NHS employers · United Kingdom
NHS trusts and health boards that employ allied health professionals
242 NHS organisations across 4 nations — acute and specialist trusts, community and mental health trusts, ambulance services, and the health boards that run everything for a population in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Grouped by nation and region, because where an organisation is decides which university placements feed it and which posts you can realistically commute to.
How to read this list
Every organisation here is an NHS body that employs allied health professionals. In England they are trusts and foundation trusts, each responsible for a defined set of services. In Scotland and Wales a health board is responsible for all NHS care for a population, and in Northern Ireland the equivalent is a health and social care trust, which runs social care alongside health. That structural difference matters more than it sounds: with one employer covering the whole pathway, a rotation can take you from an acute ward to a community team without you changing jobs, whereas in England the same move is usually a job application to a different organisation. The 242 organisations below sit across 12 regions and nations. London has the largest cluster in England, with 31 organisations.
The organisation type in the table is the single most useful field on this page, because it tells you what the work is actually like. An acute trust gives you inpatients, theatres and emergency work, and it is where most rotational band 5 posts live — four or six months at a time across respiratory, orthopaedics, neurology and the rest, which is how new graduates find out what they want to specialise in. A community trust gives you a geographical caseload, home visits and far more autonomy, usually with a car and a diary you manage yourself. A mental health trust is where occupational therapy is at its most distinctive and where almost all art, drama and music therapy posts sit. An ambulance service is a paramedic organisation and very little else. A specialist trust concentrates one kind of work, so you go deep quickly but you see less breadth.
What you are paid is not an employer decision. Agenda for Change is negotiated nationally and set separately in each of the four nations, so two trusts in the same city pay the same band 5 the same salary. In England that is £32,073 at the bottom of band 5 on the 2026/27 scale. The exception is the high cost area supplement paid in and around London: 20% of basic pay in the inner zone, worth between £5,794 and £8,746 a year on the 2026/27 scale. Which zone applies depends on the site the post is based at, and that is not published in the open data, so check the advert. Choose between employers on caseload, rotation, supervision and travel, not on salary — and remember that the trust you are placed with as a student is very often the trust that interviews you first.
What each kind of organisation is like to work in
The counts are of organisations in this dataset, not of jobs or staff.
| Organisation type | Organisations | What that means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Acute trust | 111 | District general and teaching hospitals — wards, theatres, emergency care and outpatient clinics on one or more hospital sites. Most rotational first posts sit here. |
| Mental health trust | 44 | Inpatient units, community mental health teams and CAMHS. Occupational therapy is the largest allied health workforce here, and the arts therapies are concentrated in these organisations. |
| Health board | 28 | Responsible for every NHS service for a population — hospitals, community, mental health and primary care. Rotations can cover the whole pathway with one employer. |
| Specialist trust | 20 | A single-service organisation: children’s, cancer, orthopaedic, eye, heart or neurological. Narrow, deep caseloads, and posts that are often specialist from day one. |
| Integrated care organisation | 14 | Acute, community and sometimes mental health services in one organisation, so a rotation can cross the ward, the clinic and the patient’s home without changing employer. |
| Ambulance service | 13 | Emergency and urgent care before hospital, across a whole region, plus 111 and clinical assessment hubs. Built around the paramedic workforce. |
| Community trust | 11 | Care delivered in people’s homes, health centres and community hospitals rather than on an acute site. A geographical caseload, more autonomy, usually a car. |
| NHS organisation | 1 | An NHS organisation that does not fall into the standard trust categories. |
England 202 organisations
East Midlands 16 organisations
East of England 20 organisations
London 31 organisations
North East 10 organisations
| Organisation | Type | Based in | ODS code |
|---|---|---|---|
| County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust | Acute trust | Darlington | RXP |
| Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust | Mental health trust | Newcastle upon Tyne | RX4 |
| Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust | Acute trust | Gateshead | RR7 |
| North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust | Ambulance service | Newcastle upon Tyne | RX6 |
| North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust | Acute trust | Hartlepool | RVW |
| Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust | Acute trust | North Shields | RTF |
| South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Acute trust | Middlesbrough | RTR |
| South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust | Acute trust | Sunderland | R0B |
| Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust | Mental health trust | Darlington | RX3 |
| The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Acute trust | Newcastle upon Tyne | RTD |
North West 31 organisations
South East 30 organisations
South West 18 organisations
