Locum Doctors and Physician Associates Shifts & Rates,

Reference: 25-26356

Date response sent: 05/12/2025

Details of enquiry

Part 1: LOCUM RATES

1. The current hourly locum rates for the following grades of medical staff at the Trust:

a. Foundation Year 1 (FY1)

b. Foundation Year 2 (FY2)

c. Core Trainees (CT1-2/ST1-2)

d. Specialty Registrars (ST3+)

e. Specialty Doctors and Associate Specialists (SAS grades)

f. Consultants

2. Please include separate rates for:

a. Core weekday hours

b. Night shifts

c. Weekend shifts

d. Bank holidays

3. Please break down rates by speciality and hospital, if applicable.

4. For each rate, please specify:

a. Whether it applies to internal bank locums, external agency locums, or both

b. The effective date of the current rates

5. What was your locum rate for the above grades and specialities in 2010, 2015 and 2020?

6. What is your escalation rate policy for out-of-hours or late notice locum staff?

Part 2: LOCUM SHIFTS

1. How many doctor shifts were filled by locum staff each month since October 2023?
2. How many locum shifts went unfilled each month since October 2023?
3. How many local shifts were advertised in total each month since October 2023?
4. Please break down the numbers by speciality, grade and hospital if applicable.
5. Please break down the numbers by the type of shift, i.e. core hours weekday shift, night shifts, weekend shifts, bank holidays.

Part 3: PA/ANP SHIFTS

1. How many doctor shifts were covered by physician associates at the Trust each month since October 2023? Please break down the numbers by grade, speciality and hospital, if applicable
2. How many doctor shifts were covered by advanced nurse practitioners at the Trust each month since October 2023? Please break down the numbers by grade, speciality and hospital, if applicable.
3. How many physician associates were employed by the trust each month since October 2023? Please break down the numbers by grade, speciality and hospital, if applicable.

 

 

Response sent

The answers to your questions, which follow below, are not straightforward and your understanding of their context might be helpful to you.

The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust is not an acute Trust nor a provider of hospitals.  We are an outpatient mental health Trust, providing services on weekdays only, so no shift working, no evening working, and no out of hours working..

We a small specialist NHS mental health trust with a focus on training and education, as well as providing a range of mental health services and therapies for children and their families, young people and adults.  Our services comprise outpatient, and mainly psychological services via talking therapies. We do not provide acute services, nor inpatient patient services, nor detention facilities, and do not have an A&E department

Our hiring of locum doctors to work at the Trust is rare, and then only in very small numbers and to work during the day.

Quite separately, the resident doctors on rotation with us are booked out via a programme which provides them with on-call shifts experience at local mental health hospitals, and both their rotation and on-call rates are in accordance with the NCL rate card.   Their flat rate on-call allowance covers evenings, week-ends, and bank holidays.

We hire agency locums (again, at nil cost to ourselves, due to reimbursement agreements) to provide cover whenever there is a gap in the on-call rotas that our Trust has committed to fill with our resident doctors.

The net result, reflected in our answers below, was that dual answers were provided to some of your questions below – i.e. answering on behalf of the Trust where locum doctor hiring is minimal if at all, and then referencing the on-call shift working at other Trusts which is fully reimbursed by the receiving unit, and therefore at nil cost to our Trust.

 

Part 1: LOCUM RATES

1. The current hourly locum rates for the following grades of medical staff at the Trust:

a. Foundation Year 1 (FY1)

Not applicable.  None hired

b. Foundation Year 2 (FY2)

Not applicable.  None hired

c. Core Trainees (CT1-2/ST1-2)

Not applicable.  None Hired

d. Specialty Registrars (ST3+)

All rates in line with the agreed NCL rate card and Working Time Directive are as follows:

• Core hourly rate =£49.25/hr
• Unsocial hourly rate = £59.10/hr (worked by our resident doctors at other

e. Specialty Doctors and Associate Specialists (SAS grades)

All rates in line with the agreed NCL rate card and Working Time Directive are as follows:

• Core hourly rate =£58.91/hr
• Unsocial hourly rate = £70.70/hr

f. Consultants

All rates in line with the agreed NCL rate card and Working Time Directive are as follows:

• Core hourly rate =£77.79/hr
• Unsocial hourly rate = £93.34/hr

2. Please include separate rates for:

a. Core weekday hours

b. Night shifts

c. Weekend shifts

d. Bank holidays

Please note that we only hold this data for night and weekend shifts when our resident doctors work shifts at locally situated NHS acute hospitals (see our response to Question 1 above.  Our Trust, the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust is otherwise closed at night, week-ends and bank holidays.

