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 23 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 282 318 236
Rank change year-on-year +36 -82 -36
Contract jobs citing NHS 353 164 364
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.85% 0.69% 1.00%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.65% 2.01% 3.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 279 119 230
10th Percentile £243 £195 £174
25th Percentile £338 £250 £205
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £425 £313
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% +35.78% +4.33%
75th Percentile £525 £500 £475
90th Percentile £605 £575 £576
UK median daily rate £450 £415 £315
% change year-on-year +8.43% +31.75% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 11 68
10th Percentile £15.79 £13.08 £11.23
25th Percentile £16.09 £14.15 £12.25
Median hourly rate £22.50 £17.16 £14.83
Median % change year-on-year +31.16% +15.70% -29.41%
75th Percentile £28.62 £22.23 £24.08
90th Percentile £42.24 £34.15 £43.00
UK median hourly rate £22.50 £17.64 £13.24
% change year-on-year +27.53% +33.25% -36.95%

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 13,321 8,155 11,191
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 32.07% 34.22% 30.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,400 5,334 7,332
10th Percentile £313 £300 £270
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £535 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.18% -2.73% -3.51%
75th Percentile £630 £669 £675
90th Percentile £750 £788 £800
UK median daily rate £513 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -2.38% -2.42% -2.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 684 324 821
10th Percentile £16.01 £16.28 £12.25
25th Percentile £21.00 £20.59 £15.17
Median hourly rate £43.60 £33.91 £34.21
Median % change year-on-year +28.58% -0.88% +52.15%
75th Percentile £70.00 £63.75 £61.30
90th Percentile £85.40 £82.43 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £40.96 £31.76 £32.12
% change year-on-year +28.97% -1.11% +44.92%

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 23 May 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 23 May 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 23 May 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 -1 129 £457 +1.44% 88
North of England -18 108 £475 +1.60% 96
Yorkshire -11 83 £500 - 59
East of England +14 46 £278 -0.89% 16
North West -26 25 £375 +74.42% 34
South East -79 22 £450 +62.90% 54
Midlands -66 17 £470 +34.48% 50
West Midlands -59 16 £470 +34.48% 34
South West -24 11 £575 +40.24% 31
East Midlands - 1 - - 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 12 (3.40%) SharePoint
2 6 (1.70%) Palantir Foundry
3 5 (1.42%) Confluence
4 4 (1.13%) CMS
5 2 (0.57%) Microsoft Exchange
6 1 (0.28%) Apache Airflow
Applications
1 10 (2.83%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (2.27%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.13%) Spreadsheet
4 3 (0.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.57%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.57%) Trello
6 1 (0.28%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 12 (3.40%) SystmOne
2 2 (0.57%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.57%) Lorenzo
2 2 (0.57%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.28%) Cerner Millennium
3 1 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 49 (13.88%) AWS
2 42 (11.90%) Azure
3 22 (6.23%) Serverless
4 17 (4.82%) AWS Lambda
