NHS Contract Job Trends in the South East

National Health Service (NHS)
England > South East

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term NHS in contract job vacancies in the South East. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited NHS over the 6 months leading up to 13 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 158 141 128
Rank change year-on-year -17 -13 +1
Contract jobs citing NHS 24 23 71
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 0.55% 0.69% 1.41%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.85% 2.14% 4.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 12 17 54
10th Percentile £162 £187 £186
25th Percentile £231 £195 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £388 £278 £205
Median % change year-on-year +39.64% +35.37% -
75th Percentile £423 £519 £225
90th Percentile £494 £543 £499
England median daily rate £425 £350 £275
% change year-on-year +21.43% +27.27% -3.51%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 10
10th Percentile - - £14.95
25th Percentile £18.50 - £19.69
Median hourly rate £19.00 - £30.50
75th Percentile £19.50 - £44.09
90th Percentile - - £51.50
England median hourly rate £16.00 £30.09 £20.00
% change year-on-year -46.83% +50.45% -

All Generic Skills
South East

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 the South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 1,297 1,077 1,551
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 29.86% 32.35% 30.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 863 619 960
10th Percentile £204 £237 £205
25th Percentile £363 £384 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £520 £497
Median % change year-on-year -6.73% +4.63% -4.42%
75th Percentile £598 £624 £600
90th Percentile £685 £675 £688
England median daily rate £513 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -6.82% - -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 69 44 101
10th Percentile £12.50 £20.07 £18.50
25th Percentile £15.75 £25.93 £25.25
Median hourly rate £22.50 £35.00 £51.06
Median % change year-on-year -35.71% -31.45% +36.15%
75th Percentile £63.75 £57.81 £62.50
90th Percentile £82.00 £69.98 £77.50
England median hourly rate £28.13 £37.00 £38.16
% change year-on-year -23.99% -3.03% +52.62%

NHS
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing NHS relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

NHS job vacancy trend in the South East

NHS
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing NHS.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing NHS

NHS
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing NHS in the South East over the 6 months to 13 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for NHS in the South East

NHS
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing NHS.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing NHS

NHS
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing NHS within the South East region over the 6 months to 13 January 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
West Sussex -1 10 £400 +6.67% 1
Thames Valley - 4 £317 - 13
Buckinghamshire - 3 - - 1
East Sussex - 3 £170 - 1
Hampshire -17 2 £250 - 1
Kent -9 1 £375 -26.83%
Berkshire - 1 £317 - 10
NHS
England

NHS
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 1 (4.17%) SharePoint
Applications
1 4 (16.67%) Spreadsheet
2 2 (8.33%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (8.33%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (8.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (4.17%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (4.17%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 2 (8.33%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 4 (16.67%) VPN
2 3 (12.50%) BGP
2 3 (12.50%) Firewall
2 3 (12.50%) Junos
2 3 (12.50%) OSPF
3 1 (4.17%) DNS
3 1 (4.17%) Ethernet VPN
3 1 (4.17%) LAN
3 1 (4.17%) Remote Desktop
3 1 (4.17%) WAN
3 1 (4.17%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (12.50%) Electronic Patient Records
General
1 11 (45.83%) Public Sector
2 8 (33.33%) Electronics
2 8 (33.33%) Finance
2 8 (33.33%) Manufacturing
2 8 (33.33%) Marketing
2 8 (33.33%) Social Skills
2 8 (33.33%) Telecoms
3 5 (20.83%) Documentation Skills
4 2 (8.33%) Analytical Skills
5 1 (4.17%) Local Government
5 1 (4.17%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 5 (20.83%) Juniper Engineer
1 5 (20.83%) Network Engineer
2 4 (16.67%) Analyst
2 4 (16.67%) Juniper Specialist
2 4 (16.67%) Network Specialist
3 3 (12.50%) Architect
3 3 (12.50%) Automation Analyst
3 3 (12.50%) Business Analyst
3 3 (12.50%) Facilities Manager
3 3 (12.50%) NHS Business Analyst
3 3 (12.50%) Process Analyst
3 3 (12.50%) Senior
3 3 (12.50%) Senior Manager
3 3 (12.50%) Solutions Architect
4 2 (8.33%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 2 (8.33%) Infrastructure Support
4 2 (8.33%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
4 2 (8.33%) NHS Project Manager
4 2 (8.33%) Project Manager
4 2 (8.33%) Support Engineer
Miscellaneous
1 4 (16.67%) Management Information System
2 3 (12.50%) LIMS
2 3 (12.50%) PACS
3 1 (4.17%) Data Centre
3 1 (4.17%) Legacy Systems
3 1 (4.17%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 2 (8.33%) Windows
2 1 (4.17%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 9 (37.50%) Programme Management
2 8 (33.33%) Business Intelligence
2 8 (33.33%) Digital Marketing
3 7 (29.17%) Problem-Solving
4 4 (16.67%) CAFM
4 4 (16.67%) Facilities Management
4 4 (16.67%) High Availability
4 4 (16.67%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 4 (16.67%) Supplier Management
5 3 (12.50%) Analytics
5 3 (12.50%) Business Case
5 3 (12.50%) Data Transformation
5 3 (12.50%) Knowledge Transfer
5 3 (12.50%) Network Monitoring
5 3 (12.50%) Network Segmentation
5 3 (12.50%) Robotic Process Automation
6 2 (8.33%) Cybersecurity
6 2 (8.33%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 2 (8.33%) Mentoring
6 2 (8.33%) Project Delivery
Qualifications
1 4 (16.67%) JNCIA
1 4 (16.67%) JNCIP
1 4 (16.67%) JNCIS
2 1 (4.17%) DBS Check
2 1 (4.17%) Degree
2 1 (4.17%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
2 1 (4.17%) NVQ Level 3
2 1 (4.17%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (4.17%) HL7
1 1 (4.17%) PMO
System Software
1 4 (16.67%) Active Directory
2 2 (8.33%) VMware Infrastructure
Vendors
1 8 (33.33%) SAP
2 5 (20.83%) Juniper
3 3 (12.50%) Cisco
3 3 (12.50%) Microsoft
4 2 (8.33%) VMware