Good evening and welcome to tonight's webinar, which is free to watch thanks to the generous sponsorship of JHP recruitment. We're delighted to have Josh Rayner presenting tonight's webinar, who'll be talking about everything you need to know about being a locum vet. So just a quick bit of housekeeping, if any questions do pop into your head during the presentation, if you could add them to the Q&A box, which should be at the bottom of your screen.

If you cannot see that box, just hover your mouse over the presentation and it should appear. Myself and Josh will run through the questions at the end of the talk, and try and answer as many as possible, so feel free to ask away. If you do have any technical issues, myself and my colleague Katherine are on hand to help out.

If you submit these into Q&A box 2. So without any further ado, I shall now hand over to Josh Rayner. Perfect.

Thanks, Paul. Good evening everyone. I hope you're all well.

My name's Josh and I work for JHP Recruitment. I've been working in recruitment for 2 years now, and I myself have recruited a numerous amount of veterinary nurses, veterinary surgeons, veterinary care assistants, practise managers, receptionists, and clinical directors. Last year, we were lucky enough to be asked to write a webinar for the BBNA which a colleague of mine presented.

We're now part of a team of 11 recruitment consultants who all work within the veterinary industry, and we have clients across the UK, Europe, Middle East, India, and Australia. And I'm here this evening to give you as much information as possible on the subject of everything that you need to know about locuming. Now I speak with candidates on a daily basis that are thinking of becoming a locum, and it can be daunting, and I'm sure that you will have lots of questions.

So the aim for today is to try to answer as many of those questions as possible. So the things that we're going to cover this evening, first of all, different options for getting paid, such as the, going down the umbrella company's route, also the use of a limited company, or being self-employed. And this tends to be where most of the questions will lie.

So I'll aim to give you the pros and cons for each of those, to help make your mind up to which one would be best suited for you. Secondly, We'll cover who pays you and how you'll be paid. We'll also discuss the ways to find work, such as via your own contacts or via a recruitment agency like ourselves.

And also we'll touch base on the different types of recruitment agencies, just sort of the clarification for you, . Also, we'll touch base on the new IR 35 regulation that is now coming into effect as of 2017. Also, just lastly, we'll touch base on other important information such as holiday pay, sick pay, and maternity pay.

So first things first is. What is the best way to be paid or how can I be paid as a locum? So essentially, there's no right or wrong answers to this.

It really depends on your own situation and what's going to suit you best. To narrow it down, you only really have three options, and like I said before, they set up your own limited company, register yourself as self-employed, or use an umbrella company. Now each of these options may suit one person more than another, all depends on certain circumstances, so I'll explain how each of them are gonna work so that you can decide which would work best for yourself.

So Option one would be setting up your own limited company. This could be fairly simple process and could be completed online. You wanted to incorporate a company with a HMRC and give it a name such as Jane's Locum Service Limited or whatever you want it.

You would then be the director of that company, and it would be your responsibility to ensure that the accounts are kept up to date and the end of year accounts are submitted to the HMRC via an accountant. And I think from memory, it costs approximately 15 pounds to set up a business online. I really recommend you do this yourself, as I've been told, by a nurse and a few vets before previously that they've asked accountants to do this for them, and they've charged way over 400 pounds just for the privilege.

Once you've set up your business online, you will then be sent a certificate of incorporation by the HMRC, via email, and essentially this is proof of your company. You then take this certificate of incorporation to the bank, along with, ID to open up your business bank account and the company name, and then you decide, essentially if you would like to register the business, for VAT. And if you did decide to become VAT registered, you'd have to ensure that quarterly, VAT returns are completed.

You could complete the VAT back on any purchases for the business and charge VAT on your invoices. And the difference will be paid to the HMRC. Now, most nurses and vets that are set up as a limited company, decide not to register for VAT is.

It does tend, as it, sorry, as it doesn't tend to be cost effective, and it becomes more of a sort of paper shuffling exercise. You'd ideally need to set up public liability insurance, and it may be a good idea to get yourself, BDS cover, but we'll discuss this a little bit later on in the webinar. Now it may sound more complicated than it actually is, but once the business is set up in itself, and you have the certificate of incorporation, and once the bank account is set up, it then becomes very easy and simple, and especially if you have an accountant within the family or within your social group of friends, this would obviously help to reduce costs.

But if you don't, you're probably looking at an annual fee to paying an accountant accountant of approximately 300 to 500 pounds. But this is dependent on the accountant and the sort of complexity of the accounts. What I would advise is just to contact a few accountants within sort of your local area, and just get some rates.

