The NHS Pension Service (NHSBSA) has released an important clarification for the 2026/27 pension year regarding how work performed as a GP appraiser should be recorded.
While it adds a small administrative step, this update is a positive move for sessional GPs.
What’s the change for GP appraisers?
The clarified guidance now explicitly recognises that the work of a GP appraiser, including preparation, often spans up to three days.
By ensuring you record the full scope of your work as an appraiser – rather than just the date of the meeting itself – you can split your appraisal fee across the dates of work and increase your pensionable ‘days of service’.
This simple move can pull you into a lower contribution tier and save you significant money on your pension contributions, without reducing your final retirement benefit.
How does the new rule work?
The 2026/27 completion notes for Form A and Form B now explicitly define the ‘three-day rule’ for appraisal work. To ensure your forms are compliant and your pension tier is protected, follow these three protocols:
1 The three-day cap: The NHSBSA now considers a single appraisal to take between one and three days. You can pension a maximum of three days for a single appraisal fee as standard.
2 The exception (authorisation): You cannot pension more than three days for one appraisal unless you have specific prior authorisation from your commissioning body (e.g. NHS England or the local health board (LHB) in Wales) that states that the work required extra time. Without this written proof, any claim over three days will likely be rejected.
3 Consecutive vs. non-consecutive work:
If you work in one block: If you do your prep and appraisal over one two or three consecutive days, record it as one continuous period on a single line on your Form A.
If you spread it out: If you do your prep on Monday and the appraisal on Thursday, you must record these as separate entries on Form A and divide your total fee equally (50/50) across those two dates.
What’s the benefit to GPs from this rule change?
Why does the number of days matter? It all comes down to annualisation.
If you are solely a GP locum or not in continuous service during a pension year, the NHS doesn’t just look at your actual earnings to set your contribution tier; it “annualises” them to guess what you would have earned if you worked every day of the year.
The formula is: (actual pensionable pay ÷ days of service) x 365.
By recording your appraiser work over three days instead of one, you increase your days of service. In the eyes of the pension scheme, this lowers your “daily rate” and drops your annualised income projection – potentially moving you into a lower, cheaper contribution tier.
The best part? Because the 2015 Scheme is a career average revalued earnings (CARE) scheme your final pension is based on your actual pounds earned (1/54th accrual). Spreading the work over three days doesn’t reduce your retirement benefit, but it does lower the contribution you pay to get it.
How does this new work on LocumDeck?
You can easily apply this logic manually on LocumDeck to ensure your 2026/27 forms are perfectly compliant and cost-effective:
1 Add multiple sessions: Instead of one entry per appraisal, add separate sessions for the dates you spent on preparation and the appraisal itself (up to the three-day cap).
2 Divide the fee: Take your total appraisal fee and manually divide it by the number of days you worked. Enter that portion into each session.
3 Automatic generation: LocumDeck will then pull these as separate lines onto your Form A and Form B automatically, ensuring your days of service are maximised and your tier is protected for the 2026/27 year.
We are now working on automating a ‘fee-splitter’ for the future and we will let members know when this goes live. Join our free trial to be notified.
Related FAQs
Why isn’t my electronic signature on my Locum Form A?
LocumDeck adds your signature to all Form As that have been e-signed by the practices at the point that you request LocumDeck to generate your e-signed Form B.
At the same time, your Locum Form B is stamped with the UPR and all e-signed Form As are merged into one file for easier sending.
Form A is your claim to the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) to pension work performed at a specific practice for that month, so your signature to authenticate your claim needs to be added to Form A before you submit it to NHSBSA. It is not necessary for your signature to be on Form A before you send it to the practice.
What is e-signing?
An e-signature (electric signature) is a ‘mouse’ or ‘stylus’ signature. It does not need to match your usual ‘wet’ or ‘pen’ signature, although you can set this up.
LocumDeck enables e-signatures, which means all Form A and B paperwork can be done digitally.
How to e-sign forms on LocumDeck
E-signing works when you are linked with a practice.
Certain information relating to your bookings and invoices are shared with them, including instant sharing of your invoices and any Locum Form As. In return, the linked practice can e-sign your Form A and confirm they have sent payment in a couple of clicks, and this is instantly shared on your ‘All Invoices’.
It’s all designed with on-board help to make it as easy and straightforward as possible. Here it is broken down into three steps.
Add your electronic signature. Go to your LocumDeck >> Settings >> My invoice & pension info to add your electronic signature. You can recreate your signature using mouse, or some find it easier to use a tablet or smartphone and signing with your finger or a stylus.
Send your invoice and Locum Form A in the usual way. No signature is added at this stage as this is not needed when you send your Form A to the practice.
