NHS employer · Cambridge, East of England

Allied health careers at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a mental health trust based in Cambridge, East of England, organisation code RT1. Below: what the published data says about this organisation, what its type means for an allied health caseload, and where the courses that feed it are taught.

Mental health trustEngland
Mental health trust Organisation type ODS code RT1
£32,073 Band 5 starting salary England, 2026/27 scale
Not published CQC rating Not in the open dataset for this organisation
Not published Staff survey response rate Not in the open dataset for this organisation
353.8 Allied health staff Full-time equivalent across 9 published professions, 31 December 2025
4,302 Staff overall Full-time equivalent, all staff groups, 31 December 2025

What working here is like

A mental health trust runs inpatient units, community mental health teams, crisis and home treatment services, child and adolescent services, and often learning disability and forensic services. Allied health practice here is much less about acute physical recovery and much more about function, occupation, communication and participation over a long arc.

Occupational therapy is the largest allied health workforce in these organisations, and it is where the profession’s original purpose — meaningful occupation as therapy — is most visible in the job description. The arts therapies are concentrated almost entirely in this kind of employer, in CAMHS, in secure settings and in adult community teams. Dietetics, speech and language therapy and physiotherapy all have established roles too, particularly around eating disorders, communication needs and the physical health of people with severe mental illness.

None of that is specific to Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust — it is what the organisation type tells you, and it is the part that reliably holds. The parts that vary between two organisations of the same type are the size of each department, how rotations are structured, how much band 6 progression is built into the establishment, and how far apart the sites are. Those are questions for the recruitment page and for the informal visit that most allied health departments will happily arrange before you apply. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust’s own website is the authoritative source for current vacancies and department structure.

Organisation type
Mental health trust
Based in
Cambridge
Region
East of England
NHS region
East of England
Nation
England
ODS code
RT1
Pay scale that applies
Agenda for Change 2026/27, England

Allied health professions employed here

The professions Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust publishes staff figures for come first; the rest are services a mental health trust normally runs, listed because the workforce return does not cover every profession. Each page covers the caseload, the pay ladder and where the local courses are.

Physiotherapist at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust

People of all ages with musculoskeletal pain and injury, neurological conditions, respiratory and cardiac disease, frailty and falls risk, long-term conditions, and those recovering from surgery or critical illness.

Usually starts at band 5Taught in the East of England
OT

Occupational therapist at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust

People of all ages recovering from surgery, stroke or injury, and people living with mental illness, learning disability, dementia, long-term conditions or physical disability who want to live more independently.

Usually starts at band 5Taught in the East of England
RD

Dietitian at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust

People of all ages with medical conditions affected by diet — including digestive, kidney, metabolic and swallowing disorders, malnutrition, food allergy, obesity and eating disorders — as well as healthy populations.

Usually starts at band 5Taught in the East of England
SLT

Speech and language therapist at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust

Children and adults with speech, language, communication or swallowing needs, including people after stroke or brain injury, autistic people, people with learning disabilities, progressive neurological conditions, head and neck cancer and voice disorders.

Usually starts at band 5Taught in the East of England

Art therapist at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust

Children, young people, adults and older people living with mental health difficulties, trauma, learning disabilities, neurodivergence, dementia, life-limiting illness or emotional and behavioural difficulties.

Usually starts at band 6Taught in the East of England

Music therapist at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust

People of all ages with emotional or mental health difficulties, learning or physical disabilities, developmental conditions including autism, neurological conditions, dementia, and life-limiting or palliative illness.

Usually starts at band 6Taught in the East of England

Dramatherapist at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust

People of all ages — children, young people, adults and older people — with emotional, behavioural or mental health difficulties, learning disabilities, physical disabilities, neurological conditions or serious illness.

Usually starts at band 6Taught in the East of England

Allied health staff at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust

Published full-time equivalent staff by profession as at 31 December 2025. These are staff in post, not vacancies — but the size of a department is the single best guide to what working in it is like. A large establishment means more specialisms in-house, more senior colleagues to be supervised by and more rotation slots; a small one means a broader scope of practice earlier and fewer people to learn it from.

Allied health professions employed by Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
Profession Full-time equivalent As at
Occupational therapist 157.4 31 December 2025
Physiotherapist 87.8 31 December 2025
Speech and language therapist 43.1 31 December 2025
Podiatrist 21.2 31 December 2025
Paramedic 18.3 31 December 2025
Dietitian 17.6 31 December 2025
Art therapist 5 31 December 2025
Music therapist 3.2 31 December 2025
Dramatherapist 0.2 31 December 2025

The largest allied health group published here is occupational therapists, at 157.4 full-time equivalent of 353.8 across every profession published here, in an organisation of 4,302 staff in total. Professions with no published row are not necessarily absent — the feed publishes what the organisation returned.

The organisation as a whole

Staff group totals as published, for context on the figures above.

Published staff group totals for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
Staff group Full-time equivalent Headcount As at
All staff groups 4,302 4,794 31 December 2025
Ambulance staff 18.3 20 31 December 2025
Scientific, therapeutic & technical staff 811.8 956 31 December 2025

Where it is, and who trains near it

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust sits in Cambridge, East of England. Geography matters more in allied health recruitment than in most NHS careers, because pre-registration courses carry a large block of supervised clinical practice and those placements are commissioned with the trusts and boards nearest the university. Students placed with an organisation know its systems, its staff and its patients before they graduate, and a substantial share of newly qualified appointments go to people who were placed there. 5 universities in the East of England run approved allied health courses, training physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dietitians, speech and language therapists, art therapists, music therapists and dramatherapists among others.

Pay is a national question rather than a local one: Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust pays the England Agenda for Change rates for 2026/27, the same as every other NHS employer in the nation. For context, band 5 starts at £32,073 while median full-time pay across all occupations in the East of England was £38,597 in 2025. What does vary between employers is everything around the salary: how long a rotation lasts, how much protected time you get for supervision and continuing professional development, whether band 6 progression is planned into the establishment, and how far you will drive between sites.

Universities in the East of England

The providers whose placement circuits are most likely to include this organisation.

Other NHS organisations in the East of England

The realistic alternatives if you are looking for a first post in this area — they pay the same bands, so the difference is the caseload.

How the pay ladder works here

The same four steps apply at every NHS employer; what differs is how quickly the posts come up.

£32,073 Band 5 · Newly qualified First post after registration, usually rotational.
£39,959 Band 6 · Specialist Typically two to four years in; a defined clinical specialty.
£49,387 Band 7 · Advanced or team lead Clinical leadership, complex caseload, supervision.
£57,528 Band 8a · Consultant or service lead Service-wide responsibility or consultant practice.

Next steps

Where this page’s data comes from