How a job gets its band
Bands belong to jobs, not people. Every Agenda for Change post is banded through the NHS Job Evaluation Scheme, which measures the skills, responsibility and effort the job needs. Most jobs are matched to a national job profile; jobs that don't fit one are evaluated locally. Either way the job is scored on 16 factors:
- 1Communications and relationship skills
- 2Knowledge, training and experience
- 3Analytical and judgemental skills
- 4Planning and organisational skills
- 5Physical skills
- 6Responsibility for patient or client care
- 7Responsibility for policy and service development
- 8Responsibility for financial and physical resources
- 9Responsibility for human resources
- 10Responsibility for information resources
- 11Responsibility for research and development
- 12Freedom to act
- 13Physical effort
- 14Mental effort
- 15Emotional effort
- 16Working conditions
Matching has strict rules. The panel compares the job with the profile factor by factor, and a job only matches if:
That's why two jobs with the same title can sit in different bands at different trusts.
Moving up a band, and moving up within one
Within a band you move to the next pay point on your pay step date, after two or three years depending on the band, if you meet the progression conditions (in England: an appraisal in the last 12 months, mandatory training done, and no formal capability process or live disciplinary sanction).
When you're promoted, your basic pay goes to the bottom point of the new band and your pay step date starts again. If that would leave you worse off once unsocial hours payments and any long-term recruitment and retention premium are counted, your old salary is protected until the new one overtakes it. Paid overtime isn't protected, which matters for a move from Band 7 to 8a, where overtime stops.
How hourly rates are worked out
The NHS terms and conditions set a week's pay as 7/365ths of the annual salary. Divide that by your weekly hours and you have the hourly rate. For Band 5 in England:
That matches NHS Employers' published rates to the penny. Some calculators divide by 52 weeks or by 1,957.5 hours instead, which is why their hourly figures can be a few pence out. Scotland's hourly rates are worked out on a 36-hour week, so they're higher for the same salary.
Pay band questions
In England: Band 2 £25,272; Band 3 £25,760 to £27,476; Band 4 £28,392 to £31,157; Band 5 £32,073 to £39,043; Band 6 £39,959 to £48,117; Band 7 £49,387 to £56,515; Band 8a £57,528 to £64,750; Band 8b £66,582 to £77,368; Band 8c £79,504 to £91,609; Band 8d £94,356 to £108,814; Band 9 £112,782 to £129,783. Scotland and Wales pay more at every band, and Northern Ireland is still on 2025/26 rates.
Every job, not every person, is given a band through the NHS Job Evaluation Scheme. The job is either matched to a national job profile or evaluated locally, scoring it on 16 factors that cover the skills, responsibility and effort it needs. Your band only changes if your job is re-evaluated or you move to a different job.
Your basic pay is set at the bottom pay point of the new band and your pay step date starts again. If your new basic pay plus any unsocial hours payments and long-term recruitment and retention premium would be less than you earned before, your old salary is protected until the new one catches up. Overtime isn't counted in that protection.
Divide your annual salary by 365, multiply by 7 to get a week's pay, then divide by your weekly hours (37.5 for full time in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, 36 in Scotland). That's the method in the NHS terms and conditions, and it's how NHS Employers' published hourly rates are worked out.
No. Each band has one to three pay points, and you become eligible for the next one after two or three years, depending on the band, as long as you meet the progression conditions.