NHS Advanced Nurse Practitioner Hourly Pay 2026/27: What Bands 7 and 8a Earn an Hour

Last updated: 28 October 2026 · Figures verified against the NHS Employers 2026/27 pay circular.

By the NHS Bands Pay editorial team

Advanced nurse practitioners are the nurses who assess, diagnose, prescribe and manage whole episodes of care, usually after a master's level advanced practice programme. That scope is why the standard grade is Band 7, well above the Band 5 staff nurse grade, and why senior, lead and consultant-track posts reach Band 8a. The annual figures tell only half the story. ANPs work across general practice, emergency departments, acute medicine, hospital-at-night teams and community urgent care, and those settings pay very different hourly totals once weekend, night, overtime and London payments are counted. This page sets out every advanced nurse practitioner hourly rate for 2026/27 in England, step by step, with each enhancement worked through in full.

If you want the annual picture, the advanced nurse practitioner salary guide covers the same bands from the yearly side, and the NHS hourly rate calculator will convert any band salary to an hourly rate for you. The rates below are all full-time equivalent for England under Agenda for Change, after the 3.3% award effective 1 April 2026. Trainee advanced nurse practitioner posts are often advertised at Band 6 or Band 7 while training, with progression to the full Band 7 role on qualification and sign-off, so a trainee hourly rate sits below the figures in the main table until that progression lands. GP-employed ANPs may sit outside Agenda for Change, like other practice staff, while trust and primary care network employed ANPs are usually AfC banded, so check the employer in the advert before comparing an hourly rate with the figures here.

Advanced nurse practitioner hourly rates 2026/27 at a glance

The advanced nurse practitioner ladder has two rungs that matter. Band 7 is the standard grade, where most ANPs spend their careers. Band 8a is the senior and lead grade, for service leadership, trust-wide responsibility, teaching and supervision of trainee ANPs at scale, or exceptionally complex caseloads such as leading a hospital-at-night service. The table below gives every step from Band 7 entry to Band 8a top, because those are the steps almost every ANP actually works through.

Two steps in the table deserve a second look. The move from the top of Band 7 (£28.87 an hour) to the bottom of Band 8a (£29.39) is worth only £0.52 an hour, or £1,013 a year, because the bands sit close together. The move matters more than that gap suggests, because it also changes the value of every enhanced hour that follows, and it changes the overtime position entirely: Band 7 overtime is paid, Band 8a overtime is time off in lieu. The other step worth noting is the entry point: a Band 6 nurse at the top of that band earns £24.58 an hour, so a nurse who completes advanced practice training and moves to a Band 7 ANP post gains only £0.65 an hour at first, then £3.64 an hour on reaching the top of Band 7, which is the real payoff for the training investment, on top of the autonomy and prescribing scope the role itself brings.

How the NHS hourly rate is worked out

The formula is simple, and it is worth knowing because it lets you check any figure on a payslip in seconds. Take the full-time annual salary, divide it by 52.2, which is the number of weeks in the NHS pay year, and divide again by 37.5, the standard full-time week. That gives the plain-time hourly rate.

Worked example: a Band 7 advanced nurse practitioner at the entry step earns £49,387 a year. Divide £49,387 by 52.2 and you get £946.11 a week. Divide £946.11 by 37.5 and you get £25.23 an hour. The same arithmetic gives £28.87 an hour for a Band 7 ANP at the top of the band on £56,515 (£1,082.66 a week) and £33.08 an hour for a Band 8a ANP at the top on £64,750 (£1,240.42 a week). Monthly pay is the annual salary divided by 12, so the Band 7 entrant takes £4,115.58 a month gross before deductions, and the Band 8a entrant takes £4,794.00.

One common mistake is to divide by 52 weeks instead of 52.2. That small change inflates every hourly rate by a few pence, which is why some online calculators disagree with payroll by a small amount. Another is to use the wrong week: Agenda for Change full time in England is 37.5 hours, not 40. Scotland is the exception, with a 36 hour week from April 2026, and its position is covered separately near the end of this page. Enhancements on this page are worked from the rounded hourly rate, so a Saturday hour for a Band 7 entrant is £25.23 times 1.30, which is £32.80, not a figure recomputed from the unrounded annual salary.