West Midlands 24 organisations
Yorkshire and The Humber 22 organisations
Scotland 22 organisations
| Organisation | Type | Based in | ODS code |
|---|---|---|---|
| Healthcare Improvement Scotland | Health board | ||
| NHS 24 | Health board | ||
| NHS Ayrshire and Arran | Health board | Ayr | SA9 |
| NHS Borders | Health board | Melrose | SB9 |
| NHS Dumfries and Galloway | Health board | Dumfries | SY9 |
| NHS Education for Scotland | Health board | ||
| NHS Fife | Health board | Kirkcaldy | SF9 |
| NHS Forth Valley | Health board | Stirling | SV9 |
| NHS Grampian | Health board | Aberdeen | SN9 |
| NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde | Health board | Glasgow | SG9 |
| NHS Highland | Health board | Inverness | SH9 |
| NHS Lanarkshire | Health board | Glasgow | SL9 |
| NHS Lothian | Health board | Edinburgh | SS9 |
| NHS National Services Scotland | Health board | YA7 | |
| NHS National Waiting Times Centre | Health board | Clydebank | |
| NHS Orkney | Health board | Kirkwall | SR9 |
| NHS Shetland | Health board | Lerwick | SZ9 |
| NHS Tayside | Health board | Dundee | ST9 |
| NHS Western Isles | Health board | Stornoway | SW9 |
| Public Health Scotland | Health board | ||
| Scottish Ambulance Service | Ambulance service | ||
| The State Hospitals Board for Scotland | Health board | Carstairs |
Wales 12 organisations
| Organisation | Type | Based in | ODS code |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aneurin Bevan University Health Board | Health board | Newport | 7A6 |
| Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board | Health board | Bangor | 7A1 |
| Cardiff and Vale University Health Board | Health board | Cardiff | 7A4 |
| Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board | Health board | Pontypridd | 7A5 |
| Digital Health and Care Wales | Specialist trust | Cardiff | L5X6M |
| Health Education and Improvement Wales | Specialist trust | Cardiff | T1530 |
| Hywel Dda University Health Board | Health board | Carmarthen | 7A2 |
| Powys Teaching Health Board | Health board | Brecon | 7A7 |
| Public Health Wales NHS Trust | Specialist trust | Cardiff | RYT |
| Swansea Bay University Health Board | Health board | Neath | 7A3 |
| Velindre University NHS Trust | Specialist trust | Cardiff | RQF |
| Welsh Ambulance Services University NHS Trust | Ambulance service | St Asaph | RT4 |
Northern Ireland 6 organisations
| Organisation | Type | Based in | ODS code |
|---|---|---|---|
| Belfast Health and Social Care Trust | Integrated care organisation | Belfast | ZT001 |
| Northern Health and Social Care Trust | Integrated care organisation | Antrim | ZT002 |
| Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust | Ambulance service | Belfast | Z1990 |
| South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust | Integrated care organisation | Belfast | ZT004 |
| Southern Health and Social Care Trust | Integrated care organisation | Craigavon | ZT003 |
| Western Health and Social Care Trust | Integrated care organisation | Londonderry | ZT005 |
Where the staff come from
Recruitment into these organisations is overwhelmingly local. Pre-registration courses carry a large block of supervised clinical practice, those placements are commissioned with the trusts and boards nearest the university, and a large share of newly qualified staff take their first post with an organisation they were placed with as a student. If you already know which part of the country you want to work in, the practical move is to work backwards: pick the region first, then the universities that place into it. The university index is grouped the same way this page is, so the two line up region by region.
Vacancy volume is a different question from employer count, and this page does not answer it. Where an organisation has published a staff survey result, a CQC rating or a workforce breakdown, it appears on that organisation’s own page; where it has not, the page says so rather than filling the gap.
The job market, profession by profession
- Art therapists jobs — Usually starts at band 6
- Diagnostic radiographers jobs — Usually starts at band 5
- Dietitians jobs — Usually starts at band 5
- Dramatherapists jobs — Usually starts at band 6
- Music therapists jobs — Usually starts at band 6
- Occupational therapists jobs — Usually starts at band 5
- Operating department practitioners jobs — Usually starts at band 5
- Orthoptists jobs — Usually starts at band 5
- Osteopaths jobs — Usually starts at band 5
- Paramedics jobs — Usually starts at band 5
- Physiotherapists jobs — Usually starts at band 5
- Podiatrists jobs — Usually starts at band 5
- Prosthetists and orthotists jobs — Usually starts at band 5
- Speech and language therapists jobs — Usually starts at band 5
- Therapeutic radiographers jobs — Usually starts at band 5
Next steps
- The allied health job market — Vacancies and workforce by profession
- NHS pay bands — Agenda for Change, all four nations
- Universities — Where the placements are commissioned from
- The professions — What each job actually involves
- Training routes — Degree, master’s or apprenticeship
- How this dataset is built — Sources, licences and gaps
Where this page’s data comes from
Organisation names, codes, types and geography come from the NHS organisation data service records cited below.
- NHS Workforce StatisticsNHS England (published on digital.nhs.uk) · Open Government Licence v3.0 · checked 3 September 2026Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Agenda for Change pay scales and NHS terms and conditions handbookNHS Employers (NHS Confederation) · No open licence stated; NHS Employers copyright · checked 3 September 2026
- HCPC register summary and registrant snapshots (aggregate)Health and Care Professions Council · No open licence stated; HCPC copyright · checked 3 September 2026
- directory.spineservices.nhs.ukCited page
- scot.nhs.ukCited page