E-sign by practice. The practice gets an email notification of your invoice and are told that if they login to LocumDeck they can e-sign your Form A. The practice manager is led through setting up their electronic signature. They only have to do this once, and then for each subsequent Form A, they are asked to certify your work and pensionable pay, add the GP you were covering for and the date and method of payment.
TIP: Verified NHS email accounts. We only add signatures to Form A after they’ve been signed by the practice manager, and the practice manager can only have a LocumDeck account if they have verified their NHS email address. PCSE are happy when the form has been through at least one verified NHS email account.
How does a practice e-sign Locum Form A?
After you have completed Locum Form A for sessions at a practice, send it to the practice manager to sign or e-sign, then sign it yourself and file it to PCSE for processing.
How do I generate a Locum B form?
Before you are ready to generate Locum Form B on LocumDeck, you will first have filled in your ‘Invoice & pension’ info in ‘Settings’.
You will also have sent out your invoices for completed GP locum sessions, with Locum Form As attached, and marked them as paid.
To generate Locum Form B on LocumDeck:
Go to Invoices >> Locum Form B
Select the month to see invoices and Form As that have been marked as paid that month.
All pensionable invoices that were paid in that month will be displayed.
Tick the checkboxes next to each invoice to add their payments to the Form B.
Choose between Generate Form B or Generate e-signed Form A & B.
Filling in Locum Form B
If your Form As are still signed by hand by the practice, then Generate Form B will populate your Form B, allowing you to sign the included Form As by hand and send them on, with Form B, to your pension agency.
Use the Unique payment reference (UPR) on your Form B as your bank payment reference when sending payment.
How to generate e-signed Locum Forms A and B
If your Form As have been e-signed by the practices, then this option will not only generate your Form B, but also process all practice e-signed Locum Form As by:
adding your e-signature.
merging all e-signed Form As into a single file for easier sending.
alerting you if there are any straggler Form As that have not been e-signed by the practice – their information will be added to the Form B but you’ll need to sign them by hand.
Your completed Form B includes two key pieces of information that you need to submit your pension payments and paperwork:
The amount of total pension contribution you need to pay
Unique Payment Reference (UPR) – a code unique to you which contains your pension scheme number and the month of last worked – that you must use as your bank payment reference so the pension administrators can match your payment to your pension record.
Your Form B and any associated e-signed Form As will be stored in your Locum Form B tracker.
You can:
Reverse a Form B up to two weeks after it is generated to amend any errors: click the grey cross.
Add notes on any PCSE reference numbers or payment methods.
The name of the Locum Form B in ‘Your Locum Form B Tracker’ will reference the month of the last date of work on the form to be consistent with the UPR on your Locum Form B.
Where do I send my completed pension forms and pension payments?
England
Locum Form A and Form B can be submitted in one of two ways:
PCSE contact form
PCSE Online web portal
1. PCSE contact form
Pay by Bacs. The bank account details you require can be obtained by calling PCSE on 0333 014 2884.
Ensure that all your pension forms include the Unique Payment Reference based on your SD number. If your paperwork does not contain this reference, your pension payment will not be processed.
2. PCSE Online
NB NASGP currently recommends using the above alternatives to PCSE Online until significant issues have been addressed.
PCSE online does not (yet) allow:
1. Archive of paper copies: “Always keep copies of all your GP locum pension forms.” – NHS Form B notes. 2. Additional Pension (AP) contributions to be made.
NASGP members have also expressed concern over missing information that they have submitted through PCSE Online, frequent system crashes, with data being lost and difficulties in getting Form A approved by practice managers on the system (the equivalent of the practice ‘signing Form A’). See the BMA’s concerns about PCSE’s portal.
Please note, as of 2024 we understand the ‘by post’ option no longer exists.
Wales
Send your completed forms and payment to your relevant Local Health Board. GP-one Wales maintains a partial list of the 7 Health Boards with their pension contacts for GP locums.
Scotland
Send your completed forms by email to NHS National Services Scotland’s Practioner Services. For the most up-to-date details, see the Form B guidance on the official Practitioner Services page here. Unfortunately LocumDeck does not currently support Scottish GP pension forms.
Email contact for locum pension enquiries is gplocums@hscni.net
How do I invoice for non-sessional work on LocumDeck?
LocumDeck’s ‘off-locum work’ feature allows you to add non-sessional work.
Non-sessional work includes:
Private work.
Lecturing.
Writing
Speaking.
Appraisal.
Invoices, and if applicable, Locum Form A and B, can also be generated for ‘off-locum work’ sessions booked into your calendar.
