NHS Contract Job Trends in England

National Health Service (NHS)
UK > England

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term NHS in contract job vacancies in England. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited NHS over the 6 months leading up to 31 July 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 325 348 287
Rank change year-on-year +23 -61 -77
Contract jobs citing NHS 346 165 273
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.76% 0.60% 0.80%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.29% 1.71% 2.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 269 114 180
10th Percentile £298 £209 £174
25th Percentile £400 £300 £257
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £350
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% +28.57% +7.78%
75th Percentile £538 £529 £500
90th Percentile £600 £575 £600
UK median daily rate £464 £425 £350
% change year-on-year +9.06% +21.43% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 10 34
10th Percentile £17.88 £12.57 £11.81
25th Percentile £21.25 £13.98 £12.86
Median hourly rate £26.72 £19.20 £16.59
Median % change year-on-year +39.15% +15.78% -1.57%
75th Percentile £34.62 £29.64 £25.49
90th Percentile £57.00 £33.03 £28.84
UK median hourly rate £26.72 £21.25 £17.75
% change year-on-year +25.74% +19.72% +5.34%

All Generic Skills
England

NHS falls under the General and Transferable Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring generic IT skills in England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 15,106 9,640 10,527
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 33.33% 35.03% 30.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,321 6,093 6,845
10th Percentile £322 £306 £300
25th Percentile £425 £408 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £638 £650 £675
90th Percentile £750 £775 £825
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £545
% change year-on-year - -3.67% -0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 860 478 589
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.48 £12.50
25th Percentile £21.00 £18.87 £17.25
Median hourly rate £43.96 £32.38 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +35.76% -28.04% +9.76%
75th Percentile £70.00 £60.00 £67.50
90th Percentile £85.40 £80.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £43.96 £29.50 £41.25
% change year-on-year +49.02% -28.48% +10.00%

NHS
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing NHS relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

NHS job vacancy trend in England

NHS
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing NHS.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing NHS

NHS
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing NHS in England over the 6 months to 31 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for NHS in England

NHS
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing NHS.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing NHS

NHS
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing NHS in England over the 6 months to 31 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for NHS in England

NHS
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing NHS within the England region over the 6 months to 31 July 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
London +14 151 £489 +15.00% 143
North of England -14 111 £475 -2.81% 131
Yorkshire -8 85 £500 - 58
North West -41 25 £350 +62.79% 51
South East -67 22 £456 +30.36% 83
East of England -12 13 £203 -10.92% 40
South West -29 13 £546 +33.23% 73
Midlands -49 12 £400 +14.29% 77
West Midlands -57 11 £400 +39.37% 52
East Midlands -13 1 - - 25
North East -43 1 - - 23
NHS
UK

