NHS Arts Therapist Pay 2026/27: Band 6-7

Last updated: 3 November 2026 · Figures verified against the NHS Employers 2026/27 pay circular.

By the NHS Bands Pay editorial team

Arts therapist pay 2026/27: the Band 6 and Band 7 scales

England awarded Agenda for Change staff 3.3% from 1 April 2026, and that award is already in these figures. An arts therapist in England in 2026/27 earns £39,959 at Band 6 entry, £42,170 at the intermediate step and £48,117 at the top of Band 6. At Band 7 the figures are £49,387 at entry, £51,932 at the intermediate step and £56,515 at the top. The full range on this page, from Band 6 entry to Band 7 top, is £16,556 a year. Inside Band 6 the range is £8,158, and inside Band 7 it is £7,128. The step from the top of Band 6 to the entry of Band 7 is only £1,270 a year, which surprises people who expect a bigger jump for a lead post. The jump matters less for the basic pay than for what the post carries: supervision, service responsibility and a specialist caseload. A therapist who moves from Band 6 entry to Band 7 top gains £16,556 a year in basic pay, and that is the whole ladder in one number.

The 2026/27 England scales for a full-time 37.5-hour week. Hourly rates are annual pay divided by 52.2 weeks and then by 37.5 hours, rounded to the nearest penny, and enhancement rates on this page are calculated from that rounded hourly rate. Monthly pay is annual pay divided by 12. Weekly pay is annual pay divided by 52.2.

Progression within a band follows the usual Agenda for Change pattern: satisfactory appraisal and completion of required training move a therapist through the steps, but the timing follows the trust's incremental progression policy and is not a promise written into the pay scale. The move from Band 6 to Band 7 is different in kind. It needs a post that carries the extra responsibility, and the post has to be vacant and applied for. That distinction explains why two therapists with similar experience can sit on different bands: one holds a lead post, the other holds a standard clinical post, and Agenda for Change pays the post, not the person. For the wider band ladder, the Band 6 pay guide and the Band 7 pay guide set out what each band means across the NHS, and the therapist posts on this page follow that same ladder.

What arts therapists actually do

Arts therapy is psychological therapy delivered through a creative medium rather than through talking alone. That single point explains both the referrals and the settings. A patient who cannot describe a trauma, a loss or a fear in words may still be able to show it in an image, a piece of music or a played-out scene, and the therapist works with what appears in the medium, in the session, in a way that talking therapy alone cannot always reach. The work is clinical, boundaried and supervised, not a leisure activity with a therapeutic label. Sessions are planned, assessed and reviewed, and the therapist keeps clinical records like any other therapist in the service.

Art therapy uses image making. A session might involve drawing, painting, clay work or collage, with the image itself becoming the material for discussion. The point is rarely the quality of the artwork. A rough, hurried drawing that captures a feeling accurately is more useful clinically than a polished picture that hides it. Art therapists work with adults and children, in mental health services, in hospitals, in hospices and in community teams, and the referrals often involve trauma, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, dementia and the psychological effects of physical illness.

Music therapy uses sound. A session might involve playing instruments together, singing, improvising, listening or composing, with the musical interaction itself doing the therapeutic work. For a patient with dementia, a familiar song can reach memory and communication that conversation cannot. For a child with communication difficulties, shared rhythm can build turn-taking and attention before words arrive. For an adult in mental health care, improvisation can give a safe way to express anger or grief without acting on it. Music therapists work in mental health, learning disability, paediatric, neurorehabilitation and palliative care settings, and the work adapts to each patient rather than following a fixed programme.

Dramatherapy uses story, role, movement and performance. A session might involve role play, storytelling, puppet work, movement or a short devised scene, with the dramatic distance giving the patient room to explore a difficult experience without reliving it directly. Playing a role lets a patient try out a different response, practise a conversation or look at a relationship from the other side. Dramatherapists work in mental health, forensic, school, hospice and community settings, and the referrals often involve trauma, relationship difficulties, identity and the effects of long-term illness. The three disciplines overlap in their settings, and a service may refer a patient to whichever medium fits that patient best. Related talking-therapy roles are covered in the Talking Therapies pay guide, and the wider psychological workforce includes the assistant psychologist pay guide and the NHS counsellor salary guide.

