Every January, many practice managers open the same email. One of your vets has handed in their notice. With 12 weeks to serve, they’ll be gone by spring.
If it lands on Friday 15 January 2027, their last day is Friday 9 April. If your replacement also has 12 weeks’ notice to give, the gap between the two vets is exactly as long as your search takes.
So the date that matters most is the day your offer gets accepted.
Our October notice-period guide covers the candidate’s side of that timeline. This is yours.
What the gap costs each week
Most practices fill a vacancy with locums in the meantime. Using the SPVS 2025 survey medians (a £500 locum day rate and a £58,277 full-time package) and 4 locum days a week, as in our September shortage post:
- Locum cover: 4 × £500 = £2,000 a week
- The salary you’re not paying: £58,277 ÷ 52 = about £1,121 a week
- The difference: about £879 a week
Over a gap of:
- 6 weeks, that’s £5,274 extra on a £12,000 locum bill
- 10 weeks, it’s £8,790 extra on a £20,000 locum bill
- 17 weeks (about 4 months), it’s £14,943 extra on a £34,000 locum bill
That’s before employer National Insurance and pension, so the true extra is a little lower. It also leaves out the wider cost of losing a vet, which Dr Bethan Gray told VMG Congress in April 2026 can reach £20,000 to £40,000 on average once recruitment and lost clients are counted.
Book cover the week the notice arrives
Book locum cover straight away and you’ve got 12 weeks to find the right person, at a rate you’ve agreed in advance.
Leave it until the leaving date and you’re booking at short notice, taking whoever’s free, alongside other practices dealing with new-year resignations of their own.
The conversation before the resignation
In the RCVS 2024 survey, vets planning to leave the profession gave three main reasons:
- Poor work-life balance (56%)
- Chronic stress (54%)
- Not feeling rewarded or valued, beyond pay (47%)
That’s about leaving the profession rather than your practice, but all three can come up in a conversation long before anyone writes a resignation email. Dr Gray suggests stay interviews during routine appraisals, rather than exit interviews once the decision’s made.
Not every vet who wants a change needs a new employer, either. A planned break, or a few months of locum work somewhere new with a role to come back to, can turn a resignation into a return date.
How GVC helps
GVC’s UK team briefs locum cover and a permanent search at the same time, so your rota’s covered while the search runs.
If you’d like a plan in place before January, book a call and we’ll look at your cover and your options.