Having a limited company means that you could work for nearly any practise in the UK, but with the new legislation coming in from April 2017, you wouldn't be able to work for the public sector via a limited company. So, in the veterinary industry, this only really means the universities. And the benefit of being a limited company, would be that you pay yourself a salary and dividends, which reduces your personal tax bill greatly.

However, you will also pay corporation tax, so I would seriously considered chatting with an accountant before you jump in as a limited company to ensure that you're aware of exactly how it all works. If you're, unless you're going to work as a locum for more than 12 months and on a full-time basis for at least 48 weeks of the year, I'd seriously consider whether this is the right option for you as it may not be cost effective. Right, option two is, register as self-employed.

Now this is exactly what it says. You would register yourself as self-employed via the gov.uk website and you submit annual tax returns.

If you're working on a self-employed basis, you would charge the clinic or hospital directly and it would be your responsibility to ensure that all tax and national insurance contributions are paid at the end of the tax year. Now this would mean that you'd have to be sensible and ensure that you are saving money back each time that you are paid in order to pay your tax bill. Not many locums work squares, it can come with pitfalls such as, well, firstly, you would need to invoice the practise directly and you will not know when you're gonna get paid, and this could be weekly, fortnightly, monthly or every 6 to 8 weeks.

Another reason is if you're not paid on time by the clinic, you've got rent, mortgage, or bills to pay. You have to spend your own time chasing up your own money, which is obviously never a nice thing to have to do. And thirdly, not all practises take self-employed locums due to tax and employer national insurance contribution reasons, which will mean that you'll have restrictive practises that you can work for, including some charities and larger groups.

You'll ideally need to set up public liability insurance again, just like when you're a limited company, and again, it may be a good idea to get yourself, the BDS cover, but like I said earlier, we'll discuss the BDS cover a little bit further down the line. You would require an accountant to complete your end of year books, but this would be cheaper than using an accountant for a limited company. You would need to upgrade your car insurance to class one, which is business use too, .

And if you're already fully comp, some insurance companies will upgrade this at no extra cost. By doing this, you may be able to claim wear and tear for tax purposes. But it would be best for you to discuss this at length with an accountant should you choose to go down this route.

But much like the limited company, unless you're going to work as a locum for more than 12 months and working at full-time hours for at least 48 weeks of the year, I'd seriously consider if this is the right option for you as it may again not be cost effective. Now option 3 is registering with an umbrella company. Now, this is by far the easiest option and the way in which a very high percentage of not just our vets, but our nurses decide to work.

By registering with an umbrella company, they'll take care of your tax and national insurance contributions. They'll do all the invoicing for you, and you can also opt in to contribute towards a pension if you wanted. There is a cost involved, but you're not tied into a contract as such, and you would only pay the umbrella company when you submitted a time sheets and the fee is taken out of your wages, meaning that you don't have to make separate payments to them.

And the umbrella company itself would be classed as your employer. So if you then decide to revert back to permanent employment, the whichever umbrella company you decided to choose would then have to issue you with a P45. In regards to umbrella companies, there are literally hundreds of different companies, but they ultimately literally all do the same job.

So therefore, my advice to you guys would be that if you are going down the umbrella company route, initially, have a call around. Dozens and dozens of umbrella companies out there, go out there, get your best prices, see who are offering you the most, some will offer, sort of at the equivalent of BDS cover, others will offer maybe contributions towards CPD, so just go out there, make a few phone calls and sort of get the best rate really, . As an agency, we're not linked to any umbrella companies in any way, but we can certainly hear about the cheapest ones or ones with the best deals, so we can always point you in the right direction.

Ultimately, ultimately if you had a figure of approximately 15 to 20 pounds per time sheet in mind, if you work full working week days, then the cost wouldn't be far off this, so you'd be looking at about. Let's say 70 to 80 quid a month. Umbrella companies will cover you for public liability within the fee they charge, so you wouldn't need this separately.

Some umbrella companies also offer perks, like I said, such as discounts on restaurants and shops, and some offer with help with CPD. Again, umbrellas, umbrella companies, they're great for, but if you're planning to be a long-term locum, I mean, doing this for more than 12 months and on a full-time basis, then one of the other options, either self-employed or a limited company, may be better for you, OK? And that's covered the 3 topics on how to get paid as a locum.

Now we're moving on to Bear with me. There's a little slide there. I can always, if any of you guys want this, or maybe you wanted to sort of screen print it on your screen now.

It sort of summarises what's there for you in terms of the pros and cons for each limited company, an umbrella, or self-employed. Any questions on the payroll options, then please get in touch at the end, or we can catch up later in the week. It's no problem at all.

