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

6 months to
12 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 315 355 307
Rank change year-on-year +40 -48 -90
Contract jobs citing NHS 341 154 245
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.75% 0.56% 0.74%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.24% 1.57% 2.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 266 106 167
10th Percentile £294 £208 £175
25th Percentile £400 £303 £274
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £350
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% +28.57% +7.87%
75th Percentile £538 £536 £517
90th Percentile £610 £575 £643
UK median daily rate £463 £425 £350
% change year-on-year +8.82% +21.43% +12.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 10 22
10th Percentile £17.20 £12.57 £14.24
25th Percentile £20.93 £13.98 £15.61
Median hourly rate £26.72 £19.20 £18.64
Median % change year-on-year +39.15% +3.05% +10.59%
75th Percentile £39.81 £29.64 £25.74
90th Percentile £60.00 £33.03 £25.83
UK median hourly rate £26.72 £21.25 £21.80
% change year-on-year +25.74% -2.52% +13.66%

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 15,242 9,778 10,255
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 33.44% 35.32% 30.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,359 6,185 6,651
10th Percentile £325 £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 £676
90th Percentile £750 £775 £825
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 901 486 542
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.48 £13.00
25th Percentile £19.50 £18.87 £18.56
Median hourly rate £43.56 £30.90 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +40.96% -34.94% +15.74%
75th Percentile £70.00 £60.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £85.00 £80.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £43.50 £29.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year +47.46% -34.44% +12.98%

