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

6 months to
10 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 325 353 316
Rank change year-on-year +28 -37 -103
Contract jobs citing NHS 347 168 219
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.75% 0.60% 0.67%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.21% 1.68% 2.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 266 120 140
10th Percentile £243 £163 £175
25th Percentile £350 £294 £275
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £466 £450 £350
Median % change year-on-year +3.44% +28.57% +6.06%
75th Percentile £537 £538 £519
90th Percentile £610 £594 £609
UK median daily rate £450 £415 £350
% change year-on-year +8.43% +18.57% +7.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 3 15
10th Percentile £17.00 £23.05 £12.82
25th Percentile £17.20 £25.75 £15.71
Median hourly rate £26.72 £30.50 £18.27
Median % change year-on-year -12.39% +66.94% -13.00%
75th Percentile £33.60 £31.73 £22.64
90th Percentile £51.00 £32.32 £25.49
UK median hourly rate £26.72 £30.25 £20.59
% change year-on-year -11.67% +46.92% +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 15,667 10,012 10,073
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 33.83% 36.02% 30.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,510 6,310 6,280
10th Percentile £325 £300 £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 £515 £550
% change year-on-year +1.94% -6.36% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,020 495 439
10th Percentile £14.24 £15.50 £14.34
25th Percentile £18.19 £18.87 £22.45
Median hourly rate £37.50 £33.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +13.64% -42.46% +25.00%
75th Percentile £68.94 £60.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £83.06 £76.50 £75.16
UK median hourly rate £37.50 £30.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year +25.00% -36.84% +8.35%

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 10 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 10 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 10 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 +2 146 £488 +14.71% 235
North of England -17 114 £475 -1.30% 204
Yorkshire +4 86 £488 -2.50% 89
North West -44 26 £350 +7.69% 105
East of England -11 24 £191 -15.87% 58
South East -63 17 £450 +38.46% 116
Midlands -45 16 £400 +14.29% 140
West Midlands -35 13 £450 +56.79% 91
South West -33 12 £570 +80.38% 86
East Midlands -16 3 £300 -25.00% 49
North East -45 2 - - 16
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 (3.17%) Palantir Foundry
2 3 (0.86%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.58%) CMS
3 2 (0.58%) Confluence
4 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.29%) nginx
4 1 (0.29%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 6 (1.73%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.15%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.86%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.29%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 4 (1.15%) SystmOne
2 2 (0.58%) Cerner Millennium
2 2 (0.58%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.58%) 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 61 (17.58%) AWS
2 48 (13.83%) Azure
3 28 (8.07%) Serverless
4 21 (6.05%) Amazon S3
5 20 (5.76%) Power Platform
6 19 (5.48%) AWS Lambda
7 13 (3.75%) GitHub
8 12 (3.46%) Amazon EC2
8 12 (3.46%) Microsoft 365
9 10 (2.88%) GitHub Actions
10 7 (2.02%) Azure DevOps
10 7 (2.02%) Entra ID
11 6 (1.73%) Azure Data Factory
11 6 (1.73%) Azure Functions
11 6 (1.73%) Azure Key Vault
11 6 (1.73%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 5 (1.44%) Adobe Analytics
12 5 (1.44%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 5 (1.44%) AWS Step Functions
12 5 (1.44%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 7 (2.02%) Firewall
1 7 (2.02%) LAN
1 7 (2.02%) WAN
2 5 (1.44%) Network Security
3 4 (1.15%) NGFW
3 4 (1.15%) Structured Cabling
3 4 (1.15%) Wireless
4 3 (0.86%) 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 29 (8.36%) Electronic Patient Records
2 18 (5.19%) Data Warehouse
3 17 (4.90%) Power BI
4 11 (3.17%) SQL Server
5 10 (2.88%) Amazon RDS
6 8 (2.31%) DynamoDB
7 6 (1.73%) Amazon Athena
8 4 (1.15%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 3 (0.86%) BusinessObjects
9 3 (0.86%) Data Lake
9 3 (0.86%) OLAP
9 3 (0.86%) Relational Database
9 3 (0.86%) Tableau
10 2 (0.58%) Amazon Redshift
10 2 (0.58%) Azure SQL Database
10 2 (0.58%) Delta Lake
10 2 (0.58%) DocumentDB
10 2 (0.58%) NoSQL
10 2 (0.58%) Oracle BI Publisher
10 2 (0.58%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 10 (2.88%) Git
2 5 (1.44%) GitLab
3 4 (1.15%) JIRA
4 3 (0.86%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.29%) Cypress.io
5 1 (0.29%) Postman
5 1 (0.29%) Rational Rhapsody
5 1 (0.29%) Selenium
5 1 (0.29%) SonarQube
General
1 136 (39.19%) Public Sector
2 123 (35.45%) Social Skills
3 32 (9.22%) Analytical Skills
4 22 (6.34%) Finance
