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 13 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Sep 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 327 351 324
Rank change year-on-year +24 -27 -106
Contract jobs citing NHS 339 168 223
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.73% 0.61% 0.68%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.18% 1.68% 2.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 258 116 141
10th Percentile £236 £160 £176
25th Percentile £338 £288 £275
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £464 £450 £350
Median % change year-on-year +3.00% +28.57% +5.26%
75th Percentile £529 £538 £525
90th Percentile £600 £594 £650
UK median daily rate £450 £415 £350
% change year-on-year +8.43% +18.57% +6.06%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 5 15
10th Percentile - £21.27 £12.82
25th Percentile £17.00 £21.30 £15.71
Median hourly rate £26.72 £30.11 £18.27
Median % change year-on-year -11.24% +64.78% -13.00%
75th Percentile £33.60 £30.75 £22.64
90th Percentile £51.00 £31.93 £25.49
UK median hourly rate £23.66 £30.11 £20.59
% change year-on-year -21.41% +46.21% +2.95%

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 15,566 9,976 10,112
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 33.70% 35.95% 30.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,426 6,272 6,299
10th Percentile £325 £300 £300
25th Percentile £425 £407 £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 £515 £543
% change year-on-year +1.94% -5.07% -1.36%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,025 497 431
10th Percentile £14.04 £15.49 £14.41
25th Percentile £17.97 £18.87 £23.00
Median hourly rate £37.50 £32.89 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +14.02% -42.65% +20.74%
75th Percentile £69.50 £58.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £83.00 £75.00 £75.16
UK median hourly rate £37.50 £30.00 £50.00
% change year-on-year +25.00% -40.00% +11.11%

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 13 September 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 13 September 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 13 September 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 -8 145 £481 +18.10% 232
North of England -13 114 £475 -2.56% 199
Yorkshire +8 85 £488 -2.50% 95
North West -46 27 £350 +7.69% 89
East of England -7 24 £191 -15.87% 63
South East -61 17 £450 +56.52% 121
Midlands -35 15 £375 +7.14% 118
West Midlands -39 12 £425 +48.08% 71
South West -36 8 £474 +113.40% 72
East Midlands -15 3 £300 -25.00% 47
North East -40 2 - - 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 (3.24%) Palantir Foundry
2 3 (0.88%) Confluence
2 3 (0.88%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.59%) CMS
4 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.29%) nginx
4 1 (0.29%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 6 (1.77%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.18%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.88%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 4 (1.18%) SystmOne
2 2 (0.59%) Cerner Millennium
2 2 (0.59%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.59%) Lorenzo
3 1 (0.29%) Oracle Assets
3 1 (0.29%) Oracle Cash Management
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 60 (17.70%) AWS
2 46 (13.57%) Azure
3 28 (8.26%) Serverless
4 21 (6.19%) Amazon S3
5 20 (5.90%) Power Platform
6 19 (5.60%) AWS Lambda
7 14 (4.13%) GitHub
8 13 (3.83%) Microsoft 365
9 12 (3.54%) Amazon EC2