Band 7 advanced nurse practitioner hourly pay in detail

Band 7 is where advanced practice starts as a substantive grade. The ANP at this grade runs an autonomous caseload, prescribes, orders and interprets investigations, and manages episodes of care within a defined service, whether that is a general practice same-day clinic, an emergency department, an acute medical unit or a frailty service. The hourly rates are £25.23 at entry, £26.53 at the intermediate step and £28.87 at the top. In day terms, that is £189.23, £198.98 and £216.53 for a standard 7.5 hour day. In weekly terms, it is £946.11, £994.87 and £1,082.66 for a full 37.5 hour week.

Unsocial hours at Band 7 follow the Bands 4 to 9 percentages, so a Saturday or night hour pays £32.80 at entry, £34.49 at the intermediate step and £37.53 at the top, while a Sunday or bank holiday hour pays £40.37, £42.45 and £46.19. Acute ANPs on full rotas earn a large share of their pay through these enhancements, while ANPs in weekday general practice clinics may earn almost none, which is why two Band 7 ANPs on identical basic pay can take home noticeably different monthly totals. A single 7.5 hour Sunday shift at the entry step is worth £302.78 at the enhanced rate, against £189.23 at the plain rate, a difference of £113.55 for one shift.

Pension sits on top of these rates rather than inside them. Under the provisional 2026/27 tiers, Band 7 entry and intermediate steps fall in the 9.8% tier, because that tier runs from £35,156 to £52,778, giving £403.33 a month at entry and £424.11 a month at the intermediate step. The top step at £56,515 crosses into the 10.7% tier, which runs from £52,779 to £67,668, giving £503.93 a month. The employer adds 23.7% on top in each case. Those tiers are provisional for 2026/27, calculated from the published 2025/26 thresholds, so treat the monthly pension figures as the best current estimate rather than a final published rate. ANPs who are uniformed staff also keep the flat-rate uniform tax relief of £125 a year, worth £25 at the basic rate and £50 at the higher rate, which is small but real.

Band 8a senior and lead advanced nurse practitioner hourly pay in detail

Band 8a is the senior ANP grade, and the step up is decided by scope, not by time served. A Band 8a ANP carries service leadership, trust-wide or cross-service responsibility, teaching and supervision of trainee ANPs at scale, consultant-track development, or an exceptionally complex caseload such as leading a hospital-at-night service. Entry pays £29.39 an hour (£220.43 a day, £1,102.07 a week), the intermediate step pays £30.86 an hour (£231.45 a day, £1,157.41 a week), and the top of the band pays £33.08 an hour (£248.10 a day, £1,240.42 a week). Compare the scope in the advert against the band, not just the title, because the job description is what decides the grade.

Unsocial hours at Band 8a follow the same Bands 4 to 9 percentages, so a Saturday or night hour pays £38.21 at entry, £40.12 at the intermediate step and £43.00 at the top, while a Sunday or bank holiday hour pays £47.02, £49.38 and £52.93. Pension at Band 8a is 10.7% at every step under the provisional tiers, giving £512.96 a month at entry, £538.72 a month at the intermediate step and £577.35 a month at the top, with the employer adding 23.7% on top. The top step at £64,750 sits just below the 12.5% tier threshold of £67,669, so no Band 8a ANP step reaches the top pension tier on basic pay alone.

The decisive difference between Band 7 and Band 8a is overtime. Staff at Bands 8 and 9 get no contractual overtime pay and take time off in lieu instead, under local agreement. A Band 7 ANP who works four overtime hours beyond 37.5 hours at the top of the band earns £173.24 for those four hours, at £43.31 an hour, against £115.48 for four plain hours. A Band 8a ANP who works the same four extra hours banks time, not cash. That trade is worth weighing directly when comparing a Band 7 post with regular paid overtime against a Band 8a lead post: the hourly gain from Band 7 top to Band 8a entry is only £0.52 an hour, so the case for moving up is usually about the role, the leadership and the reporting scope, not a large hourly jump, and the overtime position can narrow the cash gap further in a busy service.

