Employers are on notice to start ending medicine’s ‘gig economy’, as a requirement to transition LEDs (locally employed doctors) in England to permanent contracts comes into force.
The BMA has today welcomed the arrival of new guidance outlining how trusts must transfer new and existing LEDs from short-term to substantive, nationally recognised contracts.
The new requirement is part of the June 2026 deal reached between the BMA UK resident doctors committee and the Government and will see LEDs move to substantive contracts mirroring the terms of 2016 resident doctor contract.
Transition agreements will be managed nationally meaning that LEDs wishing to switch will not be required to negotiate directly with their employers for changes to their contractual terms.
While employers must transition all eligible LEDs to substantive contracts, exceptions to this requirement can include doctors on long-term sickness or adoption leave or those who are providing maternity or paternity leave cover.
Stable era
Welcoming the arrival of new guidance, BMA resident doctors committee chair Jack Fletcher said the long-standing inequity of doctors trapped working on short-term local workplace agreements was now slowly coming to an end.
He added that he hoped the change would give doctors greater certainty and stability in their careers and lives.
He said: ‘For too long we have had a gig economy in medicine. In return for their sterling efforts in the NHS locally employed doctors have been offered insecure work that offers no certainty about their future and all too often no meaningful career progress.
‘Planning a life around the terms of a fixed term contract is tough in any job, but as recompense for the many stresses of working as a skilled medical professional in today’s NHS it is unforgivable.
‘NHS employers are now under an obligation to start winding down that gig economy. Employers will by default be offering permanent contracts to new LEDs and transitioning current LEDs to a permanent contract. This new normal will be a major change for the tens of thousands of LEDs in the NHS, who have always deserved the same protections as other NHS workers but through no fault of their own have been excluded from them due to poor workforce planning.’
FLETCHER: Doctors will feel more valued and better protected
Dr Fletcher added: ‘The change is going to be a major one for NHS trusts, and we will be watching closely to ensure that it is carried out in a timely and effective manner. The end result, though, will be doctors who feel more valued, better protected, and with a more secure future in the NHS, something which can only be a good ultimate result for the patients in their care.’
Efforts to support LEDs into permanent contracts took another step forward earlier this month following the opening of the EPF (eligibility permanency framework) across England.
The framework, which was drawn up by the BMA alongside the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS Employers and NHS England, allows qualifying LEDs to transfer to the SAS grades by becoming a specialist or specialty doctor.