NHS Pay Bands

NHS pay bands 2026/27

Agenda for Change pay scales, role examples and a take-home pay calculator for staff in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Every salary comes straight from the official pay circular for each nation.

Calculate take-home pay Browse all 12 bands

Take-home pay calculator

Pick your nation, band and pay point. The calculator applies the right tax bands, National Insurance, NHS pension tier and any student loan plan you select.

Your details

Standard full-time NHS week is 37.5 hours.

Take-home pay

£2,040 a month

£24,483 a year, £470 a week

Gross salary
£32,073
Basic £32,073
Income tax
£3,368
UK bands
National Insurance
£1,560
Class 1 (8% then 2%)
NHS pension
£2,662
8.3% tier

Based on Pay scales for 2026/27 — NHS Employers. The figure ignores salary sacrifice arrangements, marriage allowance, court orders and union dues.

How NHS pay bands work

Almost every NHS job outside of medicine, dentistry and very senior management is paid on Agenda for Change. The framework groups roles into 12 bands: 1 through 9, with sub-bands at 8a, 8b, 8c and 8d. Band 1 is closed to new entrants. Band 9 covers Trust-level directors of profession.

Within each band there are between one and three pay points. New starters join on the entry step. After a fixed period (usually two or three years per step), staff progress to the next point if their annual appraisal is satisfactory. Most bands cap out within four or five years of joining, after which annual rises track the headline national pay deal rather than step progression.

Banding is set by the NHS Job Evaluation Scheme, which scores 16 factors per role: knowledge, responsibility, communication, working conditions, emotional effort and so on. A Trust can't unilaterally move a job up or down a band without going through a formal re-banding process with trade union sign-off.

What's new in the 2026/27 deal

The 2026/27 settlement applied a 3.3% consolidated uplift to every pay point in England, recommended by the NHS Pay Review Body and accepted by the government in early 2026. Wales adopted the same percentage. Northern Ireland is expected to follow. Scotland's separately negotiated deal delivered a 3.75% uplift on top of the revised 2025/26 baseline, keeping Scottish staff comfortably ahead of the rest of the UK.

For a Band 5 newly qualified nurse in England, the headline figure rose from £31,049 to £32,073 (+£1,024). For a Band 6 specialist nurse, it went from £38,682 to £39,959 (+£1,277). Pay was backdated to 1 April 2026, so most staff saw arrears paid through their summer payslip alongside the new monthly rate.

You can see the year-by-year change for any band on the individual band pages, and a full per-year breakdown on the pay rise history page.

All bands in England, 2026/27

England full pay scale

Annual salary at every band, with the hourly rate at the top step calculated on a 37.5-hour working week. Tap a band for the full step range, example roles, progression rules and a year-by-year history.

Band Minimum Maximum Hourly at top
Band 1 closed £25,272 Single rate £12.92
Band 2 £25,272 Single rate £12.92
Band 3 £25,760 £27,476 £14.05
Band 4 £28,392 £31,157 £15.93
Band 5 £32,073 £39,043 £19.97
Band 6 £39,959 £48,117 £24.61
Band 7 £49,387 £56,515 £28.90
Band 8a £57,528 £64,750 £33.11
Band 8b £66,582 £77,368 £39.57
Band 8c £79,504 £91,609 £46.85
Band 8d £94,356 £108,814 £55.65
Band 9 £112,782 £129,783 £66.37

England pay scales for 2026/27, effective 2026-04-01. Hourly rate uses the 37.5-hour NHS working week. Source: Pay scales for 2026/27 — NHS Employers.

Why pay varies between the four UK nations

England, Wales and Northern Ireland adopt the NHS Pay Review Body recommendation each year, so their headline pay scales are usually identical in cash terms. Scotland sets its own pay through the Scottish Workforce and Governance Committee and consistently pays more. The current Scottish multi-year deal also has an inflation guarantee built in: if CPI inflation exceeds expectations, the agreed uplift gets topped up automatically.

On the 2026/27 scale, a Band 5 newly qualified nurse earns £32,073 in England, £32,557 in Wales, £33,295 in Northern Ireland (matching England in cash terms but pre-uplift), and £34,544 in Scotland. The gap grows with seniority: a Band 7 ward manager at the top step earns £56,515 in England versus £61,466 in Scotland, a difference of nearly £5,000 a year.

Jump to a band

Ranges below are for England in 2026/27. Each band page explains what staff in that band actually do, how to get on the band, how progression to the next band works, and a year-by-year pay history. Common questions for each band are answered at the bottom of the page.

Common questions

What is an NHS pay band?
An NHS pay band is the slot your job sits in on the Agenda for Change pay scale. Bands run from 1 (closed to new entrants) to 9 (Trust-level director of profession), with sub-bands at 8a, 8b, 8c and 8d. Every NHS role outside of doctors, dentists and very senior managers is assigned a band based on the NHS Job Evaluation Scheme, which scores the post against 16 factors including knowledge, responsibility, communication and working conditions. Once a job is banded, the pay is set nationally and the local Trust can't move it up or down.
When does the NHS pay rise happen each year?
Most years, the NHS Pay Review Body publishes its recommendation in the spring and the government responds by early summer. The agreed uplift is then applied to the Agenda for Change scale with effect from 1 April, backdated by a month or two. In practice, staff usually see the new pay rate plus arrears in their August or September payslip. The Scottish Government negotiates its own deal on a different timetable, sometimes signing settlements before the PRB has reported.
Why does NHS pay differ between the four UK nations?
England, Wales and Northern Ireland follow the Pay Review Body recommendation in lockstep, so their pay tables are usually identical in cash terms. Scotland negotiates separately with its trade unions and consistently sets higher rates than the rest of the UK. The current Scottish deal also includes an inflation guarantee, which means the headline uplift is adjusted upwards if CPI runs higher than the deal-implied figure. The result is that a Band 5 nurse in Scotland earns roughly £2,400 a year more at entry than the same role in England.
How do I find out what pay band I'm on?
Your offer letter and your monthly payslip both show your band. The band is also baked into the title of most NHS job adverts ("Band 5 Staff Nurse", "Band 6 Specialist Practitioner"). If you're applying for a role and the advert doesn't say, the job description in the recruitment pack will. Once you're in post, your pay step (entry, intermediate, top) is also shown on your payslip.
Do all NHS staff get paid on the Agenda for Change scale?
No. Doctors and dentists have their own pay framework with separate scales for foundation, training and consultant grades. Very Senior Managers (chief executives, chairs and other Board-level executives) are paid under a separate Very Senior Manager pay framework. Everyone else, around 1.5 million NHS staff in total, is on Agenda for Change.
What's the take-home pay for an NHS Band 5 nurse?
On the 2026/27 England pay scale, a newly qualified Band 5 nurse earns £32,073 a year gross. After tax, National Insurance and the default NHS pension contribution tier, take-home is around £2,175 a month. Add a Plan 2 student loan and that drops to around £2,150. London weighting adds a meaningful amount for staff inside the M25. Use the calculator above to model your specific situation including nation, pay point, HCAS zone and student loan plan.

Where the numbers come from

Every pay value on this site is lifted from the official circular for the nation in question. Nothing is averaged, rounded or estimated. When a new deal is published, an automated workflow picks it up and the affected pages rebuild. If a source URL ever changes upstream, the verification flag on the affected pay scale flips to false and a human reviewer cross-checks the numbers before they go live.