Right? Now on to insurance. Some vets will choose to take out an insurance policy with VDS, the Veterinary defence Society.

The BDS ensures that practises, profession against claims of negligence and defences reputations against claims and can offer compensation when appropriate. Now that vets and registered veterinary nurses are regulated by taking out this cover, it ensures that you are covered for legal representation and criminal and disciplinary hearings. This isn't a nice topic, to think about or to talk about, but if someone brings proceedings against you, it's gonna be peace of mind knowing that you have a policy in place to protect you from potential huge costs.

I do know that the BDS cover, they run it as a calendar year, so they do it from January to December, . Costs approximately as a locum vets, is in 250 pounds mark for the year, approximately, prices, I think have gone up slightly recently, so, if the VDS cover. It is an option for you guys as a locum.

I would be giving them a call, before you start just so you can take that expense into account. It's just one upfront payment and like I say, it sorts you out. Say, for example, you were to apply for it now, it would cover you until the end of the year.

It's a simple process to obtain with a short phone call, and, and there's one side of a4 form that you need to complete. And like I say, once you pay the premium, you can be covered from the next day if needs be. Alright.

Onto the next topic of how to find work. Again, this is totally down to preference. You may have your own contacts within different practises, you've been working within the industry for a while, you may have friends or former colleagues, within, practises that you may be able to find your own work.

You may wish to put your, your own name out there and find your own work, but this will involve letting your contacts know your availability by phoning or emailing them. You'll need to stay in contact to find out if they are looking for locum cover and if so, for which dates. You know, it's always a good idea just to keep your contacts updated with your availability and try and plan at least, at least 2 to 4 weeks ahead, as you wouldn't want to, finish an assignment on a Friday evening and then start looking for your new role, over the weekend for you to go for the following Monday.

Realistically, you're gonna find that way of working very difficult, so. As much planning in advance as possible. From there you'll need to have to, you have to negotiate either an hourly rate or it's more common for a locum vet to then negotiate a daily rate rather than hourly, and then go from there to booking yourself in.

What I would suggest is if you're going down the route of finding your own work, is that you'd have some sort of template drawn up, . With some sort of contracts that you can send to the clinics, so that you, you've got an agreement in writing just so it stops any sort of misunderstandings. You may decide that the easier option is to register with an agency and to do the hard work for you.

Now this brings me on to my next topic of er agencies, how to find work. And by doing this, you'll let the agency know the type of work that you're looking for, such as days, nights, whether you're looking for work in a hospital or a smaller first opinion clinic, for example. It'd be done our job to go out and find as many different options for you as possible, and then we come back and report to you to let you know which vacancies are suitable and available for you.

You then let the agency know which ones you're interested in, and they go on from there to try and book this for you and then negotiate the best daily rate for you possible. Some people think that the agency would take a cut of your agreed daily rate, that this is incorrect, and you will receive the full rate that is agreed, minus your tax and national insurance, obviously. As an agency, we will ask the candidate if there are any clinics that wouldn't want to, that you wouldn't want to work for or any that if you've previously been keen on working in, such as a referral centre to ensure that we're contacting the right practises for you.

We'll also take into account the distance from home for you as most locums will want to work as close to home as possible. On the flip side, others will be happy to stay away from home if free accommodation is provided. This could be in the form of a flat above the clinic, possibly a house just down the road, or a B&B or a hotel.

It's all dependent on the practise. I'd say now approximately 60% of the locum vacancies for vets that we have available, come with free accommodation. Moving on from once we've got the booking agreed, we'd send the booking confirmation form to you as a locum and also to want to practise, so everything is agreed and in writing beforehand.

OK. Now, moving on to the types of agencies. Now, to narrow it down, there's just basically two types of agencies.

Not many people know this, but it's really important that you as a locum are aware of the difference, as it will make a massive impact to you and the way that you are paid. Now JHP Recruitment Limited, for example, we are an employment agency. This means that we prefer to take care of paying our locums rather than the clinics paying them.

And this has a lot of benefits for you, such as if you're working in a locum role and were placed there by JHP recruitment. We would issue you with a time sheet and you will complete this on a weekly basis and send it to us via fax, email, WhatsApp, post, whichever way is easiest for you, as long as we get the time sheet in on time, which would be sort of by end of play that week. We process the time sheet and pay on a weekly basis if you are either registered with an umbrella company or if you had your own limited company.

This means as long as you remember to send in your time sheet, you're getting paid on a weekly basis, taking away any of the money worries. Say for example, you're working this week, you submit your time sheet by Sunday, which will be Sunday the 22nd of April, you are then getting paid the following Friday, which would be Friday the 27th, OK? Some agencies that work within the veterinary industry are known as introductory agencies.