Any fees for this work will be shown in the Other fees area in Bookkeeper.
Can I print my invoice?
Yes – from ‘All invoices’, click VIEW to access a downloadable PDF file of the invoice.
How do I invoice for sessional work on LocumDeck?
A locum session becomes ‘ready for invoicing’ once it is underway – it then appears as pale blue in your calendar.
Invoice session by clicking the session on your calendar and using the menu (blue circle with three white dots) or via Invoices >> Create invoice. On Create invoice, the “Select practice” dropdown will show you all your practices that need to be invoiced.
Select a practice to see a list of sessions that are ready for invoicing.
When you tick the sessions you want to invoice, you will see the invoice preview, complete with automatic pension calculations, appear on the right hand side.
Either: Hit SEND and the invoice and any attached Locum Form A will be emailed to the practice and become viewable online in their LocumDeck. Or: Hit SAVE and EXIT to save the invoice (and any Locum Form A) to ‘All invoices’ without sharing with the practice.
In both cases, your invoice details and any pension contribution are automatically saved in Bookkeeper.
Can I invoice on LocumDeck for sessional GP work booked off LocumDeck?
Yes, you can invoice for work on LocumDeck for work booked outside of LocumDeck.
Add the practice to your LocumDeck address book (it’s called “My practices”).
Add your sessions at that practice into your LocumDeck calendar.
After you work your session, create and send an invoice in the usual way. (If you claim NHS pension on this session, LocumDeck will also generate a Locum Form A and update your Bookkeeper data).
If you have already invoiced a practice outside of LocumDeck, but want to record it within Bookkeeper, then instead of pressing the SEND button, leave the sessions as “ready for invoice” on the calendar. Bookkeeper will pick up the fee and include it in your earnings.
When should I send invoices for locum work?
Whenever and as often as you like. There are no rules. Some invoice at end of month, others bi-weekly. But it’s probably more important to build a habit of regular invoicing and pension admin that fits your work routine.
Our experience is that most locums invoice at the end of the month.
One time-limit to be aware of with invoicing is that you cannot pension work that was carried out more than 10 weeks ago.
Can I print my invoice?
Yes – from ‘All invoices’, click VIEW to access a downloadable PDF file of the invoice. Practices can also download or print invoices from their LocumDeck account by clicking on the invoice number/reference.
What should I do if a practice asks me to use their invoice template for my locum session?
We generally advise GP locums against using a practice’s own invoice template after doing a locum session. In our experience such templates have often left out key information, such as NHS pension calculations, terms of payment and automatic sequential invoice numbering.
Also, insistence on using an employer-generated template for payments (like a time sheet) might tip the balance of the service provided by the GP locum from being self-employed to instead being a ‘worker’ or employee, thus risking placing liability for IR35 tax, NI and even holiday pay on to the employer.
As you will be aware, as self-employed service providers, GP locums must keep all financial records and issue invoices and credit notes in a contemporaneous way, with a sequential invoice numbering system.
In future, they will also be required to use an HMRC-approved digital accounting and invoicing system as part of UK-Gov’s Making Tax Digital plans.
The template used in LocumDeck has been in service for almost 10 years, with approximately 350,000 GP locum invoices being successfully generated using this template.
That said, we are always open to feedback, and if you have any suggestions as to how we can improve our invoice template, we will be delighted to hear from you using the contact form on our website or the email info@nasgp.org.uk.
LocumDeck is an NHS-approved, NHS Digital Service Framework provider locum management platform, used in every ICB in England, and across the UK, and is approved by NHS Pensions to incorporate paperless NHS pensions documentation. LocumDeck is ready to become Making Tax Digital compliant.
How can I get an annual update of the Total Rewards Statement (TRS)?
Unfortunately GP locums have previously been advised by Primary Care Support England (PCSE) that there is currently no process in place to automatically update the TRS for their cohort.
This applies to GPs who work solely as locums, i.e. GPs who locum without a substantive post.
GP locums often see a lack of process from updating their pension records at NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA). When they contact NHSBSA for a Remediable Pension Savings Statement (RPSS), NHSBSA may tell the GP that it has not received information from PCSE, and will be recommended by NHSBSA to contact PCSE to request that this information is sent across manually.
NASGP is currently working with PCSE and NHS BSA to raise awareness of this issue and change the practice so GP locums’ TRS are automatically updated.
Why was my Locum Form B rejected?
If you think your Form B was rejected because it covered more than one month, we have some advice.
We want to be absolutely clear: This pushback is incorrect. PCSE leadership understands that this is a misapplication of the original Form B rules. However, it can still cause significant frustration at the submission stage.
