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 17 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 284 324 243
Rank change year-on-year +40 -81 -48
Contract jobs citing NHS 359 157 365
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.84% 0.63% 0.97%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.57% 1.83% 3.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 283 113 233
10th Percentile £234 £200 £168
25th Percentile £344 £263 £205
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £451 £450 £315
Median % change year-on-year +0.11% +42.86% +5.00%
75th Percentile £524 £500 £488
90th Percentile £600 £575 £588
UK median daily rate £450 £420 £315
% change year-on-year +7.14% +33.33% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 11 67
10th Percentile £15.79 £13.08 £11.22
25th Percentile £17.15 £14.15 £12.25
Median hourly rate £22.50 £17.16 £14.49
Median % change year-on-year +31.16% +18.43% -31.02%
75th Percentile £31.34 £22.23 £22.28
90th Percentile £46.50 £34.15 £38.35
UK median hourly rate £22.50 £17.64 £13.06
% change year-on-year +27.53% +35.09% -34.70%

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 13,976 8,556 11,353
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 32.56% 34.58% 30.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,715 5,503 7,300
10th Percentile £315 £300 £275
25th Percentile £415 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -2.31%
75th Percentile £638 £663 £675
90th Percentile £750 £788 £800
UK median daily rate £519 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -1.24% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 763 385 853
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.84 £12.24
25th Percentile £21.14 £20.64 £15.39
Median hourly rate £43.96 £33.91 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +29.64% -7.10% +62.33%
75th Percentile £70.00 £63.75 £63.75
90th Percentile £86.20 £82.50 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £42.40 £33.03 £35.50
% change year-on-year +28.39% -6.97% +57.88%

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 17 June 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 17 June 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 17 June 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 +2 128 £475 +5.56% 98
North of England -2 113 £475 - 117
Yorkshire -2 86 £500 +2.04% 57
East of England - 45 £246 - 27
North West -22 27 £375 +74.42% 52
South East -62 24 £450 +62.16% 73
Midlands -55 16 £470 +50.64% 44
West Midlands -52 15 £470 +109.82% 22
South West -15 13 £546 +33.23% 32
East Midlands -20 1 - - 22
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 12 (3.34%) SharePoint
2 8 (2.23%) Palantir Foundry
3 5 (1.39%) Confluence
4 4 (1.11%) CMS
5 2 (0.56%) Microsoft Exchange
6 1 (0.28%) Apache Airflow
Applications
1 9 (2.51%) Microsoft Excel
1 9 (2.51%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.11%) Spreadsheet
3 2 (0.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.56%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.56%) Trello
4 1 (0.28%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 13 (3.62%) SystmOne
2 2 (0.56%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.56%) Lorenzo
2 2 (0.56%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.28%) Cerner Millennium
3 1 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 47 (13.09%) AWS
2 37 (10.31%) Azure
3 21 (5.85%) Serverless
4 17 (4.74%) AWS Lambda
5 14 (3.90%) Amazon S3