Now, this is the difference, OK, so an agency like ourselves, like JHP recruitment or an employment agency, there are others that are known as introductory agencies. And they would find you the work in the same way as we would, but they do not pay their locums. And this means that if you are a limited company or registered with an umbrella company, the invoice would need to go direct to the practise and you would not be guaranteed to be paid within a certain time limit.

If you have rent or bills to pay, or if you're going on holiday, you would have to chase your money to ensure that you're paid on time. And most locums that are using umbrella or limited companies prefer to use an employment agency as they know that they are guaranteed to be paid every Friday as long as they send in your time sheet. Now, if you do decide to use an agency, please be aware that you know the rules before you start working so you know when you're likely to be paid.

And this for me would be one of the big things to just double check on before you agreeing a placement, because you don't want to be agreeing a placement and then starting on Monday and then realising, hang on a minute, I don't know how far down the line it is I'm gonna get paid, OK? This moving on to our next topic of how much locum work is available. So this is a difficult question to answer, is it, it's all down to the individual, you as a locum really, .

The bigger an area you're willing to cover, the more options will be available to you. But it also comes down to your geographical location, obviously. So for example, if you're willing to cover anything up to 30 miles from home, for example, and you live on the coast, 50% of the area will be sea, meaning that less clinics are available, obviously.

But if you would be willing to stay away from home in free practise accommodation. This will open up many more vacancies for you, as I said, for as a high percentage of locum vet rolls out there that we currently have available that will provide you with free accommodation. Also.

All depends on your salary expectations. This comes into play quite frequently. It's the last thing you want to do is price yourself out of work.

Just remember, practises, they've, they've got a budget, and if they're offered two locums and one locum's 50 pounds cheaper a day than the other. But essentially they can both do the same duties that are required, they're likely to take the cheaper option to remain within their own budget, OK. Skip one too many there, sorry, and As a locum, If you're happy to stay away from home.

As discussed earlier, a high percentage of our locum, vacancies are offered with free accommodation. I must stress this, it's free accommodation. This will be a variety of different options from a flat above the clinic, to a house nearby or possibly a hotel or B&B or maybe even a spare room at one of the clinic's employees' homes.

Now if you do take on a role which is supplying you with accommodation, there are some very important questions that you might need to ask before you accept the role, such as will you have access to internet, Wi Fi? Is there a TV in either your bedroom or in the living room? Will you have cooking facilities?

Do you need to take your own vetting? Will you be in shared accommodation or private? And if it's shared, will you be, how many other people will you be sharing with?

Will they be male or female? And also quite common for, locums at times to take, kind of take a dog along for company. All these questions, Quite important really, because if you committing yourself to a long, even if it's 4 to 6 weeks of a block booking, if you're going somewhere, and you've got no TV and you haven't got any internet to keep you entertained, you could end up resulting in getting very bored in the evenings.

Equally so if there's no cooking facilities, and again, you, you accept the position, let's say longer than a couple of weeks, you're gonna spend a lot of time and probably more importantly, a lot of money eating out every night. The most clinics will provide bedding in practise accommodation, but make sure that you ask because you don't want to turn up without any bedding as your first night will be very uncomfortable, and then it's just another expense the next day that you're gonna have to do when you have to go out and buy some bedding. Now on to the last point in regards to sort of taking a companion, say a dog, for example, along with you for your placement.

Some clinics, unfortunately don't allow pets in the accommodation. So if you plan on taking someone along for company, please make sure that the practise is happy with this. Some will ask you to sign an agreement that will state that if your pet causes any damage, you'll be liable for the cost to put things right.

Alright, now that is everything in regards to staying away from home as a locum. Now, moving on to the IR 35 regulations. Now, this is a new piece of legislation that has been brought in by the government.

It doesn't affect the veterinary industry too badly as it stands. Without going into too much depth, it's basically new rules regarding, limited company candidates working within the public sector. So from April 2017, limited company locums will no longer be able to invoice a public sector client.

Or even via an agency like ourselves, is the majority of the veterinary clients will be private sector. This doesn't affect any of us too much. Where it will affect you if you're a limited company is if you wanted to work for a university hospital, as they are classed as a public sector.

You'll only be able to work for them via an umbrella company or via the PAYE system. So if you have a limited company for your private sector work, you would be able to work via an umbrella company for public sector work should you wish. So it's not the end of the world, OK?

If you've got any questions about this, bit of a sort of complicated one at times, but if you've got any questions again, please don't hesitate to ask. . Now moving on to frequently asked questions.

