NHS Contracts

National Health Service (NHS)
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term NHS in contract job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited NHS over the 6 months leading up to 25 June 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Jun 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 342 243 205
Rank change year-on-year -99 -38 -36
Contract jobs citing NHS 189 424 717
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.63% 0.97% 1.29%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.81% 3.24% 3.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 135 278 543
10th Percentile £206 £163 £159
25th Percentile £266 £205 £205
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £325 £300
Median % change year-on-year +30.77% +8.33% -11.11%
75th Percentile £500 £500 £475
90th Percentile £583 £588 £575
UK excluding London median daily rate £360 £350 £260
% change year-on-year +2.86% +34.62% -9.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 72 31
10th Percentile £13.08 £11.25 £12.25
25th Percentile £14.87 £12.25 £16.85
Median hourly rate £21.25 £12.96 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year +63.97% -35.20% -6.98%
75th Percentile £30.38 £19.22 £26.00
90th Percentile £34.15 £26.21 £40.49
UK excluding London median hourly rate £17.16 £12.86 £20.00
% change year-on-year +33.40% -35.70% -

All Generic Skills
UK

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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 10,446 13,073 18,314
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 34.62% 30.01% 32.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,505 8,291 12,599
10th Percentile £300 £280 £313
25th Percentile £406 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £539 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.51% -2.09% -
75th Percentile £650 £663 £676
90th Percentile £775 £800 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 468 940 599
10th Percentile £15.50 £12.25 £9.80
25th Percentile £19.00 £15.39 £10.63
Median hourly rate £31.76 £36.00 £22.41
Median % change year-on-year -11.78% +60.64% -16.94%
75th Percentile £58.75 £62.00 £59.38
90th Percentile £80.30 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.79 £35.65 £22.00
% change year-on-year -13.63% +62.05% +2.85%

NHS
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing NHS as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for NHS in the UK

NHS
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing NHS.

Daily rate trend for NHS in the UK

NHS
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing NHS over the 6 months to 25 June 2025.

Daily rate histogram for NHS in the UK

NHS
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing NHS.

Hourly rate trend for NHS in the UK

NHS
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing NHS over the 6 months to 25 June 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for NHS in the UK

NHS
Top 16 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing NHS within the UK over the 6 months to 25 June 2025. 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
England -88 152 £450 +42.86% 578
UK excluding London -82 110 £360 +2.86% 361
Work from Home -5 68 £430 +22.86% 265
London -22 61 £450 +42.86% 235
North of England -33 39 £475 +2.15% 140
South East +11 31 £309 +50.61% 73
Yorkshire -11 27 £500 +2.04% 59
Wales -7 19 £305 -28.12% 20
North West -24 11 £215 -46.25% 62
Midlands -8 10 £312 -34.32% 52
Scotland +11 8 £449 -33.52% 15
West Midlands -8 8 £224 -55.20% 28
East Midlands 0 2 £400 -6.98% 24
East of England -3 2 £227 -6.42% 35
South West +29 1 £410 +122.04% 35
North East -8 1 £650 +100.00% 24

