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 4 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 319 343 293
Rank change year-on-year +24 -50 -74
Contract jobs citing NHS 339 162 256
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.75% 0.59% 0.76%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.25% 1.67% 2.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 262 111 173
10th Percentile £289 £208 £175
25th Percentile £400 £300 £250
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £350
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% +28.57% +7.69%
75th Percentile £538 £534 £500
90th Percentile £600 £575 £600
UK median daily rate £463 £425 £350
% change year-on-year +8.82% +21.43% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 10 25
10th Percentile £17.88 £12.57 £12.48
25th Percentile £21.25 £13.98 £15.50
Median hourly rate £26.72 £19.20 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year +39.15% +1.07% +3.12%
75th Percentile £34.62 £29.64 £25.83
90th Percentile £57.00 £33.03 £32.15
UK median hourly rate £26.72 £21.25 £22.10
% change year-on-year +25.74% -3.85% +22.68%

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 15,060 9,689 10,356
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 33.37% 35.09% 30.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,274 6,121 6,736
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 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 869 481 552
10th Percentile £15.90 £15.48 £12.50
25th Percentile £20.60 £18.87 £18.35
Median hourly rate £43.96 £31.50 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +39.56% -33.68% +11.76%
75th Percentile £70.00 £60.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £85.00 £80.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £43.96 £29.50 £44.74
% change year-on-year +49.02% -34.06% +11.85%

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 4 August 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 4 August 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 4 August 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 +19 149 £481 +12.57% 168
North of England 0 108 £475 -3.06% 171
Yorkshire -3 82 £500 - 76
North West -38 24 £350 +62.79% 76
South East -69 20 £456 +25.86% 90
East of England -9 15 £223 -1.90% 48
South West -31 13 £546 +33.23% 92
Midlands -49 11 £425 +21.43% 98
West Midlands -53 10 £425 +48.08% 68
North East -39 2 - - 23
East Midlands -9 1 - - 30
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 5 (1.47%) Confluence
2 5 (1.47%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.59%) CMS
3 2 (0.59%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.29%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.29%) nginx
4 1 (0.29%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 4 (1.18%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.88%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.88%) Spreadsheet
3 2 (0.59%) Trello
4 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.29%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 4 (1.18%) SystmOne
2 2 (0.59%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.59%) 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 53 (15.63%) AWS
2 46 (13.57%) Azure
3 26 (7.67%) Serverless
4 18 (5.31%) Amazon S3
5 17 (5.01%) AWS Lambda
6 16 (4.72%) Power Platform
7 14 (4.13%) GitHub
8 10 (2.95%) Amazon EC2
8 10 (2.95%) GitHub Actions
9 9 (2.65%) Microsoft 365
10 7 (2.06%) Azure Data Factory
11 6 (1.77%) AWS Step Functions
11 6 (1.77%) Azure DevOps
11 6 (1.77%) Azure Functions
11 6 (1.77%) Entra ID
12 5 (1.47%) Adobe Analytics
12 5 (1.47%) Azure Key Vault
12 5 (1.47%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 5 (1.47%) GCP
12 5 (1.47%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 9 (2.65%) LAN
1 9 (2.65%) WAN
2 8 (2.36%) Firewall
3 5 (1.47%) DNS
3 5 (1.47%) NGFW
4 4 (1.18%) Structured Cabling
4 4 (1.18%) Wireless
5 3 (0.88%) TCP/IP
6 2 (0.59%) Network Security
7 1 (0.29%) DHCP
7 1 (0.29%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (10.32%) Electronic Patient Records
2 14 (4.13%) Data Warehouse
2 14 (4.13%) SQL Server
3 13 (3.83%) Power BI
4 8 (2.36%) Amazon RDS
5 7 (2.06%) 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%) Geospatial Data
8 3 (0.88%) OLAP
8 3 (0.88%) Relational Database
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%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 10 (2.95%) Git
2 6 (1.77%) GitLab
3 5 (1.47%) JIRA
4 2 (0.59%) Cypress.io
4 2 (0.59%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.29%) JUnit
5 1 (0.29%) Postman
5 1 (0.29%) Selenium
5 1 (0.29%) SonarQube
General
1 139 (41.00%) Public Sector
2 104 (30.68%) Social Skills
3 31 (9.14%) Analytical Skills
4 21 (6.19%) Finance
5 14 (4.13%) Digital Health
5 14 (4.13%) Local Government
6 10 (2.95%) Influencing Skills
7 6 (1.77%) Documentation Skills
7 6 (1.77%) Pharmaceutical
8 5 (1.47%) Digital Healthcare
8 5 (1.47%) Organisational Skills