So other questions hopefully maybe covering a few that you may have already . If I was a locum and then got pregnant, am I entitled to maternity pay? Now this certain criteria is to be met, such as you must have worked for the umbrella company or limited company continuously for at least 26 weeks by the end of the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth.

But if you meet the criteria, then yes, you are entitled to be paid maternity pay. Do I receive sick pay? Yes, if you earn over £112 per week and you are sick for 4 days or more, you claim statutory sick pay.

Again, there is a certain criteria to be met in order to claim this, OK? Quite a big one that gets asked frequently, is do I receive holiday pay? So if you do decide to work via an umbrella company, some will ask you if you wish to opt in or out of the holiday pay scheme.

Now if you opt in a small percentage of your wages, each week. Sorry, I've lost myself here. So yeah, a small percent of your wage is held back each week so that when you decide to take your holiday, you can contact the umbrella company and request for your holiday pay to be paid out.

The rules around this do differ from umbrella company to umbrella company, so please ensure that you find out the exact details from which umbrella company you decide to sign up with. And also this is quite a big deal if you decide to opt in, just please be careful, as, some will say that if you don't take the holiday pay within the tax year, that you could lose it. So you don't want to come towards the end of, say, March 2019.

And there still be a holiday pay allocated to you with your umbrella company. But you forget about it because come the new tax year in April, it, it doesn't roll over, unfortunately, and you just use it. OK.

So again, if you do decide to opt in and you do decide to use the umbrella company, route, then just keep in touch of, sort of your holiday pay allowance, all right? Whilst I'm on the topic of the umbrella companies, something that gets us on a regular basis, is, can I change to another umbrella company, as I'm unhappy with my current one, or it may not be that you're, you're unhappy with the umbrella company, but you, you've found another one that offers you, better perks or incentives, so to speak. So yeah, ultimately, the answer is yes, you're not tied into a contract with any, any umbrella company at any time.

You could be working for Umbrella Company A this week and then decide that come Thursday, Friday, umbrella Company B is more suitable for you, so you're going to switch over to the new umbrella company for the following week. It is that easy. Hm.

So, Something else that gets asked a lot, and I just want to clarify this 100, 100% is can I claim. My mileage to and from work as a local. No.

It's to and from work, it's a no, the rules on this changed in 2016 and no contract, so all locum worker is able to offset their mileage to and from work against the attacks any longer. Now this isn't just in the veterinary, this is in any industry, whether you're working in veterinary, IT, finance, engineering, education, any other industry. If you're expected to travel as part of your job, then that's different.

So, for example, if you're expected to go on a home visit, or you're splitting your day between several sites, then yes, you can claim those miles back, but you cannot claim your mileage to and from work, OK? The next question I've got here on frequently asked questions is how much will I be paid? Now, ultimately, this isn't a question I can really answer right now.

It all differs. It's all depending on yourself, or on your experience, on your confidence, on your abilities and the duties that you can carry out, on the practise, on whether it's going to be sole charge, whether it's going to be consults only, whether it's going to be a mixture of consults and ops, But I mean, if you'd like to get in touch and and just let me know a bit about yourself and the kind of locum work that you're looking for and in which certain areas, I'm more than happy to give you rough ballparks into what sort of the locum daily rate is at this moment in time, OK? And Lastly, do I have to fund my own CPD?

Yes, unfortunately that you do. Obviously working in permanent employment, that you get a small amount or a certain amount shall I say, of allowance towards CPD, . If you're a locum, unfortunately, you have to find your own, but if you're working in a recruitment agency, some will help towards costs for this, for you, .

And some umbrella companies like I mentioned previously, can help with CPD, so that's another route to to sort of look down if you're gonna go down the umbrella route, OK? That that's it from me this evening, guys. Thank you all very much for your time.

I hope this has helped. But if anyone has any further questions, please feel free to ask me now or contact me further down the line. My email address is there.

It's josh@JHP recruitment.com, and you can get me on 01392444115, and, please feel free to take a look at our website for our up to date local and permanent positions. Thank you.

Thank you very much for that, Josh. That was brilliant, very informative. We have a few questions coming in, and I'll just reiterate, if you do have any questions for Josh now, please feel free to add them in the Q and A box.

If we leave that last page up, Josh as well, then I'll see if we have your contact details. So the questions coming in, got a few, a couple about the umbrella companies, . So we start there, the teachers asked er what is the fee roughly for an umbrella company?