10 10 (2.95%) GitHub Actions
11 7 (2.06%) Azure DevOps
11 7 (2.06%) Entra ID
12 6 (1.77%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 6 (1.77%) Azure Data Factory
12 6 (1.77%) Azure Functions
12 6 (1.77%) Azure Key Vault
12 6 (1.77%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 5 (1.47%) Adobe Analytics
13 5 (1.47%) AWS Step Functions
13 5 (1.47%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 7 (2.06%) Firewall
1 7 (2.06%) LAN
1 7 (2.06%) WAN
2 5 (1.47%) Network Security
3 4 (1.18%) NGFW
3 4 (1.18%) Structured Cabling
3 4 (1.18%) Wireless
4 3 (0.88%) DNS
5 1 (0.29%) DHCP
5 1 (0.29%) HTTP
5 1 (0.29%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.29%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (7.37%) Electronic Patient Records
2 17 (5.01%) Data Warehouse
2 17 (5.01%) Power BI
3 11 (3.24%) SQL Server
4 10 (2.95%) Amazon RDS
5 8 (2.36%) DynamoDB
6 6 (1.77%) Amazon Athena
7 4 (1.18%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 3 (0.88%) BusinessObjects
8 3 (0.88%) Data Lake
8 3 (0.88%) OLAP
8 3 (0.88%) Relational Database
8 3 (0.88%) Tableau
9 2 (0.59%) Amazon Redshift
9 2 (0.59%) Azure SQL Database
9 2 (0.59%) Delta Lake
9 2 (0.59%) DocumentDB
9 2 (0.59%) NoSQL
9 2 (0.59%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 2 (0.59%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 10 (2.95%) Git
2 5 (1.47%) GitLab
2 5 (1.47%) JIRA
3 4 (1.18%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.29%) Cypress.io
4 1 (0.29%) JMeter
4 1 (0.29%) Postman
4 1 (0.29%) Rational Rhapsody
4 1 (0.29%) Selenium
4 1 (0.29%) SonarQube
General
1 133 (39.23%) Public Sector
2 122 (35.99%) Social Skills
3 29 (8.55%) Analytical Skills
4 22 (6.49%) Finance
5 13 (3.83%) Local Government
6 12 (3.54%) Digital Health
7 11 (3.24%) Influencing Skills
8 8 (2.36%) Pharmaceutical
9 7 (2.06%) Digital Healthcare
10 6 (1.77%) Organisational Skills
11 5 (1.47%) Documentation Skills
12 4 (1.18%) Law
12 4 (1.18%) Legal
13 3 (0.88%) Billing
13 3 (0.88%) Health Technology
13 3 (0.88%) Marketing
13 3 (0.88%) Presentation Skills
13 3 (0.88%) Social Housing
14 2 (0.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 2 (0.59%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 45 (13.27%) Developer
2 38 (11.21%) Senior
3 35 (10.32%) Analyst
4 28 (8.26%) Architect
5 22 (6.49%) Designer
6 20 (5.90%) Data Engineer
7 19 (5.60%) Lead
8 17 (5.01%) Project Manager
9 15 (4.42%) Business Analyst
10 11 (3.24%) Consultant
10 11 (3.24%) Service Designer
11 10 (2.95%) Data Architect
12 9 (2.65%) Delivery Manager
12 9 (2.65%) Python Developer
12 9 (2.65%) User Researcher
13 8 (2.36%) Full-Stack Developer
13 8 (2.36%) Performance Analyst
14 7 (2.06%) Data Warehouse Developer
14 7 (2.06%) Software Engineer
14 7 (2.06%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (9.73%) Terraform
2 20 (5.90%) FHIR
3 14 (4.13%) REST
4 11 (3.24%) PySpark
4 11 (3.24%) RESTful
5 9 (2.65%) React
6 7 (2.06%) Node.js
7 6 (1.77%) Vue
8 5 (1.47%) .NET
8 5 (1.47%) CSS
8 5 (1.47%) HTML
8 5 (1.47%) JSON
8 5 (1.47%) OpenID
8 5 (1.47%) Playwright
9 4 (1.18%) ARM Templates
9 4 (1.18%) Django
9 4 (1.18%) OAuth
9 4 (1.18%) OAuth2
10 3 (0.88%) Flask
10 3 (0.88%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 23 (6.78%) Cloud Native
2 19 (5.60%) Product Ownership
3 15 (4.42%) Onboarding
4 9 (2.65%) Data Structures
4 9 (2.65%) Management Information System
5 7 (2.06%) Legacy Systems
6 6 (1.77%) Driving Licence
6 6 (1.77%) IoT
6 6 (1.77%) Security Posture
7 5 (1.47%) Data Protection Act
8 4 (1.18%) Mobile App