NHS
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 2 (1.06%) Apache
1 2 (1.06%) Microsoft Exchange
1 2 (1.06%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.53%) Confluence
2 1 (0.53%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 6 (3.17%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (2.65%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (2.12%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (1.06%) Sketch
5 1 (0.53%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.53%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.53%) Photoshop
Business Applications
1 2 (1.06%) Dynamics CRM
1 2 (1.06%) NEC Housing
2 1 (0.53%) Academy Housing
2 1 (0.53%) Cerner Millennium
Cloud Services
1 29 (15.34%) Azure
2 15 (7.94%) AWS
2 15 (7.94%) Power Platform
3 13 (6.88%) GCP
4 7 (3.70%) Microsoft 365
5 5 (2.65%) Azure DevOps
6 4 (2.12%) Amazon EC2
6 4 (2.12%) Amazon S3
6 4 (2.12%) Serverless
7 3 (1.59%) AWS Lambda
7 3 (1.59%) Azure Data Factory
7 3 (1.59%) IaaS
8 2 (1.06%) Azure Service Bus
8 2 (1.06%) Azure Stack
8 2 (1.06%) Cloud Run
8 2 (1.06%) Dynamics 365
8 2 (1.06%) Entra ID
8 2 (1.06%) Figma
8 2 (1.06%) PowerApps
8 2 (1.06%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 6 (3.17%) Firewall
2 4 (2.12%) Network Security
3 3 (1.59%) Wi-Fi
4 2 (1.06%) BGP
4 2 (1.06%) DNS
4 2 (1.06%) H.323
4 2 (1.06%) Intrusion Detection
4 2 (1.06%) MGCP
4 2 (1.06%) MPLS
4 2 (1.06%) Structured Cabling
4 2 (1.06%) Unified Communications
4 2 (1.06%) VPN
4 2 (1.06%) WebEx
5 1 (0.53%) Cisco Firepower
5 1 (0.53%) DHCP
5 1 (0.53%) IPv4
5 1 (0.53%) LAN
5 1 (0.53%) OSPF
5 1 (0.53%) WAN
5 1 (0.53%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (9.52%) Electronic Patient Records
2 13 (6.88%) Power BI
3 11 (5.82%) Data Warehouse
4 7 (3.70%) SQL Server
5 6 (3.17%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 4 (2.12%) Azure SQL Database
7 3 (1.59%) Data Lake
7 3 (1.59%) Data Mining
7 3 (1.59%) PostgreSQL
7 3 (1.59%) Qlik Sense
7 3 (1.59%) Tableau
8 2 (1.06%) Amazon Redshift
8 2 (1.06%) Big Data
8 2 (1.06%) Metadata
8 2 (1.06%) MongoDB
8 2 (1.06%) MySQL
8 2 (1.06%) Power Query
9 1 (0.53%) Amazon RDS
9 1 (0.53%) MS Access
9 1 (0.53%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 6 (3.17%) Selenium
2 4 (2.12%) Git
2 4 (2.12%) SpecFlow
3 2 (1.06%) JIRA
3 2 (1.06%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
4 1 (0.53%) tSQLt
General
1 70 (37.04%) Social Skills
2 48 (25.40%) Public Sector
3 17 (8.99%) Finance
4 16 (8.47%) Analytical Skills
5 11 (5.82%) Marketing
6 10 (5.29%) Local Government
6 10 (5.29%) Telecoms
7 9 (4.76%) Electronics
7 9 (4.76%) Manufacturing
7 9 (4.76%) Presentation Skills
8 7 (3.70%) Organisational Skills
8 7 (3.70%) Pharmaceutical
9 6 (3.17%) Digital Health
9 6 (3.17%) Documentation Skills
9 6 (3.17%) Health Technology
9 6 (3.17%) Legal
10 4 (2.12%) Digital Healthcare
11 3 (1.59%) Advertising
11 3 (1.59%) Welsh Language
12 2 (1.06%) Multimedia
Job Titles
1 22 (11.64%) Developer
2 21 (11.11%) Lead
3 20 (10.58%) Analyst
3 20 (10.58%) Architect
4 16 (8.47%) Project Manager
5 10 (5.29%) Senior
5 10 (5.29%) Support Engineer
6 7 (3.70%) Data Analyst
6 7 (3.70%) Designer
6 7 (3.70%) Desktop Engineer
6 7 (3.70%) Network Engineer
7 6 (3.17%) Desktop Support
7 6 (3.17%) Desktop Support Engineer
7 6 (3.17%) Technical Architect
7 6 (3.17%) Test Engineer
8 5 (2.65%) Azure Engineer
8 5 (2.65%) Cloud Architect
8 5 (2.65%) GCP Architect
8 5 (2.65%) Software Engineer
8 5 (2.65%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (5.82%) FHIR
2 8 (4.23%) .NET
3 6 (3.17%) CSS
3 6 (3.17%) HTML
4 5 (2.65%) XML
5 4 (2.12%) Kafka
5 4 (2.12%) React
6 3 (1.59%) .NET Core
6 3 (1.59%) ASP.NET Web API
6 3 (1.59%) Node.js
6 3 (1.59%) REST
7 2 (1.06%) Blazor
7 2 (1.06%) CSS3
7 2 (1.06%) GWT
7 2 (1.06%) HTML5
7 2 (1.06%) HTML5 Canvas
7 2 (1.06%) Middleware