Unsocial hours: what each kind of hour pays

Unsocial hours under Agenda for Change Section 2 cover weekday nights from 8pm to 6am, all of Saturday, and all of Sunday and public holidays. For Bands 4 to 9, which includes both advanced nurse practitioner grades, the enhancement is 30% on top of plain time for Saturday and weekday night hours, and 60% on top for Sunday and public holiday hours. The table below gives the resulting hourly rates for both grades.

Put those rates against a real rota and the effect becomes concrete. A Band 7 ANP at the entry step working a plain weekday shift of 7.5 hours earns £189.23. A 7.5 hour Saturday shift earns £246.00, and a 7.5 hour Sunday shift earns £302.78. Across one of each, the three shifts total £738.01 for 22.5 hours, which averages £32.80 an hour, well above the plain rate, simply because of the mix of hours. That is why a post description that mentions weekend acute cover or hospital-at-night is worth reading as a pay document, not just a rota note. The full unsocial hours rules, including the night window and the bank holiday definition, are set out in the unsocial hours and overtime guide.

Overtime hourly rates for advanced nurse practitioners

Overtime for Bands 1 to 7 pays time and a half, and double time on bank and public holidays. Advanced nurse practitioners at Band 7 therefore qualify for overtime pay, unlike their Band 8a colleagues, who take time off in lieu. Overtime only starts above 37.5 hours a week, and you cannot claim overtime and an unsocial hours enhancement for the same hour, so an extra Saturday hour is paid either as overtime or with the unsocial enhancement, under the rules that give the better result for that hour, not both.

A worked example shows how overtime stacks up in a busy week. A Band 7 ANP at the top of the band who works four overtime hours beyond 37.5 earns £173.24 for those four hours, at £43.31 an hour, against £115.48 for four plain hours. A Band 7 ANP at the entry step who works three overtime hours earns £113.55, at £37.85 an hour, against £75.69 plain. Staff may elect time off in lieu instead of overtime pay, which suits ANPs who would rather bank the hours for a quieter week, but the choice is per occasion and the overtime rate is the cash benchmark to compare it against. Part-time ANPs should note the threshold rule: hours above contracted hours up to 37.5 are paid at plain time, plus any unsocial enhancement that applies, and overtime rates only kick in beyond 37.5.

Acute rotas and on-call: where they apply in advanced practice

Advanced practice splits into two rota worlds. The first is weekday clinics and general practice, where ANPs manage same-day and routine presentations in daytime hours and unsocial enhancements barely feature. The second is acute and urgent care, where ANPs staff emergency departments, acute medical units, same-day emergency care and hospital-at-night teams, and evenings, weekends and nights are a normal part of the job. An ANP in the second world, on the same band and step as an ANP in the first, earns a meaningful uplift every month from unsocial hours alone, and the gap widens further with on-call.

On-call follows the same pattern. Where a trust runs hospital-at-night, acute medicine or urgent care cover outside normal hours, Agenda for Change pays an availability payment for the on-call period plus call-out payments at overtime rates when you attend. A Band 7 ANP at the entry step, on £25.23 an hour, called in for three hours would earn £113.55 for the call-out itself, which is 3 times £37.85, plus the availability payment. The availability payment and the exact call-out terms vary by trust and by local policy, so this page quotes no fixed on-call amount beyond the call-out maths. ANPs in weekday-only services rarely carry on-call at all, which is one of the attractions of general practice ANP work for staff moving from ward-based rotas, and it is worth weighing against the higher unsocial earnings of an acute post when choosing between them.

