Allied Health Professions

Agenda for Change · 2026/27

NHS pay scale: England

A newly qualified allied health professional in England starts on band 5, at £32,073 in 2026/27, rising to £39,043 at the top of the band. Band 7, advanced practice or team lead, runs from £49,387 to £56,515. Every figure on this page is the England scale for 2026/27, uplifted by 3.3%.

Pay year 2026/273.3% upliftFrom 1 April 2026
£32,073 Band 5 starting salary England, 2026/27
£39,959 Band 6 starting salary England, 2026/27
£49,387 Band 7 starting salary England, 2026/27
3.3% Uplift for this year Effective 1 April 2026

How pay works in England

Agenda for Change (AfC) covers almost every NHS job in England apart from doctors, dentists and very senior managers. The band is set by national job evaluation of the post, not by the employer, so basic pay for the same job is the same wherever in England you work. You do not negotiate a salary; you apply for a banded post.

England’s scale is the one most job adverts and most salary guides quote, and it is the only one of the four with high cost area supplements for London and the surrounding zones. It is negotiated by the NHS Staff Council and the award is agreed by the Department of Health and Social Care following the NHS Pay Review Body’s recommendation.

The scale is uplifted each April. The 2026/27 settlement was an uplift of 3.3%, effective from 1 April 2026. Because the four nations settle separately, a figure from one is never a safe proxy for another — and neither is last year's figure for this one. Everything below is the 2026/27 England circular and nothing else. As a benchmark, median gross annual pay for full-time workers across all occupations in United Kingdom was £39,039 in 2025, which falls inside the band 5 range on this scale. That is a whole-economy figure covering every occupation, not a health one, and its year is not the pay year above.

Nation
England
Pay year
2026/27
Uplift
3.3%
Effective from
1 April 2026
Bands published
11
Scale range
£25,272 to £129,783
London weighting
High cost area supplements apply

The full England scale, 2026/27

Annual full-time rates for every band published in the 2026/27 circular. Within a band you move up the points by time served; between bands you apply.

Agenda for Change annual pay, England, 2026/27
Band Starting Point 2 Point 3 Top of band
Band 2 £25,272£25,272 £25,272
Band 3 £25,760£27,476 £27,476
Band 4 £28,392£31,157 £31,157
Band 5 Entry level £32,073£34,592£39,043 £39,043
Band 6 £39,959£42,170£48,117 £48,117
Band 7 £49,387£51,932£56,515 £56,515
Band 8a £57,528£60,417£64,750 £64,750
Band 8b £66,582£70,896£77,368 £77,368
Band 8c £79,504£84,346£91,609 £91,609
Band 8d £94,356£100,140£108,814 £108,814
Band 9 £112,782£119,583£129,783 £129,783

The allied health ladder in England

Four rungs cover most allied health careers. All figures are England, 2026/27.

Allied health career ladder — England, 2026/27
Band Stage Starting Top of band What the post is
Band 5 Newly qualified £32,073 £39,043 First post after registration, usually rotational.
Band 6 Specialist £39,959 £48,117 Typically two to four years in; a defined clinical specialty.
Band 7 Advanced or team lead £49,387 £56,515 Clinical leadership, complex caseload, supervision.
Band 8a Consultant or service lead £57,528 £64,750 Service-wide responsibility or consultant practice.

England against the other nations

Starting salary at each of the four career bands. Each column carries its own pay year — the nations have not all settled the same year, so part of any difference below is timing rather than a permanent gap.

Starting salary by band and nation (each nation on its own pay year)
Band England · 2026/27 Northern Ireland · 2025/26 Scotland · 2026/27 Wales · 2026/27
Band 5 £32,073£31,049£34,544£32,557
Band 6 £39,959£38,682£43,231£40,559
Band 7 £49,387£47,810£52,845£50,129
Band 8a £57,528£55,690£65,125£58,379

At band 5 entry, England (2026/27) sits £1,024 above Northern Ireland (2025/26), £2,471 below Scotland (2026/27) and £484 below Wales (2026/27) . These are differences between published circulars, not adjusted for the pay year, for the cost of living, or for allowances that exist in one nation and not another.

High cost area supplements

England is the only nation with a zone-based London weighting. The supplement is a percentage of basic pay, subject to a published floor and ceiling, and it is pensionable.

High cost area supplements, England, 2026/27
Zone Percentage Minimum Maximum
Inner London 20% £5,794 £8,746
Outer London 15% £4,870 £6,137
Fringe 5% £1,346 £2,270

The band pages work out the uplifted range for each band and show the arithmetic.

Every band published in England

Band 2

£25,272 to £25,272 in England, 2026/27.

England 2026/27

Band 3

£25,760 to £27,476 in England, 2026/27.

England 2026/27

Band 4

£28,392 to £31,157 in England, 2026/27.

England 2026/27

Band 5

£32,073 to £39,043 in England, 2026/27.

England 2026/27

Band 6

£39,959 to £48,117 in England, 2026/27.

England 2026/27

Band 7

£49,387 to £56,515 in England, 2026/27.

England 2026/27

Band 8a

£57,528 to £64,750 in England, 2026/27.

England 2026/27

Band 8b

£66,582 to £77,368 in England, 2026/27.

England 2026/27

Band 8c

£79,504 to £91,609 in England, 2026/27.

England 2026/27

Band 8d

£94,356 to £108,814 in England, 2026/27.

England 2026/27

Band 9

£112,782 to £129,783 in England, 2026/27.

England 2026/27

The other nations

Pay by profession

Next

Where this page’s data comes from

Pay values are the numeric annual rates published in the 2026/27 Agenda for Change circular for England. Only the figures are reused; the circular text and tables are not reproduced.