9 4 (1.18%) Health Technology
9 4 (1.18%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (1.18%) Law
10 3 (0.88%) Billing
10 3 (0.88%) Legal
10 3 (0.88%) Marketing
10 3 (0.88%) Social Housing
11 2 (0.59%) Publishing
11 2 (0.59%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 41 (12.09%) Developer
2 37 (10.91%) Senior
3 34 (10.03%) Architect
4 29 (8.55%) Analyst
5 23 (6.78%) Lead
6 22 (6.49%) Data Engineer
7 21 (6.19%) Designer
8 17 (5.01%) Project Manager
9 16 (4.72%) Business Analyst
9 16 (4.72%) User Researcher
10 12 (3.54%) Consultant
10 12 (3.54%) Delivery Manager
10 12 (3.54%) Solutions Architect
11 11 (3.24%) Data Architect
12 10 (2.95%) Service Designer
13 9 (2.65%) Python Developer
13 9 (2.65%) Senior User Researcher
14 8 (2.36%) Full-Stack Developer
14 8 (2.36%) NHS Project Manager
15 7 (2.06%) Performance Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (7.37%) FHIR
2 12 (3.54%) REST
3 11 (3.24%) PySpark
4 10 (2.95%) RESTful
5 9 (2.65%) React
6 6 (1.77%) .NET
6 6 (1.77%) Node.js
6 6 (1.77%) Vue
7 5 (1.47%) CSS
7 5 (1.47%) HTML
7 5 (1.47%) OpenID
7 5 (1.47%) Playwright
8 4 (1.18%) JSON
8 4 (1.18%) OAuth
8 4 (1.18%) OAuth2
9 3 (0.88%) Flask
9 3 (0.88%) GeoJSON
9 3 (0.88%) Middleware
9 3 (0.88%) Spring
9 3 (0.88%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 25 (7.37%) Cloud Native
2 20 (5.90%) Product Ownership
3 17 (5.01%) Onboarding
4 7 (2.06%) Data Structures
5 6 (1.77%) IoT
6 5 (1.47%) Driving Licence
6 5 (1.47%) Legacy Systems
7 4 (1.18%) Data Protection Act
7 4 (1.18%) LIMS
7 4 (1.18%) Mobile App
7 4 (1.18%) Replication
7 4 (1.18%) Security Posture
8 3 (0.88%) Distributed Systems
8 3 (0.88%) Life Science
8 3 (0.88%) Management Information System
9 2 (0.59%) Analytical Mindset
9 2 (0.59%) Distributed Architecture
9 2 (0.59%) Enterprise Software
9 2 (0.59%) Housing Association
9 2 (0.59%) PACS
Operating Systems
1 10 (2.95%) Windows
2 7 (2.06%) Windows Server
3 2 (0.59%) Android
3 2 (0.59%) Apple iOS
3 2 (0.59%) Linux
3 2 (0.59%) Mac OS
4 1 (0.29%) CentOS
4 1 (0.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.29%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 118 (34.81%) Agile
2 69 (20.35%) Stakeholder Management
3 51 (15.04%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 48 (14.16%) CI/CD
5 43 (12.68%) Analytics
6 41 (12.09%) Continuous Improvement
7 37 (10.91%) Problem-Solving
8 36 (10.62%) Decision-Making
9 35 (10.32%) User Research
10 33 (9.73%) DevOps
11 31 (9.14%) Infrastructure as Code
12 29 (8.55%) Digital Transformation Programme
12 29 (8.55%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
13 28 (8.26%) Migration
14 26 (7.67%) AI
14 26 (7.67%) Service Design
15 25 (7.37%) Validation
16 24 (7.08%) Workshop Facilitation
17 23 (6.78%) Roadmaps
18 22 (6.49%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 38 (11.21%) SQL
2 36 (10.62%) Python
3 16 (4.72%) JavaScript
4 15 (4.42%) TypeScript
5 9 (2.65%) Java
6 8 (2.36%) C#
7 5 (1.47%) PowerShell
7 5 (1.47%) T-SQL
8 4 (1.18%) Bicep
9 1 (0.29%) Bash
9 1 (0.29%) R
Qualifications
1 32 (9.44%) Security Cleared
2 27 (7.96%) SC Cleared
3 22 (6.49%) BPSS Clearance
4 12 (3.54%) Degree
5 5 (1.47%) AWS Certification
6 4 (1.18%) JNCIP
6 4 (1.18%) JNCIS
7 3 (0.88%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 3 (0.88%) Microsoft Certification
8 2 (0.59%) Azure Certification
8 2 (0.59%) DV Cleared
8 2 (0.59%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 1 (0.29%) CCNA
9 1 (0.29%) Cisco Certification
9 1 (0.29%) DBS Check
9 1 (0.29%) IIBA
9 1 (0.29%) NVQ Level 3
9 1 (0.29%) PMI Certification
9 1 (0.29%) PMP
9 1 (0.29%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (7.96%) HL7
2 25 (7.37%) Accessibility
3 23 (6.78%) Data Quality
4 19 (5.60%) QA
5 16 (4.72%) GDPR
6 14 (4.13%) WCAG
7 9 (2.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 6 (1.77%) PMO
8 6 (1.77%) SNOMED CT
9 4 (1.18%) Actionable Recommendations
9 4 (1.18%) DICOM
9 4 (1.18%) NCSC
10 3 (0.88%) IEC 62304
11 2 (0.59%) Cyber Essentials
11 2 (0.59%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 2 (0.59%) ISO 13485
12 1 (0.29%) GRC
12 1 (0.29%) NIST
12 1 (0.29%) PCI DSS
12 1 (0.29%) SLA
System Software
1 14 (4.13%) Docker
2 9 (2.65%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.59%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.29%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 30 (8.85%) Terraform
2 10 (2.95%) Kubernetes
3 3 (0.88%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (0.59%) Jamf Pro
5 1 (0.29%) Ansible
5 1 (0.29%) Puppet
Vendors
1 35 (10.32%) Microsoft
2 18 (5.31%) Palantir
3 15 (4.42%) Foundry
4 11 (3.24%) Databricks
5 8 (2.36%) Brio
5 8 (2.36%) Oracle
6 7 (2.06%) ServiceNow
7 5 (1.47%) Adobe
7 5 (1.47%) VMware
8 4 (1.18%) Google
8 4 (1.18%) Juniper
8 4 (1.18%) Palo Alto
8 4 (1.18%) Splunk
9 3 (0.88%) Cisco
9 3 (0.88%) InterSystems
10 2 (0.59%) Blue Prism
10 2 (0.59%) Cerner
10 2 (0.59%) Citrix
10 2 (0.59%) Meraki
10 2 (0.59%) OneLogin