5 14 (4.03%) Local Government
6 13 (3.75%) Digital Health
7 11 (3.17%) Influencing Skills
8 8 (2.31%) Digital Healthcare
8 8 (2.31%) Pharmaceutical
9 6 (1.73%) Organisational Skills
10 5 (1.44%) Documentation Skills
11 4 (1.15%) Law
11 4 (1.15%) Legal
12 3 (0.86%) Billing
12 3 (0.86%) Health Technology
12 3 (0.86%) Marketing
12 3 (0.86%) Presentation Skills
12 3 (0.86%) Social Housing
13 2 (0.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 2 (0.58%) Military
Job Titles
1 46 (13.26%) Developer
2 39 (11.24%) Senior
3 35 (10.09%) Analyst
4 33 (9.51%) Architect
5 22 (6.34%) Designer
6 20 (5.76%) Data Engineer
6 20 (5.76%) Lead
7 16 (4.61%) Project Manager
8 15 (4.32%) Business Analyst
9 12 (3.46%) Data Architect
10 11 (3.17%) Consultant
10 11 (3.17%) Delivery Manager
10 11 (3.17%) Service Designer
11 9 (2.59%) Python Developer
11 9 (2.59%) Solutions Architect
11 9 (2.59%) User Researcher
12 8 (2.31%) Administrator
12 8 (2.31%) Data Warehouse Developer
12 8 (2.31%) Full-Stack Developer
12 8 (2.31%) Performance Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (9.80%) Terraform
2 25 (7.20%) FHIR
3 14 (4.03%) REST
4 11 (3.17%) PySpark
4 11 (3.17%) RESTful
5 9 (2.59%) React
6 7 (2.02%) Node.js
7 6 (1.73%) Vue
8 5 (1.44%) .NET
8 5 (1.44%) CSS
8 5 (1.44%) HTML
8 5 (1.44%) JSON
8 5 (1.44%) OpenID
8 5 (1.44%) Playwright
9 4 (1.15%) ARM Templates
9 4 (1.15%) Django
9 4 (1.15%) OAuth
9 4 (1.15%) OAuth2
10 3 (0.86%) Flask
10 3 (0.86%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 25 (7.20%) Cloud Native
2 19 (5.48%) Product Ownership
3 16 (4.61%) Onboarding
4 10 (2.88%) Data Structures
4 10 (2.88%) Management Information System
5 8 (2.31%) Legacy Systems
6 6 (1.73%) Driving Licence
6 6 (1.73%) IoT
6 6 (1.73%) Security Posture
7 5 (1.44%) Data Protection Act
8 4 (1.15%) LIMS
8 4 (1.15%) Mobile App
8 4 (1.15%) Replication
9 3 (0.86%) Cloud Security Posture
9 3 (0.86%) Distributed Systems
10 2 (0.58%) Analytical Mindset
10 2 (0.58%) Distributed Architecture
10 2 (0.58%) Enterprise Software
10 2 (0.58%) Greenfield Project
10 2 (0.58%) Housing Association
Operating Systems
1 9 (2.59%) Windows
2 4 (1.15%) Windows 10
2 4 (1.15%) 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
1 117 (33.72%) Agile
2 80 (23.05%) Stakeholder Management
3 55 (15.85%) CI/CD
4 54 (15.56%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 47 (13.54%) Problem-Solving
6 46 (13.26%) Continuous Improvement
7 42 (12.10%) Analytics
8 41 (11.82%) Decision-Making
9 38 (10.95%) Infrastructure as Code
10 36 (10.37%) DevOps
11 34 (9.80%) AI
12 32 (9.22%) Digital Transformation Programme
13 30 (8.65%) Validation
14 29 (8.36%) Migration
14 29 (8.36%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
15 28 (8.07%) Information Governance
16 27 (7.78%) Data Protection
17 26 (7.49%) Workshop Facilitation
18 25 (7.20%) Business Intelligence
18 25 (7.20%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 39 (11.24%) SQL
2 37 (10.66%) Python
3 15 (4.32%) JavaScript
3 15 (4.32%) TypeScript
4 8 (2.31%) Java
5 7 (2.02%) C#
6 5 (1.44%) Bicep
6 5 (1.44%) PowerShell
7 4 (1.15%) T-SQL
8 2 (0.58%) Bash
8 2 (0.58%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 1 (0.29%) Kusto Query Language
9 1 (0.29%) R
Qualifications
1 32 (9.22%) Security Cleared
2 25 (7.20%) SC Cleared
3 17 (4.90%) BPSS Clearance
4 9 (2.59%) Degree
5 5 (1.44%) AWS Certification
6 4 (1.15%) JNCIP
6 4 (1.15%) JNCIS
6 4 (1.15%) Microsoft Certification
7 3 (0.86%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 3 (0.86%) Azure Certification
8 2 (0.58%) Cisco Certification
8 2 (0.58%) DV Cleared
8 2 (0.58%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 1 (0.29%) (ISC)2 CCSP
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%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (7.20%) HL7
2 23 (6.63%) Accessibility
2 23 (6.63%) Data Quality
2 23 (6.63%) GDPR
3 21 (6.05%) QA
4 16 (4.61%) WCAG
5 11 (3.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 5 (1.44%) SNOMED CT
7 4 (1.15%) DICOM
7 4 (1.15%) NCSC
7 4 (1.15%) PMO
8 3 (0.86%) Actionable Recommendations
8 3 (0.86%) IEC 62304
9 2 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials
9 2 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 2 (0.58%) 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 (4.03%) Docker
2 8 (2.31%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.58%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.29%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 12 (3.46%) Kubernetes
2 2 (0.58%) Jamf Pro
3 1 (0.29%) Ansible
3 1 (0.29%) Grafana
3 1 (0.29%) Puppet
Vendors
1 43 (12.39%) Microsoft
2 17 (4.90%) Palantir
3 15 (4.32%) Foundry
4 11 (3.17%) Databricks
4 11 (3.17%) ServiceNow
5 9 (2.59%) Cerner
5 9 (2.59%) Oracle
6 8 (2.31%) Brio
7 5 (1.44%) Adobe
7 5 (1.44%) VMware
8 4 (1.15%) Google
8 4 (1.15%) Juniper
8 4 (1.15%) Palo Alto
8 4 (1.15%) Splunk
9 3 (0.86%) Cisco
9 3 (0.86%) Citrix
9 3 (0.86%) InterSystems
10 2 (0.58%) BMC
10 2 (0.58%) MEDITECH
10 2 (0.58%) Zscaler