Do You Need A Locum Vet Agreement?

Priya runs a busy small animal practice in Manchester. One of her vets goes on long-term leave, so she brings in a locum to cover consults, surgeries and the occasional weekend shift.

At first, everyone is happy to keep things informal. The locum invoices weekly, uses the practice systems and starts seeing regular clients. Then a dispute pops up about a complication after surgery, who should speak to the client, whether the locum can contact the client directly, and who is covered by insurance.

This is exactly where a clear locum vet agreement helps. It sets out the working relationship before a problem arises, so your practice, your team, your clients and your patients all know where they stand.

What Is A Locum Vet Agreement?

A locum vet agreement is a contract between your veterinary practice and a vet who provides temporary or sessional services to your business.

You might also hear it called a veterinary contractor agreement, a vet practice locum contract, an associate vet agreement or a self-employed vet contract. The name matters less than what the document actually says and how the arrangement works in practice.

For a veterinary practice, the agreement should do more than state the day rate. It should cover practical and clinical issues such as:

• What services the locum will provide, such as consults, surgery, emergency work or home visits
• The days, hours and locations of work
• Clinical standards and compliance with the RCVS Code of Professional Conduct
• Use of your practice management system and clinical records
• Prescribing, dispensing and handling medicines
• Insurance, indemnity and responsibility for mistakes
• Client relationships, confidentiality and data protection
• Fees, invoicing, cancellation and notice
• Whether the vet is genuinely self-employed, a worker or an employee

A generic contractor template often misses the practice-specific details that matter in veterinary work. For example, a clause about returning property is useful, but it won't help much if nobody has agreed who is responsible for controlled drugs, adverse event reporting or follow-up calls after a procedure.

Do You Need A Written Contract For A Self-Employed Vet?

Yes, you should have a written contract if you're engaging a self-employed vet, even for short-term locum cover.

A verbal agreement can still be legally binding, but it's much harder to prove what was agreed if something goes wrong. Without a written agreement, you may struggle to recover unpaid costs, manage a clinical complaint, stop a locum from contacting your clients, or show HMRC how the working relationship was intended to operate.

A written agreement also helps with day-to-day clarity. Your practice manager shouldn't have to guess whether the locum is expected to:

• Cover emergencies at the end of a shift
• Write up notes before leaving the premises
• Follow up pathology results after the booking ends
• Use their own professional indemnity insurance
• Attend team meetings or clinical governance discussions
• Accept changes to the rota at short notice

If the arrangement is more permanent, regular or integrated into your practice, the contract needs even more care. A regular associate vet working fixed shifts every week may need an associate vet agreement and can start to look very different from a true occasional locum.

Is Your Locum Vet Really Self-Employed?

It depends on how the relationship works in real life, not just what your contract calls it.

Employment status is one of the biggest legal risks when hiring veterinary locums. In the UK, a person might be self-employed, a worker or an employee. Each status carries different rights and obligations.

A contract saying the vet is self-employed is helpful, but it isn't the final answer. HMRC, an employment tribunal or another authority can look at the full picture.

Why Status Matters For Your Practice

If a locum is treated as self-employed but is later found to be a worker or employee, your business could face claims or liabilities relating to:

• Holiday pay, which is 5.6 weeks per year for employees and workers, pro-rated for part-time arrangements
• National Minimum Wage compliance
• Unlawful deductions from wages
• Employment rights under the Employment Rights Act 1996
• Tax and National Insurance issues, depending on the arrangement
• Pension auto-enrolment obligations, where the rules apply

Employees and workers are also entitled to a written statement of employment particulars from day one. If your practice is really engaging someone as staff, a self-employed locum agreement won't be the right document. You'll usually need an employment contract or other appropriate employment documentation.

What Points To Self-Employment?

No single factor decides status, but these points can support a genuine contractor relationship:

• The locum can accept or reject work
• The locum has control over how they provide the services, within clinical and regulatory standards
• The locum can send a suitably qualified substitute, if that's realistic and approved by your practice
• The locum uses their own business structure, invoices your practice and is responsible for their own tax
• The locum carries their own professional indemnity insurance
• There's no ongoing obligation for you to offer work, or for the locum to accept it
• The locum works for other practices or clients

On the other hand, a locum may look more like a worker or employee if you set fixed hours indefinitely, require personal service at all times, control how every task is done, include them in staff benefits, and expect ongoing availability.

