroll cycle, where the SNCP card will contain this information.

To edit or delete a card, click the three dots at the side of the card and select the relevant action.

Once all fields have been entered, SNCP will start to be processed once the SNCP paid date is on or after the start date on the Instances of leave dates tab.

Statuses

During processing, SNCP can exist in various statuses. These are:

  1. Start of leave unknown:

No entries have been made in Instances of leave dates

  1. Not started

The first instance of leave has been entered and the start date is greater than the SNCP start date

  1. In Progress:

SNCP payments have started, but there are entered leave dates that have not been paid.

  1. Paid up to date:

All entered instances of leave had been paid.

  1. Ended:  

Either the employee has been paid 12 weeks of SNCP or the date of the last SNCP pay date is greater than or equal to the child's DOB + 63 weeks

Payroll functionality

The functionality on the payroll cycle is exactly the same as on the employee record with the exception that the Weeks Paid, Total amount paid, and Status are updated to include the values on the current payroll.

Was this article useful?

Import of Sick Pay information

Contact