5 14 (3.97%) Amazon S3
6 13 (3.68%) GitHub
6 13 (3.68%) Power Platform
7 10 (2.83%) Amazon EC2
7 10 (2.83%) Microsoft 365
8 9 (2.55%) Azure DevOps
8 9 (2.55%) GCP
9 7 (1.98%) GitHub Actions
10 6 (1.70%) Amazon SQS
11 5 (1.42%) AWS Step Functions
12 4 (1.13%) Amazon ECR
12 4 (1.13%) Amazon ECS
12 4 (1.13%) Amazon EKS
12 4 (1.13%) Azure Data Factory
12 4 (1.13%) Azure Functions
13 3 (0.85%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 7 (1.98%) DNS
2 6 (1.70%) LAN
2 6 (1.70%) TCP/IP
2 6 (1.70%) WAN
3 4 (1.13%) Firewall
4 3 (0.85%) Network Security
5 1 (0.28%) BGP
5 1 (0.28%) DHCP
5 1 (0.28%) Ethernet VPN
5 1 (0.28%) Junos
5 1 (0.28%) NGFW
5 1 (0.28%) OSPF
5 1 (0.28%) VPN
5 1 (0.28%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 49 (13.88%) Electronic Patient Records
2 20 (5.67%) Data Warehouse
3 17 (4.82%) SQL Server
4 11 (3.12%) Power BI
5 8 (2.27%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 7 (1.98%) Amazon RDS
7 6 (1.70%) DynamoDB
8 5 (1.42%) BusinessObjects
9 4 (1.13%) Amazon Athena
9 4 (1.13%) DocumentDB
9 4 (1.13%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 3 (0.85%) Geospatial Data
10 3 (0.85%) OLAP
10 3 (0.85%) Tableau
11 2 (0.57%) NoSQL
11 2 (0.57%) PostgreSQL
11 2 (0.57%) QlikView
11 2 (0.57%) SQL Server Analysis Services
12 1 (0.28%) Crystal Reports
12 1 (0.28%) EDRMS
Development Applications
1 11 (3.12%) GitLab
2 6 (1.70%) Git
3 5 (1.42%) Jenkins
3 5 (1.42%) JIRA
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
4 1 (0.28%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 129 (36.54%) Public Sector
2 102 (28.90%) Social Skills
3 36 (10.20%) Analytical Skills
4 20 (5.67%) Digital Health
5 19 (5.38%) Organisational Skills
6 18 (5.10%) Finance
7 14 (3.97%) Documentation Skills
8 11 (3.12%) Local Government
9 9 (2.55%) Legal
10 8 (2.27%) Influencing Skills
11 7 (1.98%) Telecoms
12 6 (1.70%) Health Technology
12 6 (1.70%) Marketing
13 5 (1.42%) Digital Healthcare
13 5 (1.42%) Electronics
13 5 (1.42%) Manufacturing
14 4 (1.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 4 (1.13%) Law
14 4 (1.13%) Publishing
15 3 (0.85%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 44 (12.46%) Analyst
2 39 (11.05%) Developer
3 35 (9.92%) Senior
4 33 (9.35%) Architect
5 28 (7.93%) Lead
6 24 (6.80%) Business Analyst
7 21 (5.95%) Designer
8 18 (5.10%) Project Manager
9 17 (4.82%) Consultant
10 15 (4.25%) User Researcher
11 13 (3.68%) Data Engineer
12 12 (3.40%) NHS Business Analyst
13 11 (3.12%) Data Architect
14 10 (2.83%) Administrator
14 10 (2.83%) Solutions Architect
15 9 (2.55%) Delivery Manager
15 9 (2.55%) Senior User Researcher
15 9 (2.55%) Service Designer
16 8 (2.27%) Data Analyst
16 8 (2.27%) NHS Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (9.35%) FHIR
2 11 (3.12%) .NET
2 11 (3.12%) React
3 9 (2.55%) RESTful
4 8 (2.27%) Node.js
5 6 (1.70%) Spring
5 6 (1.70%) Spring Boot
6 4 (1.13%) Kafka
6 4 (1.13%) Middleware
6 4 (1.13%) Playwright
6 4 (1.13%) REST
6 4 (1.13%) Vue
7 3 (0.85%) AngularJS
7 3 (0.85%) GeoJSON
7 3 (0.85%) JSON
8 2 (0.57%) ASP.NET
8 2 (0.57%) HTML
8 2 (0.57%) scikit-learn
8 2 (0.57%) XML
8 2 (0.57%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 16 (4.53%) Cloud Native
2 15 (4.25%) Product Ownership
3 14 (3.97%) Onboarding
4 9 (2.55%) Management Information System
5 8 (2.27%) Data Structures
5 8 (2.27%) LIMS
6 5 (1.42%) Analytical Mindset
6 5 (1.42%) Legacy Systems
6 5 (1.42%) PACS
7 4 (1.13%) Data Protection Act
7 4 (1.13%) Distributed Systems
7 4 (1.13%) Replication