Say Priya books the same vet every Monday to Friday for 12 months, requires them to ask permission for time off, gives them a practice email address, places them on the website as a permanent team member and doesn't allow them to work elsewhere. Calling that person a self-employed locum may not match the reality.

If you're unsure, get tailored advice before the arrangement becomes routine. Fixing the structure early is much easier than unwinding a status dispute later.

What Should A Veterinary Contractor Agreement Cover?

A veterinary contractor agreement should cover the commercial terms, clinical responsibilities and practice-specific risk areas in one clear document.

At a minimum, your agreement should include the following.

Services And Scope

Set out exactly what the locum is being engaged to do. For example:

• First opinion consultations
• Routine surgery
• Emergency and critical care
• Dental procedures
• Home visits
• Teletriage or remote advice
• Out-of-hours cover
• Clinical note review or follow-up work

If certain procedures are excluded, say so. This is especially helpful where a locum is comfortable with consults and routine work but not complex surgery or sole-charge emergency shifts.

Rota, Cancellations And Notice

Your agreement should explain how shifts are booked and cancelled. You might include:

• The booking period and usual working hours
• How extra shifts are agreed
• What happens if your practice cancels a shift
• What happens if the locum cancels at short notice
• The notice required to end the arrangement
• Any handover obligations at the end of a shift or booking

There's no one statutory notice period for a genuinely self-employed contractor. You can agree your own commercial notice terms. If the vet is actually an employee, statutory minimum notice under the Employment Rights Act 1996 starts at one week after one month of employment, then one week for each complete year of service, up to 12 weeks. Your contract can give more generous notice, but not less than the statutory minimum for employees.

Fees, Invoicing And Expenses

Be clear about the rate and what it includes. For example, is the locum paid by the day, hour, shift or procedure? Are travel, accommodation, parking, CPD, mileage or out-of-hours call-outs included or charged separately?

Your agreement should also cover when invoices are due, when you pay them, what happens if there's a billing dispute, and whether VAT applies. VAT and tax treatment depend on the locum's circumstances, so your accountant can help with that side.

Clinical Standards And Practice Policies

The clinical services agreement should require the locum to meet appropriate professional standards, including RCVS registration and compliance with the RCVS Code of Professional Conduct.

You can also require compliance with your practice policies where they're relevant to the services, such as:

• Clinical protocols
• Infection control procedures
• Health and safety policies
• Animal handling procedures
• Consent processes
• Complaints handling
• Record keeping standards
• Data protection and confidentiality policies

Be careful not to over-control the locum in a way that undermines self-employed status. You can set standards and protect patients without turning the relationship into day-to-day staff management.

Who Owns The Client Relationship And Clinical Records?

Your practice should usually own the client relationship, client lists and clinical records, unless you have agreed something different in writing.

This matters because locums often build trust quickly with clients. That's a good thing clinically, but it can create problems if a locum later leaves and contacts your clients directly, takes copies of records, or encourages clients to move to another practice.

Your agreement should deal with:

• Who can contact clients during and after the booking
• Who owns the practice's client lists and business contacts
• How clinical records must be created, stored and updated
• Whether the locum can keep any copies of records
• How client complaints and follow-up requests are handled
• What the locum can say publicly about the practice

Patient records also involve personal data about clients. UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 apply to personal data such as names, addresses, phone numbers, payment information and appointment history.

Your locum may be handling that data through your practice systems and IT services. The contract should require them to protect confidentiality, use personal data only for the agreed services, follow your data protection instructions where appropriate, and tell you promptly if there's a data incident.

If a personal data breach is likely to risk people's rights and freedoms, you may need to report it to the Information Commissioner's Office within 72 hours of becoming aware of it. Clients also have rights, including the right to make a data subject access request, which you generally need to respond to within one month.

Restrictive covenants can help protect your client relationships, but they need to be reasonable. A narrow non-solicitation clause that stops a locum from actively poaching your clients for a set period is usually more realistic than trying to stop them from working anywhere nearby. The right wording depends on your practice, location and the locum's role.