7 2 (1.06%) Playwright
7 2 (1.06%) React Native
7 2 (1.06%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 10 (5.29%) LIMS
2 5 (2.65%) Digital Signage
2 5 (2.65%) PACS
3 4 (2.12%) Legacy Systems
3 4 (2.12%) Management Information System
4 3 (1.59%) Algorithms
4 3 (1.59%) Cloud Native
4 3 (1.59%) Reference Data
5 2 (1.06%) Client/Server
5 2 (1.06%) Data Protection Act
5 2 (1.06%) Data Structures
5 2 (1.06%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 2 (1.06%) Security Posture
5 2 (1.06%) Self-Motivation
6 1 (0.53%) Biopharmaceutical
6 1 (0.53%) Cloud Security Posture
6 1 (0.53%) Freedom of Information
6 1 (0.53%) Freedom of Information Act
6 1 (0.53%) Product Ownership
6 1 (0.53%) Wiki
Operating Systems
1 20 (10.58%) Windows
2 10 (5.29%) Windows 10
3 5 (2.65%) Apple iOS
4 4 (2.12%) Android
5 3 (1.59%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.53%) Linux
6 1 (0.53%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.53%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 39 (20.63%) Agile
2 30 (15.87%) Problem-Solving
3 28 (14.81%) Business Intelligence
4 21 (11.11%) Migration
5 18 (9.52%) DevOps
6 17 (8.99%) Risk Management
6 17 (8.99%) Stakeholder Management
7 16 (8.47%) Analytics
8 14 (7.41%) Programme Management
8 14 (7.41%) Project Management
8 14 (7.41%) Service Delivery
9 13 (6.88%) Coaching
9 13 (6.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 13 (6.88%) Workflow
10 12 (6.35%) Customer Service
11 11 (5.82%) CI/CD
11 11 (5.82%) ETL
11 11 (5.82%) Visualisation
12 10 (5.29%) Data Protection
12 10 (5.29%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 26 (13.76%) SQL
2 15 (7.94%) Python
3 10 (5.29%) C#
4 7 (3.70%) JavaScript
5 4 (2.12%) TypeScript
6 3 (1.59%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 3 (1.59%) PowerShell
6 3 (1.59%) T-SQL
7 2 (1.06%) Go
8 1 (0.53%) Bicep
8 1 (0.53%) R
8 1 (0.53%) VBA
Qualifications
1 21 (11.11%) Degree
2 13 (6.88%) Master's Degree
3 8 (4.23%) Microsoft Certification
4 7 (3.70%) Azure Certification
5 6 (3.17%) AWS Certification
6 5 (2.65%) Computer Science Degree
6 5 (2.65%) Security Cleared
7 4 (2.12%) CCNP
7 4 (2.12%) Cisco Certification
7 4 (2.12%) SC Cleared
8 3 (1.59%) BPSS Clearance
8 3 (1.59%) CITP
9 2 (1.06%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 2 (1.06%) CCNA
9 2 (1.06%) CISSP
9 2 (1.06%) ISTQB
9 2 (1.06%) TOGAF Certification
10 1 (0.53%) A+ Certification
10 1 (0.53%) PMI Certification
10 1 (0.53%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (4.23%) GDPR
1 8 (4.23%) HL7
2 6 (3.17%) Actionable Recommendations
2 6 (3.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (2.65%) PMO
4 4 (2.12%) Accessibility
4 4 (2.12%) Data Quality
5 3 (1.59%) HIPAA
5 3 (1.59%) QA
6 2 (1.06%) DICOM
6 2 (1.06%) Disclosure Scotland
6 2 (1.06%) NCSC
6 2 (1.06%) NIST
6 2 (1.06%) Section 508
6 2 (1.06%) SNOMED CT
6 2 (1.06%) WCAG
7 1 (0.53%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.53%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
System Software
1 7 (3.70%) Active Directory
2 3 (1.59%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (1.06%) Firmware
4 1 (0.53%) BitLocker
4 1 (0.53%) Docker
4 1 (0.53%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.53%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 4 (2.12%) Terraform
2 2 (1.06%) Ansible
2 2 (1.06%) Cisco UCCE
2 2 (1.06%) SCCM
3 1 (0.53%) Cisco Prime
3 1 (0.53%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 26 (13.76%) Microsoft
2 12 (6.35%) Google
3 9 (4.76%) SAP
4 6 (3.17%) Brio
5 5 (2.65%) Cisco
5 5 (2.65%) Oracle
6 4 (2.12%) Cerner
6 4 (2.12%) MuleSoft
6 4 (2.12%) VMware
7 2 (1.06%) Databricks
7 2 (1.06%) NEC
7 2 (1.06%) Palantir
8 1 (0.53%) Cegedim Rx
8 1 (0.53%) Citrix
8 1 (0.53%) Commvault
8 1 (0.53%) Dell
8 1 (0.53%) Foundry
8 1 (0.53%) Qualys
8 1 (0.53%) RedGate
8 1 (0.53%) ServiceNow