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 12 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 12 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 12 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 +17 150 £481 +13.24% 246
North of England -14 109 £475 -5.00% 203
Yorkshire +1 83 £500 - 84
North West -33 24 £350 +62.79% 93
South East -67 20 £456 +14.06% 97
East of England -12 13 £223 -1.90% 84
South West -29 13 £546 +33.23% 98
Midlands -48 12 £400 +14.29% 128
West Midlands -44 9 £450 +56.79% 78
East Midlands -6 3 £300 -25.00% 50
North East -41 2 - - 28
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 (3.23%) Palantir Foundry
2 5 (1.47%) Confluence
3 4 (1.17%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.59%) CMS
4 2 (0.59%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.29%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.29%) nginx
5 1 (0.29%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 4 (1.17%) 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 (1.17%) SystmOne
2 2 (0.59%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.59%) Lorenzo
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 56 (16.42%) AWS
2 49 (14.37%) Azure
3 27 (7.92%) Serverless
4 19 (5.57%) Amazon S3
5 18 (5.28%) AWS Lambda
6 15 (4.40%) GitHub
6 15 (4.40%) Power Platform
7 11 (3.23%) Amazon EC2
7 11 (3.23%) GitHub Actions
8 8 (2.35%) Microsoft 365
9 7 (2.05%) Azure Data Factory
9 7 (2.05%) Entra ID
10 6 (1.76%) AWS Step Functions
10 6 (1.76%) Azure DevOps
10 6 (1.76%) Azure Functions
10 6 (1.76%) Azure Key Vault
11 5 (1.47%) Adobe Analytics
11 5 (1.47%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 5 (1.47%) GCP
11 5 (1.47%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 8 (2.35%) Firewall
1 8 (2.35%) LAN
1 8 (2.35%) WAN
2 5 (1.47%) NGFW
3 4 (1.17%) DNS
3 4 (1.17%) Network Security
3 4 (1.17%) Structured Cabling
3 4 (1.17%) Wireless
4 2 (0.59%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.29%) DHCP
5 1 (0.29%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 37 (10.85%) Electronic Patient Records
2 14 (4.11%) Data Warehouse
3 13 (3.81%) SQL Server
4 12 (3.52%) Power BI
5 8 (2.35%) Amazon RDS
5 8 (2.35%) DynamoDB
6 6 (1.76%) Amazon Athena
7 4 (1.17%) 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
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%) Geospatial Data
9 2 (0.59%) NoSQL
9 2 (0.59%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 2 (0.59%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 11 (3.23%) Git
2 6 (1.76%) GitLab
3 5 (1.47%) JIRA
4 3 (0.88%) Jenkins
5 2 (0.59%) Cypress.io
6 1 (0.29%) JUnit
6 1 (0.29%) Postman
6 1 (0.29%) Selenium
6 1 (0.29%) SonarQube
General
1 141 (41.35%) Public Sector
2 107 (31.38%) Social Skills
3 30 (8.80%) Analytical Skills
4 21 (6.16%) Finance
5 15 (4.40%) Local Government
6 14 (4.11%) Digital Health
7 10 (2.93%) Influencing Skills
8 6 (1.76%) Digital Healthcare
8 6 (1.76%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (1.76%) Pharmaceutical
9 4 (1.17%) Health Technology
9 4 (1.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (1.17%) Law
9 4 (1.17%) Organisational Skills
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%) Military
11 2 (0.59%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 42 (12.32%) Developer
2 41 (12.02%) Senior
3 35 (10.26%) Architect
4 27 (7.92%) Analyst
5 23 (6.74%) Designer
6 22 (6.45%) Lead
7 21 (6.16%) Data Engineer
8 16 (4.69%) Business Analyst
8 16 (4.69%) Project Manager
8 16 (4.69%) User Researcher
9 12 (3.52%) Consultant
9 12 (3.52%) Delivery Manager
9 12 (3.52%) Solutions Architect
10 11 (3.23%) Data Architect
10 11 (3.23%) Service Designer
11 9 (2.64%) Python Developer
11 9 (2.64%) Senior User Researcher
12 8 (2.35%) Full-Stack Developer
13 7 (2.05%) Interaction Designer
13 7 (2.05%) NHS Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (7.62%) FHIR
2 13 (3.81%) REST
3 11 (3.23%) PySpark
4 10 (2.93%) RESTful
5 9 (2.64%) React
6 6 (1.76%) Node.js
6 6 (1.76%) Vue
7 5 (1.47%) .NET
7 5 (1.47%) CSS
7 5 (1.47%) HTML
7 5 (1.47%) OpenID
7 5 (1.47%) Playwright
8 4 (1.17%) ARM Templates
8 4 (1.17%) JSON
8 4 (1.17%) OAuth
8 4 (1.17%) OAuth2
9 3 (0.88%) Flask
9 3 (0.88%) Spring
9 3 (0.88%) Spring Boot
9 3 (0.88%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 26 (7.62%) Cloud Native
2 21 (6.16%) Product Ownership
3 17 (4.99%) Onboarding
4 7 (2.05%) Data Structures
5 6 (1.76%) IoT
5 6 (1.76%) Legacy Systems
6 5 (1.47%) Driving Licence
6 5 (1.47%) Management Information System
6 5 (1.47%) Security Posture
7 4 (1.17%) Data Protection Act
7 4 (1.17%) LIMS
7 4 (1.17%) Mobile App
7 4 (1.17%) Replication
8 3 (0.88%) Analytical Mindset
8 3 (0.88%) Distributed Systems
8 3 (0.88%) Life Science
9 2 (0.59%) Cloud Security Posture
9 2 (0.59%) Distributed Architecture
9 2 (0.59%) Housing Association
9 2 (0.59%) PACS
Operating Systems
1 7 (2.05%) Windows
2 5 (1.47%) 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
1 121 (35.48%) Agile
2 73 (21.41%) Stakeholder Management
3 54 (15.84%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 51 (14.96%) CI/CD
5 43 (12.61%) Analytics
5 43 (12.61%) Continuous Improvement
6 38 (11.14%) Problem-Solving
7 37 (10.85%) User Research
8 35 (10.26%) Decision-Making
8 35 (10.26%) DevOps
8 35 (10.26%) Infrastructure as Code
9 31 (9.09%) Digital Transformation Programme
9 31 (9.09%) Migration
9 31 (9.09%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
10 30 (8.80%) AI
11 27 (7.92%) Service Design
11 27 (7.92%) Validation
12 26 (7.62%) Workshop Facilitation
13 23 (6.74%) Data Protection
14 22 (6.45%) Information Governance
Programming Languages
1 37 (10.85%) Python
1 37 (10.85%) SQL
2 16 (4.69%) JavaScript
3 15 (4.40%) TypeScript
4 9 (2.64%) Java
5 8 (2.35%) C#
6 5 (1.47%) Bicep
6 5 (1.47%) PowerShell
6 5 (1.47%) T-SQL
7 2 (0.59%) Bash
8 1 (0.29%) Kusto Query Language
8 1 (0.29%) R
Qualifications
1 34 (9.97%) Security Cleared
2 28 (8.21%) SC Cleared
3 23 (6.74%) BPSS Clearance
4 11 (3.23%) Degree
5 5 (1.47%) AWS Certification
6 4 (1.17%) JNCIP
6 4 (1.17%) JNCIS
6 4 (1.17%) 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%) DBS Check
9 1 (0.29%) IIBA
9 1 (0.29%) NVQ Level 3
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (7.92%) HL7
2 25 (7.33%) Accessibility
3 24 (7.04%) Data Quality
4 21 (6.16%) QA
5 17 (4.99%) GDPR
6 15 (4.40%) WCAG
7 11 (3.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 6 (1.76%) SNOMED CT
9 5 (1.47%) NCSC
9 5 (1.47%) PMO
10 4 (1.17%) Actionable Recommendations
10 4 (1.17%) DICOM
11 3 (0.88%) IEC 62304
12 2 (0.59%) Cyber Essentials
12 2 (0.59%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 2 (0.59%) ISO 13485
13 1 (0.29%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 1 (0.29%) NIST
13 1 (0.29%) PCI DSS
13 1 (0.29%) SLA
System Software
1 15 (4.40%) Docker
2 8 (2.35%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.59%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.29%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 33 (9.68%) Terraform
2 12 (3.52%) Kubernetes
3 2 (0.59%) Jamf Pro
3 2 (0.59%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (0.29%) Ansible
4 1 (0.29%) Grafana
4 1 (0.29%) Puppet
Vendors
1 37 (10.85%) Microsoft
2 18 (5.28%) Palantir
3 15 (4.40%) Foundry
4 11 (3.23%) Databricks
5 8 (2.35%) Brio
5 8 (2.35%) Oracle
5 8 (2.35%) ServiceNow
6 5 (1.47%) Adobe
6 5 (1.47%) VMware
7 4 (1.17%) Google
7 4 (1.17%) Juniper
7 4 (1.17%) Palo Alto
7 4 (1.17%) Splunk
8 3 (0.88%) Cerner
8 3 (0.88%) Cisco
8 3 (0.88%) InterSystems
9 2 (0.59%) Blue Prism
9 2 (0.59%) Citrix
9 2 (0.59%) MEDITECH
9 2 (0.59%) Meraki
825 NHS jobs in England