9 3 (0.88%) Cloud Security Posture
9 3 (0.88%) Distributed Systems
9 3 (0.88%) LIMS
10 2 (0.59%) Analytical Mindset
10 2 (0.59%) CMDB
10 2 (0.59%) Greenfield Project
10 2 (0.59%) Housing Association
10 2 (0.59%) Life Science
10 2 (0.59%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 10 (2.95%) Windows
2 5 (1.47%) Windows 10
3 4 (1.18%) Windows Server
4 2 (0.59%) Android
4 2 (0.59%) Apple iOS
4 2 (0.59%) Linux
4 2 (0.59%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.29%) CentOS
5 1 (0.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.29%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 113 (33.33%) Agile
2 79 (23.30%) Stakeholder Management
3 54 (15.93%) CI/CD
4 53 (15.63%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 47 (13.86%) Problem-Solving
6 46 (13.57%) Continuous Improvement
7 40 (11.80%) Analytics
7 40 (11.80%) Decision-Making
8 37 (10.91%) DevOps
9 36 (10.62%) Infrastructure as Code
10 35 (10.32%) AI
11 33 (9.73%) Digital Transformation Programme
12 29 (8.55%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
13 28 (8.26%) Migration
13 28 (8.26%) Validation
14 27 (7.96%) Data Protection
14 27 (7.96%) Information Governance
15 26 (7.67%) Workshop Facilitation
16 25 (7.37%) Business Intelligence
17 24 (7.08%) Data Pipeline
Programming Languages
1 38 (11.21%) SQL
2 37 (10.91%) Python
3 15 (4.42%) JavaScript
3 15 (4.42%) TypeScript
4 8 (2.36%) Java
5 7 (2.06%) C#
6 5 (1.47%) Bicep
6 5 (1.47%) PowerShell
7 4 (1.18%) T-SQL
8 2 (0.59%) Bash
8 2 (0.59%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 1 (0.29%) Kusto Query Language
9 1 (0.29%) R
Qualifications
1 29 (8.55%) Security Cleared
2 23 (6.78%) SC Cleared
3 17 (5.01%) BPSS Clearance
4 9 (2.65%) Degree
5 5 (1.47%) AWS Certification
6 4 (1.18%) JNCIP
6 4 (1.18%) JNCIS
6 4 (1.18%) Microsoft Certification
7 3 (0.88%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 3 (0.88%) Azure Certification
8 2 (0.59%) Cisco Certification
8 2 (0.59%) DV Cleared
8 2 (0.59%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 1 (0.29%) CCNA
9 1 (0.29%) CCSP
9 1 (0.29%) CISSP
9 1 (0.29%) CRISC
9 1 (0.29%) MCSE
9 1 (0.29%) NVQ Level 3
9 1 (0.29%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (6.78%) Data Quality
2 22 (6.49%) Accessibility
3 21 (6.19%) GDPR
3 21 (6.19%) QA
4 19 (5.60%) HL7
5 16 (4.72%) WCAG
6 11 (3.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 4 (1.18%) NCSC
7 4 (1.18%) PMO
8 3 (0.88%) Actionable Recommendations
8 3 (0.88%) IEC 62304
8 3 (0.88%) SNOMED CT
9 2 (0.59%) Cyber Essentials
9 2 (0.59%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 2 (0.59%) DICOM
9 2 (0.59%) ISO 13485
10 1 (0.29%) GRC
10 1 (0.29%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 1 (0.29%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.29%) SLA
System Software
1 14 (4.13%) Docker
2 8 (2.36%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.59%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.29%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 12 (3.54%) Kubernetes
2 2 (0.59%) Grafana
2 2 (0.59%) Jamf Pro
3 1 (0.29%) Ansible
3 1 (0.29%) Puppet
Vendors
1 43 (12.68%) Microsoft
2 17 (5.01%) Palantir
3 15 (4.42%) Foundry
4 11 (3.24%) Databricks
4 11 (3.24%) ServiceNow
5 9 (2.65%) Oracle
6 8 (2.36%) Brio
6 8 (2.36%) Cerner
7 5 (1.47%) Adobe
7 5 (1.47%) Splunk
7 5 (1.47%) VMware
8 4 (1.18%) Google
8 4 (1.18%) Juniper
8 4 (1.18%) Palo Alto
9 3 (0.88%) Cisco
9 3 (0.88%) Citrix
10 2 (0.59%) Blue Prism
10 2 (0.59%) BMC
10 2 (0.59%) Dynatrace
10 2 (0.59%) Meraki
764 NHS jobs in England