I would say, I think I previously touched base on it, but I think she, got there a little bit too soon. It's that I think you'd be looking at about 15 to 20 pounds per time sheet, and obviously time sheets are submitted usually on a weekly basis. So yeah, you'd be looking at 15 to 20 pounds, fee per week.

OK, brilliant. And then Bridget has asked, can you, recommend some umbrella companies in particular, basically she's not sure where to start looking. Yes, Bridget, I can, there's, there's a number of umbrella companies.

Would it be best to, cos what I can do is I can email across a load of links of probably the, the, the most popular. Umbrella companies, would would that be best? Yeah, yeah, that sounds good.

I'll just jot this down then and we'll send that on and then obviously if Bridget's, happy to speak directly if she has any further questions, that's great. OK. To do, OK, so, Rachel has asked how do practises manage, pregnant vet locums, for example, health and safety risk assessments, etc.

It's very, very similar, to permanent employment. I myself have had a, a few, nurses and vets, work for me leading up towards their maternity leave. And, and, yeah, practises, they're good as gold.

They go through the standard procedures that you'd expect, in day to day practise, and, and they understand that sort of duties will change in terms of sort of what you can do as time goes on, but they adapt for you. OK, great. A couple of people now asking, about the public liability insurance.

So we have, the first question, is what is it for? What does it cover? Why would someone need it if self-employed and how much is it, where to get it from?

There's a lot of questions, in that area. And is it different to VDS? Yes, it is, different to VDS, public liability insurance, essentially, like I've said previously, it just, it's not ideal, it's not the nicest of subjects, to talk about, but it's just essentially, it's, it's covering yourself, against any sort of claims or negligence, that should anything happen, in the future, it's just to cover yourself, basically.

OK, and you mentioned obviously the VDS in there, so would you recommend going down that route as a vet? Yes, I, I would, some practises, what I didn't think I mentioned, to be honest, actually, is that some practises will be able. Put you on their BDS cover, but it's never a guarantee.

So what I would say if you're looking to do, locum work on a sort of full-time ongoing basis, that it would be better to have your own BDS cover. But if it's sort of odd updates here and there, then some practises are able to help by putting you on their own BDS cover. OK, so is that like a, a temporary thing just as long as you're working there for them?

Yeah, exactly, it's kind of putting them on, on, on their books on the BDS, so to speak. OK, and if, if anyone comes through to yourself, looking for positions, and then you can ask the, the practises about that I'm assuming. Yeah, it's one of the essential questions that we would ask because, BDS is obviously massive.

What we wouldn't want to do is find a locum replacement and, the practise thing that they've got their own BDS cover, and then the locum think that they're going on the BDS cover and then arranged so to speak. OK, perfect. So Jan's just asking for clarity then is is VDS cover a form of public liability insurance then?

Yes, sorry, it is. Yeah. OK, great.

And so that answers Victoria as well. So do you need public liability as well as VDS? Yeah, sorry, no, just a VDS cover.

Yeah. OK, great. Aoife has asked how long would it take to set up a limited company, roughly if you wanted to go down that route.

Oh, it's easy. Literally, it takes probably 1520 minutes online, if I'm honest. It'll go on the HMRC, but the, the setting up your own limited company.

That's the quick and easy part. It's then having to, afterwards, going into the bank, taking in your certificate of incorporation, then setting up your business bank account, that's a little bit that takes a little bit of time. But in terms of actually setting up your own business, your own business name and getting your certificate of incorporation, takes no time at all over the internet.

You could do it this evening if you wanted to. OK, interesting. And and is there a fee for registering a company?

Yes, let me just double check so I have that written down here. Yeah, approximately 15 pounds. OK, so not expenses, not time consuming, but then it's the issues afterwards that are the more time consuming.

Yeah, but it's, it's, it's, it's a quick trip to the bank and if you make an appointment, obviously it will narrow that down, . And like I, I covered it in, in the webinar, I would highly suggest setting up the business online yourself, because people have asked accountants to do it before, and charge them hundreds when you can do it in your own time and it literally costs you about 15 pounds. Yeah.

OK, and also Victoria's just mentioned that Santander allows you to do the bank account part online. OK bit of information there, so that's good. Thank you very much for that, Victoria.

I didn't know that it's good to learn. I'm learning. Suzanne's asked, is, is there a template for a locum contract, somewhere that they could, look at?

Yeah, sure, if I could, again, if you're happy to sort of swap contact details, so to speak, I'm happy to, send something across as like a template, definitely it's no problem at all. OK, so Suzanne, if you're happy for Josh to get in touch, there will be a feedback survey, for everyone, this is as well after this webinar. If you could submit some feedback, that'd be really helpful for us.