5 14 (3.90%) Power Platform
6 12 (3.34%) Microsoft 365
7 10 (2.79%) Amazon EC2
8 9 (2.51%) GitHub
9 7 (1.95%) GCP
10 6 (1.67%) Amazon SQS
10 6 (1.67%) GitHub Actions
11 5 (1.39%) AWS Step Functions
11 5 (1.39%) Azure Data Factory
12 4 (1.11%) Adobe Analytics
12 4 (1.11%) Amazon ECR
12 4 (1.11%) Azure DevOps
12 4 (1.11%) Miro
12 4 (1.11%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 3 (0.84%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 7 (1.95%) DNS
1 7 (1.95%) LAN
1 7 (1.95%) WAN
2 6 (1.67%) TCP/IP
3 3 (0.84%) Firewall
3 3 (0.84%) Network Security
4 1 (0.28%) DHCP
4 1 (0.28%) NGFW
4 1 (0.28%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 52 (14.48%) Electronic Patient Records
2 17 (4.74%) Data Warehouse
3 15 (4.18%) SQL Server
4 13 (3.62%) Power BI
5 7 (1.95%) Amazon RDS
6 6 (1.67%) DynamoDB
6 6 (1.67%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 5 (1.39%) Amazon Athena
8 4 (1.11%) DocumentDB
8 4 (1.11%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 3 (0.84%) BusinessObjects
9 3 (0.84%) Data Lake
9 3 (0.84%) Geospatial Data
9 3 (0.84%) OLAP
10 2 (0.56%) NoSQL
10 2 (0.56%) QlikView
10 2 (0.56%) Relational Database
10 2 (0.56%) SQL Server Analysis Services
10 2 (0.56%) Tableau
11 1 (0.28%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 9 (2.51%) GitLab
2 5 (1.39%) Git
2 5 (1.39%) JIRA
3 3 (0.84%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.28%) Android Studio
4 1 (0.28%) Appium
4 1 (0.28%) Cypress.io
4 1 (0.28%) JUnit
4 1 (0.28%) Postman
4 1 (0.28%) Selenium
4 1 (0.28%) SonarQube
General
1 136 (37.88%) Public Sector
2 108 (30.08%) Social Skills
3 34 (9.47%) Analytical Skills
4 21 (5.85%) Digital Health
5 19 (5.29%) Organisational Skills
6 16 (4.46%) Finance
7 12 (3.34%) Documentation Skills
8 11 (3.06%) Local Government
9 8 (2.23%) Influencing Skills
9 8 (2.23%) Legal
10 7 (1.95%) Telecoms
11 6 (1.67%) Marketing
12 5 (1.39%) Health Technology
12 5 (1.39%) Law
12 5 (1.39%) Pharmaceutical
13 4 (1.11%) Electronics
13 4 (1.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 4 (1.11%) Manufacturing
13 4 (1.11%) Publishing
14 3 (0.84%) Digital Healthcare
Job Titles
1 46 (12.81%) Analyst
2 35 (9.75%) Architect
3 32 (8.91%) Developer
3 32 (8.91%) Senior
4 28 (7.80%) Lead
5 24 (6.69%) Business Analyst
6 20 (5.57%) Designer
6 20 (5.57%) Project Manager
7 16 (4.46%) Data Engineer
8 15 (4.18%) Consultant
9 14 (3.90%) User Researcher
10 12 (3.34%) Data Architect
11 11 (3.06%) NHS Business Analyst
12 10 (2.79%) Administrator
12 10 (2.79%) Delivery Manager
12 10 (2.79%) NHS Project Manager
12 10 (2.79%) Solutions Architect
13 9 (2.51%) Senior User Researcher
14 8 (2.23%) Data Analyst
14 8 (2.23%) Service Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (7.24%) FHIR
2 9 (2.51%) React
3 8 (2.23%) Node.js
4 6 (1.67%) .NET
4 6 (1.67%) PySpark
4 6 (1.67%) RESTful
5 5 (1.39%) REST
6 4 (1.11%) Middleware
7 3 (0.84%) GeoJSON
7 3 (0.84%) JSON
7 3 (0.84%) Playwright
7 3 (0.84%) Spring
7 3 (0.84%) Spring Boot
8 2 (0.56%) .NET Core
8 2 (0.56%) ASP.NET Core
8 2 (0.56%) Next.js
8 2 (0.56%) Pandas
8 2 (0.56%) Polars
8 2 (0.56%) scikit-learn
8 2 (0.56%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 17 (4.74%) Cloud Native
2 15 (4.18%) Onboarding
2 15 (4.18%) Product Ownership
3 7 (1.95%) Data Structures
3 7 (1.95%) LIMS
4 5 (1.39%) Analytical Mindset
4 5 (1.39%) Legacy Systems
4 5 (1.39%) Management Information System
5 4 (1.11%) Data Protection Act
5 4 (1.11%) PACS