London advanced nurse practitioner hourly rates with HCAS

High Cost Area Supplement is a percentage of basic pay, subject to a minimum and a maximum, and it is pensionable. Inner London pays 20% with a minimum of £5,794 and a maximum of £8,746, outer London pays 15% with a minimum of £4,870 and a maximum of £6,137, and the fringe pays 5% with a minimum of £1,346 and a maximum of £2,270. The caps bite at every advanced nurse practitioner step, because even Band 7 entry pay is high enough for the percentage to exceed the maximum in all three zones. The table below gives the resulting total hourly rate, basic plus supplement, for both grades.

The cap effect is easy to see. A Band 7 ANP at the entry step gets a capped inner London supplement of £8,746, not the full 20% of £9,877.40, giving a total of £58,133 and £29.70 an hour. At the top of Band 8a, the same £8,746 cap gives £73,496 and £37.55 an hour. In outer London the cap is £6,137, which already binds at Band 7 entry, and in the fringe the £2,270 cap binds at Band 7 entry too. The full HCAS rules, including which trusts fall in each zone, are set out in the London weighting guide.

Community mileage: the extra community ANPs can claim

Hospital-based ANPs rarely claim mileage, but community and urgent care ANPs who visit patients at home or cover several sites in a week are a different case. Agenda for Change Section 17 mileage is an expense payment, not pay, and it sits outside the hourly rates on this page. The current rates are 59p a mile for car travel up to 4,500 miles in the mileage year, then 36p a mile above that threshold, with 30p for motorcycles, 20p for pedal cycles, 5p for passengers and 3p for heavy or bulky equipment.

A worked example keeps the scale honest. A community ANP who drives 200 business miles in a month, between a base clinic and home visits, claims £118.00 at 59p a mile, provided those miles are within the 4,500 mile threshold for the year. Home to normal workplace travel is not claimable, which is the rule most often misunderstood. A community ANP who covers several sites in a week should check the trust's mileage year and the October 2026 review position before budgeting on the 59p rate, because Section 17 rates are reviewed twice yearly and the threshold changed as recently as July 2026.

Part-time advanced nurse practitioner hourly pay

Part-time work does not change the hourly rate. It changes only the annual total, because the full-time salary is multiplied by the contracted fraction and the hourly rate is the same figure divided back out. A Band 7 ANP at the entry step on 0.8 whole-time equivalent earns £39,509.60 a year, which is £3,292.47 a month gross, for a 30 hour week, and the plain-time rate is still £25.23 an hour. A Band 8a ANP at the top of the band on 0.6 whole-time equivalent earns £38,850.00 a year for a 22.5 hour week, again at the full Band 8a top rate of £33.08 an hour. A Band 7 ANP at the intermediate step on 0.6 whole-time equivalent earns £31,159.20 a year at £26.53 an hour.

The threshold rule is the part-time detail that catches people out. Hours above contracted hours up to 37.5 are paid at plain time, plus any unsocial enhancement that applies, so a part-time ANP who picks up an extra Saturday clinic is paid the Saturday enhanced rate for those hours, not the overtime rate, until the week passes 37.5 hours. Pension contributions for part-time staff are calculated on the actual pensionable pay received, under the same provisional tiers, so a part-time ANP on a lower actual salary may fall in a lower pension tier than the whole-time equivalent salary suggests. Check the payslip against the tier thresholds rather than assuming the whole-time tier applies.

NHS versus bank, locum and private advanced nurse practitioner work

Advanced practice is a shortage area, and that shortage shows up in the bank and locum market. Bank and agency sessions usually pay above the AfC hourly rate, but there is no national rate card and rates vary widely by region, urgency and specialty, so this page quotes no bank or locum hourly figure. The AfC rate is still the right benchmark, because it is the pension-building foundation: every bank or locum hour worked outside substantive employment is an hour that does not build NHS pension in the same way, and the substantive post also carries annual leave, sick pay and the other Agenda for Change terms that sessional work does not.