And if you want to leave your contact details on there, then that's the place to go. Jan has just mentioned that, the tax returns aren't particularly, taxing, if you excuse the pun. So, you should be able to, to do them yourself.

So a few other questions. So, Simone's asked, how does maternity pay work if you're under an umbrella company? Again, it's the same rules apply now if I let me, because this was a bit of a tongue twister for me, but let me, so it's exactly the same.

So there obviously there's a certain criteria to be met, but if you've worked for the . A company or limited company continuously for at least, now, here we go, 26 weeks by the end of the 15th week, before the expected week of childbirth, then you will meet the criteria of getting maternity pay. Right, OK, just say that one more time just for, for clarity.

Yeah, sure, so you must have worked for the umbrella company continuously for at least 26 weeks. By the end of the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth. If, if that wants to be sent in writing again, I can do so.

Yeah, OK, no, that's great. Thank you very much for that. .

Maureen, Maureen has a comment here and a question. So she once used an umbrella company who deducted, their national insurance contributions from her wages. They eventually refunded it when, it was brought up and, it went, a little bit further legally, but she said she can do without this sort of hassle.

Do all umbrella companies work like this. No, no, I think it sounds like a quite a unique circumstance there, to be honest, yeah, and the fact that you refunded the money that you owed, hopefully shown that. Yeah, I think unique's a nice way of putting it.

Interesting, perhaps a little bit more political question from Maria here. Is there still a market for EU locums coming to the UK after Brexit? Yeah, definitely, but, it all, there's plenty of work out there.

It's just all about organising yourself in terms of, again, the same with the vets over here that you organise for yourself on the register, that you've got yourself, a UK bank account, that you're, you're able to set yourself up on the payroll to either get paid for an umbrella limited company or self-employed. Yeah. It's, it's an interesting question actually, Maria, because, we have had, a webinar run by the RCVS, about Brexit.

How will it, how it will affect the profession, and how it'll affect you guys, as well, and the vets. So if you wanted to go onto the webinar vet.com, if you look, in the webinar section and scroll down, it was relatively recently, I think within the last month or two, there should be some good information there.

George is asking for some more details regarding IR 35, please. So at the moment in time, if, if I'm totally honest, I don't have any more information really. It's essentially, it doesn't affect us, in the veterinary industry, I don't think too much at all.

But, where it will affect you is if you're using a limited company, to work in, say, a university. Sort of a university hospital, you'd have to set yourself up, you could continue with your limited or working self-employed in the, the, the public sector, . But then you'd have to choose the other payroll option to work in such sectors as a university hospital.

Again, if George would prefer this, what I've spoken about in writing, happy again to send that across to him. Yeah, great. So, George, again, if you fill in the feedback survey afterwards, it only takes a minute to at max, and then if you leave your details there, we should be able to get some more information over to you.

So, Emma's actually, mentioned that she was locumin whilst pregnant. She got maternity pay from the umbrella company. It basically means that you need to be with the umbrella company for a week or two before you actually get pregnant, and then you qualify.

Yeah, that's probably a better way of breaking it down, to be honest, than the tongue twister that I had, yeah, perfect. Thank you very much for that, Emma. I got a couple of questions, about, I think.

It says radiation badges, but I don't think that's . No, I saw that and I didn't, didn't get it. Ration badges perhaps.

Yeah, I still don't know. OK, I'm not sure about that one. Sorry.

I've even tried Googling that on my phone, I was like, what? So someone's actually just go back to the umbrella company, someone's asking whether they should charge an employer, National Insurance. Mm, I don't believe so, no.

Is that something that they've, where, where's that question, sorry, is that something that they have been charged? It just says should should an umbrella company charge employer national insurance? No, just employee, I believe.

I would have to double check. Ah, right, sorry, there's some clarification here as well. So the X-ray badges, in terms, sorry, just to switch back to the, the previous question, the radiation badges are obviously, radiology, so X-ray badges for the vets.

What was the question with regards to that, sorry? Just how does it work, I guess, in terms of, being a locum, is, is that something the practises will take care of? Yes, I believe so, yeah.

OK. So if you're not going through an agency, we'll come away and move on to, pay. So if you're not working through an agency, how long is a reasonable amount of time to wait to be paid by a practise?

What are the payment terms? I'd say a week to 2, max, really, . Some places are, are pretty good, but you just never know what the circumstances may be that that sort of holds up the payrolls with invoices, but I'd say sort of a two week maximum expectation really.

Yeah, OK. That's great, but obviously, as you say, if you're not going through an agency, then you will have to chase it up yourself. Yeah, and it's just, it's not just that but, it's just in case anything goes wrong with the invoicing, or it ends up in the wrong place, and it gets forgotten about or processed.

