Last updated: 21 July 2026
These Terms of Use apply when you visit locumking.com, apply to join LocumKing, use an approved member account or use the founding-member marketplace beta. Please read them with our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy.
Important beta notice
LocumKing is in a controlled founding-member beta. Approved practices can create test shift listings, approved optical professionals can publish availability, and members can test invitations, applications, booking records, calendars, completion confirmations, reviews and problem reporting.
Unless LocumKing expressly confirms in writing that live marketplace use has opened, these workflows are for evaluation and testing only. They must not be treated as an offer or acceptance of real work, and no member should attend a test shift or rely on a test booking. Live card charges, payouts and paid Premium membership are disabled.
The example shifts, professionals, practices, prices, ratings, reviews and dashboards on the public homepage remain illustrative. They are not live vacancies, real member profiles, endorsements or binding offers.
The legal and regulatory model for live introductions is still being reviewed, including the Employment Agencies Act 1973, the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003, employment-status responsibilities and digital-platform reporting. These Terms will be updated before LocumKing authorises live work or payment.
About LocumKing
LocumKing is being developed as a UK service through which optical professionals and practices can find each other and, once the live service is authorised, arrange locum work. LocumKing currently provides the website, account checks, marketplace records and support tools. It does not currently employ, engage, pay or supply professionals and does not process real marketplace payments.
The legal operator details will be updated when the Companies House registration process is complete. Until then, questions can be sent to james@greenfieldeyecare.co.uk.
Who may use the service
You must be at least 18 and legally capable of agreeing to these Terms. A professional applicant must provide truthful information about their identity, General Optical Council registration and eligibility. A practice applicant must be authorised to act for the named practice.
Applications, checks and accounts
- Submitting an application does not guarantee approval, work, staff, bookings, rankings or access to future features.
- You must provide accurate, current and complete information and promptly correct anything that changes.
- LocumKing may compare professional and business information with official public sources and may request the minimum additional information reasonably needed for a human review.
- A GOC or Companies House check is a snapshot. It does not prove identity, authority, continuing registration, competence, insurance or suitability for a particular engagement.
- Approval, restriction and rejection decisions remain subject to human review. LocumKing may request further information where checks are incomplete or concerns arise.
- You are responsible for protecting your password and account. Tell us promptly if you suspect unauthorised access.
- You must not create misleading, impersonating or unnecessary duplicate accounts.
Professional profiles and availability
Professionals can maintain self-declared services, capabilities, experience, preferred settings, equipment familiarity, languages and professional-indemnity provider and renewal information. They can also publish dates, hours, location, travel radius, preferred rate and relevant notes.
This information must be accurate, factual and kept up to date. LocumKing does not currently collect or verify uploaded qualification, right-to-work or insurance documents through these profile fields. A displayed profile is not a LocumKing endorsement or guarantee.
Shift listings, applications and invitations
Practices are responsible for making each shift description clear and accurate, including the date, hours, location, work required, rate, breaks, equipment, expenses and any material health-and-safety information.
Professionals are responsible for checking the listing and their own availability before applying or responding to an invitation. Contact details remain private until a booking is confirmed. Members must not try to bypass that safeguard by placing email addresses or telephone numbers in public descriptions, notes or messages.
During the controlled beta, invitations, applications and booking confirmations are test records only. Before live use opens, LocumKing will publish final booking-formation, cancellation, payment, invoicing, expense and dispute terms.
Responsibilities for any future live engagement
LocumKing account checks will not replace engagement-specific checks. Before any real work takes place, the practice and professional will remain responsible for agreeing the actual contractual arrangement and determining their legal, regulatory and tax responsibilities.
Depending on the arrangement, these may include:
- right-to-work checks;
- employment or self-employment status, tax, National Insurance and off-payroll rules;
- GOC registration, scope of practice, competence and local scheme authorisation;
- professional indemnity and other insurance;
- health and safety, safeguarding, supervision, equipment and patient-care arrangements;
- working time, minimum wage, holiday pay or other worker rights where applicable; and
- invoices, expenses, VAT and record keeping.
LocumKing does not provide legal, tax, clinical, immigration, insurance or regulatory advice.
Cancellations, problems and safety concerns
Either booking participant can submit a private cancellation request or problem report for administrator review. Submitting a report does not automatically cancel a booking or change a rating. Members must provide factual information, respond reasonably to follow-up questions and avoid patient names, clinical records or other patient-identifiable information.
There are no live cancellation charges during the controlled beta. Any future cancellation policy, notice periods or charges will be published before live bookings open and will allow human review of emergencies and disputed circumstances.
If there is an immediate risk to a patient or another person, use the appropriate emergency, safeguarding, practice or regulatory route instead of relying on a LocumKing report.
Reviews
After both sides confirm a completed booking, each participant can submit one rating from one to five stars with optional factual feedback. Reviews are held privately until both participants submit or 14 days pass. You must not use reviews to retaliate, threaten, discriminate, disclose confidential information or manipulate another member.
LocumKing may investigate and restrict unlawful, abusive, irrelevant or demonstrably false review content. A rating is an individual member’s opinion, not a LocumKing endorsement or clinical assessment.
