Locum occupational therapist
Low £25.00Typical £38.00High £60.00
Rate benchmark
Locum occupational therapist rates in the UK, 2026
£38.00typical per hour
Indicative pay ranges for UK locum occupational therapists in the 2026/27 tax year. What’s typical, what drives variance, and how to benchmark your own rate against the market.
Ledger | Indicative 2026 range
Low, typical, and high.
NHS agency Band 6 sits £28 to £38/hr, Band 7 £34 to £45/hr. Private case management for catastrophic injury (Bush & Co, HCML, N-Able) pays £55 to £95/hr plus mileage and separate report fees. Paediatric SEN and EHCP assessment work is priced per report (£600 to £1,200) rather than hourly. School commissioning blocks pay £40 to £55/hr. Neuro rehab and hand therapy attract the biggest premium.
| Rangeper hour | LowIndicative | TypicalIndicative | HighIndicative |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indicative 2026 range (per hour) | £25.00 | £38.00 | £60.00 |
Indicative 2026 range (per hour)
Figures are educated estimates. Sources include: RCOT member guidance; Case Management Society UK (CMSUK) pricing benchmarks; Published AHP agency rate cards. Real rates vary by individual contract and market conditions. Sessional doesn't guarantee any specific rate and your individual outcome depends on your negotiation and the organisations you work with.
01 | Market context
05Rate driversWhat drives the variance
For occupational therapists, private case management for catastrophic injury pays substantially more than NHS agency banding, at the cost of report-writing overhead.
Geography: London and the South East run 10% to 20% above the national average. Scotland and Wales typically mirror the national mean; Northern Ireland is often lower.
Urgency: last-minute cover pays more. Organisations covering a sudden gap often pay 20% to 30% above their standard rate.
Specialty: out-of-hours, unplanned care, specialist wards, and complex caseload all uplift the base rate.
Volume: regular weekly bookings are usually offered at a lower rate than ad-hoc shifts in exchange for certainty.
Route to market: direct bookings pay more than agency routes because no one takes a cut.
02 | Your ledger
04Benchmarking stepsHow to benchmark your own rate
Write down the last ten bookings you accepted and the rate you charged or received.
Break them down by region, urgency, and duration.
Compare each against the typical range above. If you are consistently at or below the low end on standard bookings, you are probably underpriced.
Next time you are asked for your rate on a standard booking in a London or South East organisation, quote the typical figure from the headline above and see what happens. A refusal tells you about the booking, not your rate.
03 | 34 cities
Look up your city
01Locum occupational therapist in London02Locum occupational therapist in Manchester03Locum occupational therapist in Birmingham04Locum occupational therapist in Leeds05Locum occupational therapist in Liverpool06Locum occupational therapist in Sheffield07Locum occupational therapist in Bristol08Locum occupational therapist in Newcastle09Locum occupational therapist in Nottingham10Locum occupational therapist in Leicester11Locum occupational therapist in Coventry12Locum occupational therapist in Bradford13Locum occupational therapist in Southampton14Locum occupational therapist in Portsmouth15Locum occupational therapist in Brighton16Locum occupational therapist in Reading17Locum occupational therapist in Oxford18Locum occupational therapist in Cambridge19Locum occupational therapist in Norwich20Locum occupational therapist in Milton Keynes21Locum occupational therapist in York22Locum occupational therapist in Plymouth23Locum occupational therapist in Derby24Locum occupational therapist in Stoke-on-Trent25Locum occupational therapist in Hull26Locum occupational therapist in Sunderland27Locum occupational therapist in Glasgow28Locum occupational therapist in Edinburgh29Locum occupational therapist in Aberdeen30Locum occupational therapist in Dundee31Locum occupational therapist in Cardiff32Locum occupational therapist in Swansea33Locum occupational therapist in Newport34Locum occupational therapist in Belfast
Last revised 24 April 2026
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