Belfast software company Locate a Locum has been named a finalist in The Dext Innovation Award at the Lloyds British Business Excellence Awards 2026, earning national recognition for the platform it has built to digitise workforce management across the UK pharmacy and optometry sectors.
The company, often shortened to LAL, runs a dual-sided system serving healthcare employers on one side and self-employed locum professionals on the other. Its place on the shortlist, confirmed when finalists were announced in July 2026, puts the Belfast business among the contenders heading to the ceremony at Grosvenor House on Park Lane, London, on 10 November 2026.
From two founders to a 62-strong team
According to the business, Locate a Locum began nine years ago as a two-person startup and has grown into an organisation of 62 specialists working across product development, sales, marketing, operations, customer success, HR and finance.
The problem the firm set out to solve is a familiar one in community healthcare. Locum cover has traditionally been arranged manually, a process the company characterises as fragmented, unpredictable and expensive. Its answer is a single digital process covering the whole booking cycle, sold to employers as software as a service. The company reports that 50,000 locum professionals are registered on its platform and that it holds preferred supplier status with many of the UK’s leading pharmacy and optical groups.
A flat fee in a pay as you go market
For employers, the LAL Unlimited system manages rota optimisation, leave, compliance and payroll. Where the sector has typically relied on pay as you go charging, LAL Unlimited applies a flat monthly fee per user for unlimited bookings, a pricing model the company says gives clients stronger value and financial predictability, and which it regards as its key point of difference from competitors.
For locum workers, the Locate a Locum mobile app offers real-time access to more than 100,000 shifts across 8,000 UK branches, according to the business, allowing self-employed professionals to manage their working lives in one place. A premium subscription, LAL Pro, adds expense tracking, instant invoicing and rapid payments, together with market rate insights the company describes as an industry first, giving locums data to inform their booking decisions.
The market the judges will weigh
The workforce involved is substantial. Register data published by the General Pharmaceutical Council recorded 67,306 pharmacists and 13,303 pharmacies in Great Britain on 30 June 2026, an indication of the scale of the staffing market a digital platform of this kind can address.
The category’s judging criteria are set out on The Dext Innovation Award 2026 category page, part of the wider programme run by the Lloyds British Business Excellence Awards, and the Belfast firm will learn the outcome alongside its fellow finalists on the night.