5 4 (1.11%) Replication
5 4 (1.11%) Security Posture
6 3 (0.84%) Distributed Systems
6 3 (0.84%) Life Science
7 2 (0.56%) Cyber Threat
7 2 (0.56%) Cybercrime
7 2 (0.56%) Distributed Architecture
7 2 (0.56%) Freedom of Information
8 1 (0.28%) Algorithms
8 1 (0.28%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 15 (4.18%) Windows
2 8 (2.23%) Windows Server
3 3 (0.84%) Android
3 3 (0.84%) Linux
4 2 (0.56%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.28%) CentOS
5 1 (0.28%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.28%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 95 (26.46%) Agile
2 59 (16.43%) Stakeholder Management
3 45 (12.53%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 37 (10.31%) Decision-Making
5 36 (10.03%) Analytics
6 35 (9.75%) CI/CD
7 33 (9.19%) Information Governance
8 32 (8.91%) User Research
9 31 (8.64%) Continuous Improvement
10 27 (7.52%) Business Intelligence
10 27 (7.52%) DevOps
10 27 (7.52%) Migration
11 26 (7.24%) Problem-Solving
12 24 (6.69%) Data Protection
12 24 (6.69%) Service Design
13 23 (6.41%) Digital Transformation Programme
13 23 (6.41%) Infrastructure as Code
13 23 (6.41%) Roadmaps
14 22 (6.13%) Risk Management
14 22 (6.13%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 37 (10.31%) SQL
2 25 (6.96%) Python
3 14 (3.90%) TypeScript
4 10 (2.79%) JavaScript
5 9 (2.51%) Java
6 6 (1.67%) C#
6 6 (1.67%) T-SQL
7 2 (0.56%) PowerShell
8 1 (0.28%) Bicep
8 1 (0.28%) R
Qualifications
1 23 (6.41%) Security Cleared
2 19 (5.29%) SC Cleared
3 17 (4.74%) BPSS Clearance
3 17 (4.74%) Degree
4 3 (0.84%) AWS Certification
5 2 (0.56%) DBS Check
5 2 (0.56%) DV Cleared
5 2 (0.56%) Microsoft Certification
5 2 (0.56%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
5 2 (0.56%) TOGAF Certification
6 1 (0.28%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
6 1 (0.28%) CCNA
6 1 (0.28%) Cisco Certification
6 1 (0.28%) ISEB
6 1 (0.28%) JNCIA
6 1 (0.28%) JNCIS
6 1 (0.28%) Master's Degree
6 1 (0.28%) PMI Certification
6 1 (0.28%) PMP
6 1 (0.28%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (8.08%) HL7
2 21 (5.85%) Accessibility
3 20 (5.57%) Data Quality
4 15 (4.18%) GDPR
5 13 (3.62%) QA
6 10 (2.79%) WCAG
7 7 (1.95%) PMO
8 6 (1.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 5 (1.39%) DICOM
9 5 (1.39%) NCSC
10 4 (1.11%) Cyber Essentials
11 3 (0.84%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.84%) SNOMED CT
12 2 (0.56%) NIST
13 1 (0.28%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 1 (0.28%) GRC
13 1 (0.28%) IEC 62304
13 1 (0.28%) PCI DSS
13 1 (0.28%) SOC 2
System Software
1 11 (3.06%) Docker
2 8 (2.23%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.56%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.28%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.28%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 22 (6.13%) Terraform
2 12 (3.34%) Kubernetes
3 8 (2.23%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (0.56%) Nessus
5 1 (0.28%) Ansible
5 1 (0.28%) Argo
5 1 (0.28%) Jamf Pro
5 1 (0.28%) Puppet
Vendors
1 36 (10.03%) Microsoft
2 14 (3.90%) Palantir
3 12 (3.34%) Foundry
4 9 (2.51%) Brio
4 9 (2.51%) Oracle
5 7 (1.95%) Databricks
6 6 (1.67%) Cerner
7 5 (1.39%) SAP
8 4 (1.11%) Adobe
8 4 (1.11%) Google
8 4 (1.11%) Splunk
9 3 (0.84%) InterSystems
9 3 (0.84%) Tenable
10 2 (0.56%) Informatica
10 2 (0.56%) OneLogin
10 2 (0.56%) Rapid7
10 2 (0.56%) ServiceNow
10 2 (0.56%) VMware
11 1 (0.28%) Meraki
11 1 (0.28%) Talend