NHS
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 11 (3.18%) Palantir Foundry
2 6 (1.73%) Confluence
3 5 (1.45%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.58%) CMS
4 2 (0.58%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.29%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.29%) nginx
5 1 (0.29%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 4 (1.16%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.87%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.87%) Spreadsheet
3 2 (0.58%) Trello
4 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.29%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 4 (1.16%) SystmOne
2 2 (0.58%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.58%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.29%) Cerner Millennium
3 1 (0.29%) Oracle Assets
3 1 (0.29%) Oracle Cash Management
3 1 (0.29%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.29%) Oracle Financials
3 1 (0.29%) Oracle General Ledger
3 1 (0.29%) Oracle Payables
3 1 (0.29%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 1 (0.29%) Oracle Receivables
3 1 (0.29%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
Cloud Services
1 54 (15.61%) AWS
2 44 (12.72%) Azure
3 26 (7.51%) Serverless
4 18 (5.20%) Amazon S3
5 17 (4.91%) AWS Lambda
6 15 (4.34%) Power Platform
7 14 (4.05%) GitHub
8 10 (2.89%) Amazon EC2
8 10 (2.89%) GitHub Actions
9 7 (2.02%) Azure Data Factory
9 7 (2.02%) Microsoft 365
10 6 (1.73%) AWS Step Functions
10 6 (1.73%) Azure DevOps
10 6 (1.73%) Azure Functions
11 5 (1.45%) Adobe Analytics
11 5 (1.45%) Azure Key Vault
11 5 (1.45%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 5 (1.45%) GCP
11 5 (1.45%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 4 (1.16%) Amazon SQS
Communications & Networking
1 9 (2.60%) LAN
1 9 (2.60%) WAN
2 8 (2.31%) Firewall
3 5 (1.45%) DNS
3 5 (1.45%) NGFW
4 4 (1.16%) Structured Cabling
4 4 (1.16%) Wireless
5 3 (0.87%) TCP/IP
6 2 (0.58%) Network Security
7 1 (0.29%) DHCP
7 1 (0.29%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 38 (10.98%) Electronic Patient Records
2 14 (4.05%) Data Warehouse
2 14 (4.05%) SQL Server
3 13 (3.76%) Power BI
4 8 (2.31%) Amazon RDS
5 7 (2.02%) DynamoDB
6 6 (1.73%) Amazon Athena
7 4 (1.16%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 3 (0.87%) BusinessObjects
8 3 (0.87%) Data Lake
8 3 (0.87%) Geospatial Data
8 3 (0.87%) OLAP
8 3 (0.87%) Relational Database
9 2 (0.58%) Amazon Redshift
9 2 (0.58%) Delta Lake
9 2 (0.58%) DocumentDB
9 2 (0.58%) NoSQL
9 2 (0.58%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 2 (0.58%) Oracle Reports
9 2 (0.58%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 10 (2.89%) Git
2 6 (1.73%) GitLab
2 6 (1.73%) JIRA
3 2 (0.58%) Cypress.io
3 2 (0.58%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.29%) JUnit
4 1 (0.29%) Postman
4 1 (0.29%) Selenium
4 1 (0.29%) SonarQube
General
1 141 (40.75%) Public Sector
2 107 (30.92%) Social Skills
3 32 (9.25%) Analytical Skills
4 21 (6.07%) Finance
5 15 (4.34%) Digital Health
6 14 (4.05%) Local Government
7 10 (2.89%) Influencing Skills
8 6 (1.73%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (1.73%) Organisational Skills
8 6 (1.73%) Pharmaceutical
9 5 (1.45%) Digital Healthcare
9 5 (1.45%) Health Technology
10 4 (1.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 4 (1.16%) Law
10 4 (1.16%) Legal
11 3 (0.87%) Billing
11 3 (0.87%) Marketing
11 3 (0.87%) Social Housing
12 2 (0.58%) Military
12 2 (0.58%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 40 (11.56%) Developer
2 37 (10.69%) Senior
3 34 (9.83%) Architect
4 32 (9.25%) Analyst
5 24 (6.94%) Lead
6 22 (6.36%) Data Engineer
6 22 (6.36%) Designer
7 18 (5.20%) Business Analyst
8 17 (4.91%) Project Manager
9 16 (4.62%) User Researcher
10 12 (3.47%) Consultant
10 12 (3.47%) Delivery Manager
10 12 (3.47%) Solutions Architect
11 11 (3.18%) Data Architect
12 10 (2.89%) Service Designer
13 9 (2.60%) Python Developer
13 9 (2.60%) Senior User Researcher
14 8 (2.31%) Administrator
14 8 (2.31%) Full-Stack Developer