Private and GP-employed work sits in a different frame again. ANPs employed directly by a general practice may be paid off Agenda for Change, on terms the practice sets, and the hourly economics depend on session fees and practice overheads that have no published national scale. The honest comparison is therefore qualitative: substantive NHS work gives a predictable hourly rate, pension, leave and a structured ladder from Band 7 to Band 8a and beyond, while sessional work gives a higher cash hourly rate with less security and no pension accrual on those hours. ANPs weighing the two should compare a full month, including pension and leave value, not a single sessional rate against a single AfC hour.

Career progression in hourly terms

The advanced nurse practitioner ladder reads cleanly in hourly terms, which is why it is worth setting out as a single path. A Band 5 staff nurse at the top of that band earns £19.95 an hour. A Band 6 nurse at the top of that band earns £24.58 an hour. A Band 7 ANP at entry earns £25.23, rising to £28.87 at the top of Band 7. A Band 8a senior or lead ANP at entry earns £29.39, rising to £33.08 at the top of Band 8a. Consultant nurse posts reach Band 8a to 8b, and each step also lifts the value of weekend, night and overtime hours, because every enhancement is a percentage of the higher plain rate, except for the overtime break at Band 8a itself.

The training route shapes the timeline. Most ANPs enter from nursing, complete a master's level advanced practice programme while employed, often in a trainee ANP post at Band 6 or Band 7, and move to the full Band 7 ANP role on qualification and sign-off, with non-medical prescribing effectively essential for most roles. Trusts short of ANPs sometimes advertise trainee posts with a development plan to Band 7 on qualification, and those posts are worth reading carefully, because the timeline and the evidence required for progression should be explicit in the advert. The shortage is leverage in that negotiation: it is one of the few nursing labour markets where the candidate has real bargaining power, and a trainee post with a vague progression promise is worth less than one with a dated plan.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

The rates on this page are for England. Scotland agreed a 3.75% award from 1 April 2026 and moved to a 36 hour week, which changes the hourly calculation: the divisor becomes 52.2 times 36, or 1,879.2 hours a year, instead of 1,957.5. Wales applied the 3.3% award with a £13.45 an hour living wage floor, and Welsh Band 5 steps of £32,557, £35,114 and £39,631 are in the verified data. Northern Ireland had the 3.3% award recommended but not implemented at the last check, so do not budget on it. This page quotes no Scotland or Wales ANP hourly figures, because the verified data file holds the Scotland and Wales award terms and a small set of example bands, not a full ANP scale for either nation, and inventing a devolved hourly rate from the England scale would breach the figures rule this site works under.

For ANPs considering a move, the practical point is to compare like with like: take the devolved annual salary for the exact band and step, divide by 52.2, then divide by the devolved full-time week, 36 hours in Scotland and 37.5 in Wales, and only then compare the hourly result with the England figures on this page. A Scotland salary that looks higher in annual terms can work out closer in hourly terms once the shorter week is factored in, and a Wales post with the living wage floor matters most at the lower bands, not at Band 7 or Band 8a. Check the trust's own pay circular for the devolved scale before accepting a post on the basis of an England hourly rate.

Frequently asked questions

What is the hourly rate for an NHS advanced nurse practitioner in 2026/27?

In England in 2026/27, an advanced nurse practitioner on Band 7 earns £25.23 an hour at the entry step, £26.53 an hour at the intermediate step and £28.87 an hour at the top of the band. A senior or lead advanced nurse practitioner on Band 8a earns £29.39 an hour at entry, £30.86 an hour at the intermediate step and £33.08 an hour at the top. Those are plain-time rates for a 37.5 hour week, before weekend, night, overtime, London weighting or mileage payments.

How is the NHS advanced nurse practitioner hourly rate worked out?

Divide the full-time annual salary by 52.2, the number of weeks in the NHS year, and then by 37.5, the standard full-time week. A Band 7 advanced nurse practitioner on £49,387 a year therefore earns £49,387 divided by 52.2 divided by 37.5, which is £25.23 an hour. Enhancements on this page are worked from the rounded hourly rate, which is how the site's other hourly guides present them.

