Teesside neonatal charity still expecting requests for help despite new bill
Families with a premature or sick baby in NICU are now entitled to leave and pay
Last updated 1st May 2025
A Teesside neonatal charity says they are still expecting a lot of requests for help despite the introduction of a new Government bill.
We told you earlier this week that families with a premature new-born or a sick baby in NICU are now entitled to leave and pay.
NeoAngels supports families of sick and premature babies on the Neonatal Unit at the University Hospital of North Tees in Stockton and at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough.
Julie Colarossi is a volunteer there and she said: "Every month you know we have anywhere between 10-25 families approach us filling in application forms, and when you consider that a lot of these babies are staying for several weeks on the neonatal unit that gets carried over until the baby goes home.
"Each month we're getting new application forms from the families of babies that are being looked after on the neonatal units on Teesside, and there are new applications each time and we don't stop the support until the baby goes home.
"A lot of families who are new to the area they may or may not be in work so they're applying and you might have families who are unemployed, so they're still in the same position requesting support financially and the new legislation isn't going to make any difference to them.
"I still think we're going to get a lot of requests through the charity but perhaps for working families, it might be that they'll think slightly different and we often find that they're still supportive and want to fundraise for us for those added little extras that we do.
"We get a bit of credit sort of from the fact that there's nurses that's part of the charity that work on the neonatal units, and that association is one of the things that benefits the charity. So I do still think we're going to like a lot of applicants but it's hard to predict as to how many."