The unsocial hourly rates quoted in our responses 1d to 1f above are generic rates, ie the same for night, week-end and bank holiday working.

3. Please break down rates by speciality and hospital, if applicable.

Only core hours are worked at the Tavistock and Portman

Out of hours on-call working rates are paid to our resident doctors when they cover out-of-hours rota at one of the local acute mental health hospitals

4. For each rate, please specify:

a. Whether it applies to internal bank locums, external agency locums, or both

Both

b. The effective date of the current rates

We do not hold this data

5. What was your locum rate for the above grades and specialities in 2010, 2015 and 2020?

We do not hold this data

What is your escalation rate policy for out-of-hours or late notice locum staff?

Not applicable:    As the Trust does not operate shift working patterns.

The booking of agency out-of-hours relates to resident doctors working at other Trusts and these would most inevitably be late notice.  The Trust does not have an escalation policy for out-of-hours or late notice booking of locum staff

Part 2: LOCUM SHIFTS

1. How many doctor shifts were filled by locum staff each month since October 2023?

a. This question is not applicable to doctors working at our Trust.

Doctors working at our Trust, the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust work daytime and weekdays only.  Our clinics are not open out of hours.

b. Please see our response to question 2.5 as this has all the data on staffing out of hours shifts by our resident doctors.

2. How many locum shifts went unfilled each month since October 2023?

None that we were responsible for resourcing with a resident doctor.

3. How many local shifts were advertised in total each month since October 2023?

Not appliable as we do not advertise te on-call shifts

4. Please break down the numbers by speciality, grade and hospital if applicable.

They are all resident doctors, and one resident doctor per shift.

ST4-6 (Higher Trainee/Registrar) NROC cover in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

5. Please break down the numbers by the type of shift, i.e. core hours weekday shift, night shifts, weekend shifts, bank holidays.

The three shift types worked by our resident doctors at local acute Trusts are:

• Weekday – 5pm-9am Non resident on call (16 hours)
• Weekend – 9am – 9am Non resident on call (24 hours)
• Bank Holiday – 9am-9am Non resident on call (24 hours

Quantity of On-Call Shifts Worked by Locum Resident Doctors at Local Acute Hospitals October 2023 to November 2025
Month/ Year	Weekday	Week end	Bank Holiday
Oct-23	5	4	0
Nov-23	5	2	0
Dec-23	8	4	0
Jan-24	8	5	0
Feb-24	9	6	0
Mar-24	6	4	0
Apr-24	7	2	0
May-24	8	5	0
Jun-24	8	5	0
Jul-24	12	7	0
Aug-24	8	5	0
Sep-24	5	1	0
Oct-24	4	0	0
Nov-24	1	1	0
Dec-24	5	2	1
Jan-25	5	3	1
Feb-25	7	1	0
Mar-25	0	0	0
Apr-25	0	2	0
May-25	2	1	1
Jun-25	0	2	0
Jul-25	2	1	0
Aug-25	5	2	0
Sep-25	1	2	0
Oct-25	0	2	0
Nov-25	5	6	0
TOTAL	126	75	3

 

 

Part 3: PA/ANP SHIFTS

1. How many doctor shifts were covered by physician associates at the Trust each month since October 2023? Please break down the numbers by grade, speciality and hospital, if applicable

Not applicable.  We do not employ Physician Associates

2. How many doctor shifts were covered by advanced nurse practitioners at the Trust each month since October 2023? Please break down the numbers by grade, speciality and hospital, if applicable.

Not applicable.  We do not employ Advanced Nurse Practitioners.

3. How many physician associates were employed by the trust each month since October 2023? Please break down the numbers by grade, speciality and hospital, if applicable.

Not applicable.  See our response to Question 3.1 abo