What band is an advanced nurse practitioner on, and what does it pay an hour?

The standard advanced nurse practitioner grade is Band 7, which pays £25.23 an hour at entry (£49,387 a year), £26.53 an hour at the intermediate step (£51,932 a year) and £28.87 an hour at the top (£56,515 a year). Senior, lead and consultant-track advanced nurse practitioner posts reach Band 8a, which pays £29.39 an hour at entry (£57,528 a year), £30.86 an hour at the intermediate step (£60,417 a year) and £33.08 an hour at the top (£64,750 a year). Trainee advanced nurse practitioner posts are often advertised at Band 6 or Band 7 while training, with progression to the full Band 7 role on qualification and sign-off.

Do advanced nurse practitioners get paid more for weekends and nights?

Yes, where the rota includes unsocial hours. Under Agenda for Change Section 2, Bands 4 to 9 get 30% on top of plain time for Saturday and weekday night hours, from 8pm to 6am, and 60% on top for Sunday and bank holiday hours. A Band 7 advanced nurse practitioner at the entry step therefore earns £32.80 for a Saturday or night hour and £40.37 for a Sunday or bank holiday hour, against a plain rate of £25.23. A Band 8a advanced nurse practitioner at the top of the band earns £43.00 for a Saturday or night hour and £52.93 for a Sunday or bank holiday hour, against a plain rate of £33.08.

What is advanced nurse practitioner overtime pay per hour?

Overtime for Bands 1 to 7 pays time and a half, and double time on bank and public holidays. A Band 7 advanced nurse practitioner at the entry step earns £37.85 an overtime hour and £50.46 on a bank holiday, while a Band 7 advanced nurse practitioner at the top of the band earns £43.31 and £57.74. Overtime only starts above 37.5 hours a week, and you cannot claim overtime and an unsocial hours enhancement for the same hour. Staff at Band 8a get no contractual overtime pay and take time off in lieu instead, which is the key pay difference between the two advanced nurse practitioner grades.

Do advanced nurse practitioners get on-call pay?

Some do, where a trust runs hospital-at-night, acute medicine or urgent care cover outside normal hours. Agenda for Change pays an availability payment for the on-call period plus call-out payments at overtime rates when you attend. A Band 7 advanced nurse practitioner at the entry step, on £25.23 an hour, called in for three hours would earn £113.55 for the call-out itself, which is 3 times £37.85, plus the availability payment. The availability payment and the exact call-out terms vary by trust and by local policy, so this page quotes no fixed on-call amount beyond the call-out maths.

What is the London advanced nurse practitioner hourly rate with HCAS?

High Cost Area Supplement is a percentage of basic pay, subject to a minimum and a maximum, and it is pensionable. Inner London pays 20% with a minimum of £5,794 and a maximum of £8,746, outer London pays 15% with a minimum of £4,870 and a maximum of £6,137, and the fringe pays 5% with a minimum of £1,346 and a maximum of £2,270. A Band 7 advanced nurse practitioner at the entry step therefore earns £29.70 an hour in inner London, £28.36 in outer London and £26.39 in the fringe, against a basic rate of £25.23. At the top of Band 8a, the inner supplement is capped at £8,746, giving £37.55 an hour.

Does part-time advanced nurse practitioner work change the hourly rate?

No. The hourly rate stays the same and only the annual total changes, because it is the full-time salary multiplied by the contracted fraction. A Band 7 advanced nurse practitioner at the entry step on 0.8 whole-time equivalent earns £39,509.60 a year, which is £3,292.47 a month gross, for a 30 hour week, and the plain-time rate is still £25.23 an hour. A Band 8a advanced nurse practitioner at the top of the band on 0.6 whole-time equivalent earns £38,850.00 a year for a 22.5 hour week, again at the full Band 8a top rate of £33.08 an hour.

Source: NHS Employers unsocial hours payments. Salary figures from the NHS Employers 2026/27 pay circular, as summarised in the site's verified pay data.