It's just, I mean, sort of the complications when you're trying to work yourself to then have to chase this up, obviously can be quite inconvenient. Yeah. OK, sticking with pay, so I have a question here from Daniel.

I think this is going to be A Little bit varied. But, what would you say are the rough, locum vets, daily rate on average, 250 or 350 is asking? Mm, not 350.

I'd say 250 possibly, but again, it depends sort of, Daniel, if I'm honest, what your experience is, and what the practise is going to be asking of you. . Obviously if it's sort of maybe just like a sort of console only type of role you'd be looking at a bit of a lower day rate.

But if you're asking to do sole charge with a mix of options and consults, then you could charge possibly a little bit higher, but like I said, it all just sort of depends. Yeah. And in terms of, the work available, so Leticia has asked, what percentage of practises will ask a recruiting company for a locum.

I'd probably say 80, 90% it's it's a high amount, even if it's just for odd days, you know, whether it's just odd days for holiday cover, there's a lot of practise out there that need locums, whether it's just like I say, the odd day or two for sickness or holiday, or whether it's long term whilst they recruit on a permanent basis. Yeah. Yeah, so it it's going to, to vary, isn't it?

So I think, so if, if anyone listening, is looking for, specific, roles, and as Josh has mentioned, if you go onto their website, I, I believe you have a list of roles available there, don't you? Yeah, yeah, both local and permanent, yeah. Excellent.

And then if you send an email to to the JHP recruitment team as well, I'm sure they'll be happy to help. Barbara's asked, why would some practises not accept self-employed locums? So again, this is just to touch base, this is to do with sort of their their payroll, .

So it's to do with them paying tax, and to do with national insurance contribution reasons. It's only some of the charities and a few of the larger groups. I wouldn't, if you wanted to do self-employed, don't let that put you off, there's plenty of locum work out there for you as a, as a self-employed locum.

Excellent. I believe I just have a couple left here, and there's also been some clarification here, from Jan, who says that practises won't take care of the radiation protection badges, and you probably need to fund your own. OK, apologies.

That's fine. Thank you very much, Jan, for, clarifying that's definitely something that we would need, asking. Beforehand, obviously, you don't want to be, left with that afterwards.

I believe that's most of the questions, here now. Emma, Emma's asking, if it's easy to set up a UK bank account. Yes, I believe so.

Where, where are you from, sorry? I'm not sure where Emma's from actually, but I mean it's, it's relatively easy to set up your bank account, isn't it? You need some forms of ID proof of address.

And I think most places will make it relatively simple for you. Mhm. OK, I'm just gonna touch on one final thing as well, regarding to, regards to funding CPD.

So obviously you will everyone find, a lot of CPD on the webinar vet website. We, we have the highest quality, and best value CPD out there. We also work with JHP recruitment to provide, some, locum vets CPD.

So please feel free to get in touch with them, and inquire about that. And I'm sure there'll be something we can help with. I believe that's most of the questions, now done.

If there are any final ones. Just got a little bit more clarification actually. So Ria's, mentioned that their company does provide radiation badges for locum.

So it sounds like it's, it's on a case by case basis. I think it's much like the VDS cover. Some practises will and some won't.

It all depends what they allow within their budgets for their locums, and what they can offer. So again, with, with terms of sort of what you're going in for, double checking whether they can provide BDS cover, whether they can provide radiation badges, it's sort of, If I was a locum, it'd be a list of questions, it'd be there in my top list of what I'd want to ask. Yeah, OK, great.

And then it was actually, asking from Australia, it should be relatively, simple, yeah, it says I have to mention it looks pretty easy, online. Interesting comment here at the bottom, so some medical GP locums are paid £1000 per day. Thoughts on that?

That's a lot of money. That's all I've really got to say about that. I, I, I've never known anybody, vet or nurse get paid that anywhere near that for a day, unfortunately.

So that's probably up up at the very end of the spectrum. Oh interesting. Joanna's got a bit of a a tip here as well.

She says proof of address can be really difficult to obtain when you first get to the UK but HSBC will allow a letter from your employer confirming your employment status and address. So there's a little bit of help as well. Excellent.

I think that's all the questions now. As I say, guys, if you could fill in the feedback survey, that'd be really helpful. And if you have any other questions, or comments, or if you'd like any of the, documents or, information mentioned, feel free to, email Josh.

. That's it for tonight. Thank you very much for attending, and we'll see you on another webinar soon. Thanks, Josh as well.

Cheers. Thanks, Paul. Cheers, bye.

Bye.