Optional alerts and essential messages
Members can opt in to marketplace opportunity alerts and can switch them off in their account. Essential application, verification, security, invitation, booking, reminder and support messages are separate from optional opportunity or marketing messages.
Member referral links
Approved members may receive non-sequential links that preselect the professional or practice application route. A member may share a link only with someone who has specifically asked to receive LocumKing information. Members must not use the feature for unsolicited marketing, bulk messaging, purchased lists, scraped contact details or repeated contact after an objection.
LocumKing does not ask the member for the recipient’s email address and does not send the invitation on the member’s behalf. If the recipient voluntarily submits an application through the link, LocumKing records the referring member’s user ID for attribution, abuse prevention and aggregate programme measurement.
A referral never bypasses email confirmation, professional or practice checks, identity or authority review, or human approval. During the beta, no cash, Premium membership, ranking benefit or other reward is provided for referrals. LocumKing may disable or replace a link if it appears to be misused.
Premium Professional preview and ranking
Premium Professional is currently a free, administrator-granted preview. No payment is taken and no renewal occurs.
Practices first filter availability by factors such as profession, date, location and capability. Matching active Premium professionals are then shown before matching Standard professionals and are clearly labelled. Premium does not change verification, self-declared capabilities, reviews or the practice’s freedom to choose.
A possible future price of £10 per year is product research only and is not currently offered for sale. LocumKing will not charge professionals for Premium or any work-finding feature unless independent advice confirms that the proposed service and charging model comply with applicable employment-agency and consumer or business rules. Any permitted paid plan would require separate price, renewal, cancellation and refund terms before checkout opens.
Payments and fees
Stripe functions are restricted to a guarded test environment. No real card charge, transfer, refund, bank payout or Premium payment can occur. Test identifiers and statuses may appear in administrator and member records, but test money has no cash value.
Any displayed practice fee or professional rate is part of the product test and is not currently collected by LocumKing. The merchant-of-record, invoicing, VAT, refund, chargeback, payout and accounting model must be confirmed before live payments are enabled.
Acceptable use
You must not:
- submit false information, impersonate another person or misrepresent authority to act for a practice;
- use the service unlawfully, fraudulently, abusively or in a way that could harm patients, members or LocumKing;
- submit patient names, clinical records or patient-identifiable information;
- request or disclose passwords, Companies House authentication codes, online-banking credentials, full card details or similar secrets;
- probe, bypass or interfere with security, permissions, rate limits, accounts, software or infrastructure;
- scrape, bulk-copy or commercially republish member, register or website information;
- use member referral links for unsolicited marketing, bulk messaging, purchased or scraped contact lists, or repeated contact after an objection;
- send spam, malware, discriminatory, threatening, defamatory or otherwise unlawful material;
- post misleading availability, shifts, services, qualifications or rates; or
- manipulate applications, bookings, Premium placement or reviews.
Intellectual property and member content
The LocumKing name, branding, design, software and original website content belong to LocumKing or its licensors. You may use the service only for its intended personal or internal business purpose and may not reproduce, sell, license or create a competing dataset from it without written permission.
You keep ownership of original content you submit. You give LocumKing permission to store, process, display and use that content only as reasonably needed to operate, secure, support and improve the service, subject to the Privacy Policy. You must have the right to submit it.
External services
LocumKing links to or may use third-party services such as WordPress.com, the GOC, Companies House, GOV.UK, the ICO and Stripe test services. Those organisations control their own services. A link does not mean LocumKing endorses or guarantees third-party content.
Availability, changes and beta data
LocumKing cannot promise uninterrupted or error-free operation. Features may be maintained, changed, suspended or withdrawn where reasonably necessary. Beta records may be corrected, withdrawn or removed where needed for testing, safety, security or compliance, but confirmed audit records may need to be retained.
Account restrictions and closure
LocumKing may restrict, suspend or close an application or account where these Terms are breached, information cannot be verified, safety or security is at risk, the law requires it, or continued access could harm members or the service. Where appropriate, LocumKing will explain the reason and offer a reasonable opportunity to respond.
You may request account closure, subject to records that must be kept for legal, security, complaint, accounting or legitimate business purposes.
Liability
Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or rights that cannot legally be waived.
To the extent permitted by law, LocumKing is not responsible for losses caused by reliance on illustrative or test content; independent decisions made by professionals or practices; inaccurate member-supplied information; third-party services; events outside reasonable control; or use of the service contrary to these Terms. Final liability terms for live marketplace transactions will be professionally reviewed and published before live work is authorised.
Privacy
Our Privacy Policy explains how we use personal information. Our Cookie Policy explains cookies and similar technologies. Consent is requested separately where it is required.
Changes to these Terms
LocumKing may update these Terms as the service develops. The date above shows the latest version. We will take reasonable steps to highlight material changes before they apply to existing approved members.
Governing law
These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. The courts of England and Wales will have jurisdiction, except where mandatory law gives a person the right to bring proceedings elsewhere.
Contact
Questions about these Terms can be sent to james@greenfieldeyecare.co.uk.
These beta Terms are an operational safeguard and should receive independent UK legal review before LocumKing authorises real work, charges professionals or practices, or enables live payments.