14 8 (2.31%) NHS Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (7.80%) FHIR
2 12 (3.47%) REST
3 11 (3.18%) PySpark
4 10 (2.89%) RESTful
5 9 (2.60%) React
6 6 (1.73%) .NET
6 6 (1.73%) Node.js
6 6 (1.73%) Vue
7 5 (1.45%) CSS
7 5 (1.45%) HTML
7 5 (1.45%) OpenID
7 5 (1.45%) Playwright
8 4 (1.16%) JSON
8 4 (1.16%) OAuth
8 4 (1.16%) OAuth2
9 3 (0.87%) Flask
9 3 (0.87%) Middleware
9 3 (0.87%) Spring
9 3 (0.87%) Spring Boot
9 3 (0.87%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 25 (7.23%) Cloud Native
2 20 (5.78%) Product Ownership
3 18 (5.20%) Onboarding
4 7 (2.02%) Data Structures
5 6 (1.73%) IoT
5 6 (1.73%) LIMS
6 5 (1.45%) Driving Licence
6 5 (1.45%) Legacy Systems
6 5 (1.45%) Security Posture
7 4 (1.16%) Data Protection Act
7 4 (1.16%) Mobile App
7 4 (1.16%) PACS
7 4 (1.16%) Replication
8 3 (0.87%) Distributed Systems
8 3 (0.87%) Life Science
8 3 (0.87%) Management Information System
9 2 (0.58%) Analytical Mindset
9 2 (0.58%) Distributed Architecture
9 2 (0.58%) Enterprise Software
9 2 (0.58%) Housing Association
Operating Systems
1 9 (2.60%) Windows
2 5 (1.45%) Windows Server
3 2 (0.58%) Android
3 2 (0.58%) Apple iOS
3 2 (0.58%) Linux
3 2 (0.58%) Mac OS
4 1 (0.29%) CentOS
4 1 (0.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.29%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 118 (34.10%) Agile
2 73 (21.10%) Stakeholder Management
3 52 (15.03%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 49 (14.16%) CI/CD
5 44 (12.72%) Analytics
6 41 (11.85%) Continuous Improvement
7 37 (10.69%) Decision-Making
7 37 (10.69%) Problem-Solving
8 35 (10.12%) DevOps
8 35 (10.12%) User Research
9 32 (9.25%) Infrastructure as Code
10 29 (8.38%) Digital Transformation Programme
10 29 (8.38%) Migration
11 28 (8.09%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
12 26 (7.51%) Service Design
12 26 (7.51%) Validation
13 25 (7.23%) AI
13 25 (7.23%) Roadmaps
14 24 (6.94%) Workshop Facilitation
15 23 (6.65%) ETL
Programming Languages
1 39 (11.27%) SQL
2 37 (10.69%) Python
3 17 (4.91%) JavaScript
4 15 (4.34%) TypeScript
5 9 (2.60%) Java
6 8 (2.31%) C#
7 5 (1.45%) Bicep
7 5 (1.45%) T-SQL
8 3 (0.87%) PowerShell
9 1 (0.29%) Bash
9 1 (0.29%) R
Qualifications
1 32 (9.25%) Security Cleared
2 27 (7.80%) SC Cleared
3 22 (6.36%) BPSS Clearance
4 12 (3.47%) Degree
5 5 (1.45%) AWS Certification
6 4 (1.16%) JNCIP
6 4 (1.16%) JNCIS
7 3 (0.87%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 3 (0.87%) Microsoft Certification
8 2 (0.58%) Azure Certification
8 2 (0.58%) DV Cleared
8 2 (0.58%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 1 (0.29%) DBS Check
9 1 (0.29%) IIBA
9 1 (0.29%) MCSE
9 1 (0.29%) NVQ Level 3
9 1 (0.29%) PMI Certification
9 1 (0.29%) PMP
9 1 (0.29%) Postgraduate
9 1 (0.29%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (8.67%) HL7
2 25 (7.23%) Accessibility
3 23 (6.65%) Data Quality
4 19 (5.49%) QA
5 17 (4.91%) GDPR
6 13 (3.76%) WCAG
7 10 (2.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 7 (2.02%) PMO
9 6 (1.73%) SNOMED CT
10 5 (1.45%) DICOM
11 4 (1.16%) Actionable Recommendations
11 4 (1.16%) NCSC
12 3 (0.87%) IEC 62304
13 2 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials
13 2 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 2 (0.58%) ISO 13485
14 1 (0.29%) GRC
14 1 (0.29%) NIST
14 1 (0.29%) PCI DSS
14 1 (0.29%) SOC 2
System Software
1 14 (4.05%) Docker
2 7 (2.02%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.58%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.29%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 32 (9.25%) Terraform
2 11 (3.18%) Kubernetes
3 4 (1.16%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (0.58%) Jamf Pro
5 1 (0.29%) Ansible
5 1 (0.29%) Puppet
Vendors
1 34 (9.83%) Microsoft
2 18 (5.20%) Palantir
3 15 (4.34%) Foundry
4 11 (3.18%) Databricks
5 8 (2.31%) Brio
5 8 (2.31%) Oracle
6 7 (2.02%) ServiceNow
7 5 (1.45%) Adobe
8 4 (1.16%) Google
8 4 (1.16%) Juniper
8 4 (1.16%) Palo Alto
8 4 (1.16%) Splunk
9 3 (0.87%) Cisco
9 3 (0.87%) InterSystems
9 3 (0.87%) VMware
10 2 (0.58%) Cerner
10 2 (0.58%) Informatica
10 2 (0.58%) Meraki
10 2 (0.58%) OneLogin
10 2 (0.58%) Zscaler