7 4 (1.13%) Security Posture
8 3 (0.85%) Life Science
9 2 (0.57%) Cyber Threat
9 2 (0.57%) Cybercrime
9 2 (0.57%) Distributed Architecture
9 2 (0.57%) Freedom of Information
10 1 (0.28%) Greenfield Project
10 1 (0.28%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 16 (4.53%) Windows
2 8 (2.27%) Windows Server
3 5 (1.42%) Linux
4 3 (0.85%) Android
5 2 (0.57%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.28%) CentOS
6 1 (0.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.28%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 87 (24.65%) Agile
2 46 (13.03%) Stakeholder Management
3 41 (11.61%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 38 (10.76%) CI/CD
5 35 (9.92%) Analytics
5 35 (9.92%) Information Governance
6 34 (9.63%) DevOps
6 34 (9.63%) User Research
7 31 (8.78%) Decision-Making
8 28 (7.93%) Problem-Solving
9 26 (7.37%) Business Intelligence
9 26 (7.37%) Data Protection
9 26 (7.37%) Migration
10 25 (7.08%) Continuous Improvement
10 25 (7.08%) Service Design
11 24 (6.80%) Infrastructure as Code
12 23 (6.52%) Data Governance
12 23 (6.52%) Roadmaps
13 21 (5.95%) Digital Transformation Programme
13 21 (5.95%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 38 (10.76%) SQL
2 22 (6.23%) Python
3 14 (3.97%) TypeScript
4 13 (3.68%) Java
5 9 (2.55%) JavaScript
6 7 (1.98%) C#
7 6 (1.70%) T-SQL
8 2 (0.57%) PowerShell
9 1 (0.28%) Bicep
9 1 (0.28%) PHP
9 1 (0.28%) PL/SQL
9 1 (0.28%) R
Qualifications
1 20 (5.67%) Security Cleared
2 16 (4.53%) BPSS Clearance
2 16 (4.53%) Degree
2 16 (4.53%) SC Cleared
3 3 (0.85%) AWS Certification
4 2 (0.57%) DBS Check
4 2 (0.57%) DV Cleared
4 2 (0.57%) JNCIA
4 2 (0.57%) JNCIP
4 2 (0.57%) JNCIS
4 2 (0.57%) Microsoft Certification
4 2 (0.57%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
4 2 (0.57%) TOGAF Certification
5 1 (0.28%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
5 1 (0.28%) ISEB
5 1 (0.28%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
5 1 (0.28%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
5 1 (0.28%) Master's Degree
5 1 (0.28%) PMI Certification
5 1 (0.28%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (9.63%) HL7
2 20 (5.67%) Accessibility
3 16 (4.53%) Data Quality
4 14 (3.97%) GDPR
5 10 (2.83%) QA
5 10 (2.83%) WCAG
6 7 (1.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 6 (1.70%) NCSC
7 6 (1.70%) PMO
8 5 (1.42%) DICOM
9 4 (1.13%) Cyber Essentials
10 3 (0.85%) Actionable Recommendations
10 3 (0.85%) NIST
10 3 (0.85%) SNOMED CT
11 1 (0.28%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 1 (0.28%) GRC
11 1 (0.28%) IEC 62304
11 1 (0.28%) PCI DSS
11 1 (0.28%) SLA
11 1 (0.28%) SOC 2
System Software
1 16 (4.53%) Docker
2 8 (2.27%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.57%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.28%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.28%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 21 (5.95%) Terraform
2 16 (4.53%) Kubernetes
3 9 (2.55%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (0.57%) Nessus
5 1 (0.28%) Ansible
5 1 (0.28%) Argo
5 1 (0.28%) Grafana
5 1 (0.28%) Puppet
Vendors
1 34 (9.63%) Microsoft
2 12 (3.40%) Oracle
3 10 (2.83%) Foundry
4 9 (2.55%) Brio
4 9 (2.55%) Palantir
5 7 (1.98%) Cerner
6 5 (1.42%) SAP
7 4 (1.13%) Databricks
7 4 (1.13%) Splunk
8 3 (0.85%) Google
8 3 (0.85%) InterSystems
8 3 (0.85%) Tenable
9 2 (0.57%) Adobe
9 2 (0.57%) Juniper
9 2 (0.57%) OneLogin
9 2 (0.57%) Rapid7
9 2 (0.57%) VMware
10 1 (0.28%) accuRx
10 1 (0.28%) BiZZdesign
10 1 (0.28%) Datix