12 March 2020

After years of campaigning, parents of premature babies will be able to claim an extra £160 a week under new measures announced at the budget on 11 March 2020.

The campaign was spearheaded by Croydon mum Catriona Ogilvy who runs The Smallest Things charity, and was supported by Bliss and ourselves.

The change in law will mean that new mums and dads can claim statutory paid leave for every week their child is in neonatal care, up to a maximum of 12 weeks.

Before this change, parents of premmie babies would have to start their maternity and paternity leave the day after their precious bundles arrive. Now the government will pay the extra leave, rather than businesses.

As twins and triplets are often born prematurely, we fully supported this campaign and were the first charity to introduce a policy to give extra leave to any staff who have babies that are born early.

While we welcome the announcement, the charities involved in the campaign have asked Rachel Reeves MP to table an Early Day Motion in order to ensure swift action on implementation and clarification on self-employed workers.

Keith Reed, CEO of Twins Trust, said: "This will make a huge difference to many of our families at the toughest time in their lives when the health of their babies needs to be top priority.

“We will continue with our efforts to improve care for our families through our quality improvement project as we know, and have the evidence to prove, that following NICE multiple birth guidance is saving babies' lives, reducing neonatal admissions and neonatal deaths.”