How Should You Deal With Medicines, Insurance And Out-Of-Hours Work?

You should deal with these issues expressly, because they're some of the most common sources of confusion in veterinary locum arrangements.

Medicines And Controlled Drugs

Veterinary medicines are a practice-critical area. Your agreement should require the locum to follow all legal and professional requirements relating to prescribing, supplying, administering and recording medicines.

Depending on your practice, this may include procedures for:

• Prescription-only medicines
• Controlled drugs and controlled drug registers
• Storage and stock control
• Adverse event reporting
• Written prescriptions
• Dispensing under your practice protocols
• Use of the practice's prescribing systems

The Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013 and guidance from the Veterinary Medicines Directorate are key reference points for medicines compliance. Your agreement doesn't need to repeat every rule, but it should make clear that the locum must follow the law, your protocols and any reasonable direction designed to keep the practice compliant.

Insurance And Indemnity

Your contract should say what insurance each party is expected to hold. Many practices require locums to maintain their own professional indemnity cover, public liability cover and, where relevant, employer's liability cover for their own staff or substitutes.

You should also check your practice policy. Don't assume your existing insurance automatically covers all locums, out-of-hours work, home visits or sole-charge shifts.

The practical question is simple: if there's a clinical complaint, injury, property damage or negligence allegation, who responds and who pays?

The agreement can also include an indemnity clause. This means the locum may need to compensate your practice for certain losses caused by their breach, negligence or misconduct. The wording should be fair and commercially sensible, especially if you're dealing with an individual contractor rather than a large company.

Out-Of-Hours And Emergency Work

Out-of-hours work needs special clarity. A locum covering routine consults may not be willing or suitably set up to cover emergency calls, hospitalised patients or overnight monitoring.

Your agreement should cover:

• Whether out-of-hours work is included
• Call-out rates and minimum charges
• Response times
• Access to premises, medicines and equipment
• Sole-charge responsibilities
• Escalation to senior vets or referral centres
• Handover for inpatients and ongoing cases

If you offer 24-hour care or share out-of-hours cover with another provider, make sure the locum knows where their responsibility starts and ends. Clear handover notes aren't just admin. They can be the difference between a smooth clinical outcome and a complaint.

Common Mistakes To Avoid

The biggest mistake is assuming a standard contractor agreement will be enough for veterinary work.

Other common traps include:

• Calling someone self-employed without checking the reality: If the arrangement looks like employment, the label won't protect you on its own.
• Leaving follow-up work unclear: Decide who handles lab results, post-op checks, client calls and ongoing medication plans after the locum's booking ends.
• Forgetting client ownership: Make sure your client lists, records and goodwill stay with your practice.
• Not checking insurance: Ask for evidence of cover and check your own policy wording before the locum starts.
• Ignoring data protection: Locums often access sensitive client and payment information through your systems.
• Being vague about medicines: Your contract should support your prescribing, dispensing and controlled drugs processes.
• Using overbearing control clauses: If you want a self-employed arrangement, don't draft the contract like an employment contract.
• Missing termination rights: You need a clear way to end the arrangement if standards, availability or conduct become an issue.

A good locum vet agreement should feel practical, not heavy-handed. The aim is to keep the practice running smoothly, protect your clients and patients, and reduce the risk of awkward disputes later.

Key Takeaways

• A locum vet agreement should cover clinical, commercial and practice-specific issues, not just fees and dates.
• Self-employed status depends on the real working relationship, so your contract and day-to-day practices need to line up.
• Your agreement should protect your client relationships, clinical records, confidential information and personal data.
• Medicines, insurance and out-of-hours responsibilities should be spelt out clearly before the locum starts work.
• Reasonable restrictions can help stop client poaching, but they need to be carefully drafted for your practice.
• Tailored documents are usually safer than generic templates, especially in regulated clinical settings like veterinary care.

If you'd like help with locum vet agreements, contractor status checks, client protection clauses and veterinary practice policies, you can reach us at 08081347754 or team@sprintlaw.co.uk for a free, no-obligations chat.