NHS Band 6 Salary 2026/27 — Pay & Take-Home by Step

Band 6 take-home calculator

Band 6 pay at every step — England

Full-time (37.5 hours), NHS Pension member, no London weighting or student loan, standard tax code 1257L. All Band 6 salaries in England fall in the 9.8% pension tier. Source: NHS Employers 2026/27.

Band 6 in Scotland

Full-time (36 hours), Scottish income tax bands, SPPA pension tiers (9.8% at point 1, 10.5% above). Source: Scottish Government 2026/27.

Band 6 with London weighting

At the entry step in England, London weighting (HCAS) lifts Band 6 pay substantially — and because it is pensionable, the pension tier stays at 9.8% on the higher amount:

Band 6 part-time

Part-time pay is the same band and step, pro-rata. At 22.5 hours a week (0.6 WTE) on the entry step, gross pay is £23,975.40 — and there is a quiet bonus most calculators miss: because pension tiers are set by your actual pay, the contribution rate drops from 9.8% to 6.5%, giving take-home of £1,627.93 a month. At 30 hours on the top step, take-home is £2,351.42 a month. Use the calculator above with your own hours for your exact figures.

Moving up from Band 5

The top of Band 5 (£39,043) pays take-home of £2,380.80 a month. Promotion to Band 6 entry (£39,959) adds £916 a year in gross pay — £48.97 a month in take-home on day one, with headroom to £2,865.96 a month as you climb the Band 6 steps. Compare both bands in full on the pay bands page.

Which jobs are Band 6?

Band 6 is the first senior clinical band — roles with specialist knowledge, responsibility for junior staff or a caseload of their own. Roles commonly evaluated at Band 6 include senior staff nurses, junior sisters and charge nurses, paramedics once past the newly qualified period, health visitors, district nurses, and senior physiotherapists, occupational therapists, radiographers and biomedical scientists. Exact banding is set by local job evaluation under Agenda for Change, so the same job title can sit on different bands in different trusts.

Worked example — Band 6 entry point, full-time (England)

Gross pay of £39,959.00 a year becomes £2,429.77 a month in your bank account. Across the year, NHS pension £3,915.98 (9.8%), income tax £4,694.60 and National Insurance £2,191.12 come off, leaving £29,157.29 of take-home pay. London weighting, part-time hours and student loans change the picture — the calculator above runs your exact position.

How Band 6 take-home pay is worked out

The method is the same for every band. Start with gross pay, plus any London weighting. Your NHS pension contribution comes off first and reduces the pay that income tax is charged on. Income tax is then charged above the £12,570 personal allowance — 20% up to £50,270 and 40% above it, with the allowance itself reducing by £1 for every £2 earned over £100,000. National Insurance is charged on your full pay at 8% between £12,570 and £50,270 and 2% above that — the pension does not reduce NI. Student loan repayments, if you have one, are worked out on pay before the pension deduction. The full method, with sources, is on our methodology page.

Band 6 in Wales and Northern Ireland — and last year's comparison

Wales 2026/27 (AfC(W) 02/2026)

Welsh take-home from this site's engine: UK income tax and National Insurance with NHSBSA pension tiers (the same as England), full-time, pension member, no London weighting or student loan, standard tax code 1257L.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland's 2026/27 award has not been implemented (Department of Health NI, October 2026), so Band 6 there remains on the 2025/26 scale: £38,682 / £40,823 / £46,580 (entry / intermediate / top).

2025/26 vs 2026/27 at Band 6

Scottish 2025/26 figures are the revised rates after that year's settlement was lifted to 4.4%. Sources: NHS Employers pay scales 2025/26 and 2026/27; PCS(AFC)2026/1; AfC(W) 02/2026 (see Sources).