Band 6 and Band 7: what actually changes

At Band 6, the post is built around a standard qualified caseload. A Band 6 arts therapist assesses referrals, plans and delivers individual and group therapy, keeps clinical records, attends multidisciplinary meetings and works under clinical supervision. The caseload is real clinical work with real risk, and the therapist carries responsibility for the patients in front of them, but the service direction, the supervision of others and the development of the service sit elsewhere. A Band 6 therapist may supervise students on placement and may contribute to service audit, but those are parts of the post, not its centre.

At Band 7, the post adds leadership. A Band 7 arts therapist may lead a small team or a service area, supervise other therapists, hold the most complex or specialist cases, develop referral pathways, train other staff and carry responsibility for the quality of the service. The clinical work does not disappear: Band 7 therapists still see patients, and the most senior clinicians often hold the cases that junior therapists cannot safely hold alone. What changes is the breadth of responsibility. A Band 7 therapist answers for other people's practice as well as their own, and for whether the service meets its referrals, its waiting times and its standards. That breadth is the reason for the higher band, and it is also why Band 7 posts are fewer: a service needs many Band 6 therapists and only a small number of leads.

The settings shape the post as much as the band. A Band 6 art therapist in an inpatient mental health unit works a different week from a Band 6 music therapist in a children's hospital, even though the pay scale is identical. One week is built around ward rounds, risk assessment and short, intensive group work. The other is built around individual sessions, family work and liaison with paediatric teams. The pay does not distinguish between them, and neither should a comparison of two posts: the band tells you the pay, the setting tells you the week. A therapist choosing between posts should ask about caseload size, group versus individual balance, supervision arrangements and travel between sites, because those factors decide the working life far more than a single pay step.

Shift patterns: mostly daytime, with evening and weekend exceptions

Most arts therapy work is weekday daytime work: clinics, ward sessions, school sessions and group programmes planned weeks ahead. That pattern suits therapists who want predictable hours, and it is one reason the profession attracts people who value a stable week. The exceptions matter for pay, though. Evening groups for working-age adults, weekend sessions on inpatient wards, and work in hospices and forensic settings can fall in the unsocial windows, and those hours are paid at the enhanced rates below. A post that includes a regular evening group will pay more in practice than a weekday-only post at the same band, even though the basic pay is identical. Therapists weighing two posts should ask for the timetable, not just the band, and should check whether evening or weekend working is rostered or occasional, because the answer decides how much of the enhancement pay is reliable and how much is occasional.

On-call working is not a standard feature of arts therapy posts. Where a service runs inpatient wards through the night, on-call arrangements, if they exist at all, are set locally, so this page quotes no rate for them: no national on-call rate for arts therapists exists in the pay data file, and a rate quoted from one trust would mislead readers in another. Hours actually worked when called in are paid at the plain rate plus the unsocial-hours enhancement for the window worked, on the same basis as the table below.

Unsocial hours and overtime

Section 2 of Agenda for Change pays enhancements for hours actually worked in the unsocial windows: weekdays 8pm to 6am, all Saturday, and Sundays and bank holidays. At Bands 6 and 7 the rates are time plus 30% for Saturdays and weekday nights and time plus 60% for Sundays and bank holidays. A Saturday hour at Band 6 entry is worth £26.53, against a plain hourly rate of £20.41, and a Sunday hour at the top of Band 7 is worth £46.19.

Overtime follows the band. Hours above 37.5 a week are paid at time and a half, and double time on bank holidays, at Bands 6 and 7. An overtime hour at Band 6 entry is worth £30.62 (£20.41 times 1.5), at Band 6 intermediate £32.31 and at the top of Band 6 £36.87, and at Band 7 entry £37.85, at the intermediate step £39.80 and at the top of Band 7 £43.31. On a bank holiday the double-time rates are £40.82 at Band 6 entry and £49.16 at the top of Band 6, and £50.46 at Band 7 entry and £57.74 at the top of Band 7. Staff may elect time off in lieu instead of overtime pay, which suits therapists who would rather bank the hours after a heavy week. The full rules are on the unsocial hours and overtime guide.

London weighting: the cap binds at the top of the ladder

Arts therapists in London trusts receive the High Cost Area Supplement on top of basic pay: 20% of basic in inner London (minimum £5,794, maximum £8,746), 15% in outer London (minimum £4,870, maximum £6,137) and 5% in the fringe zone (minimum £1,346, maximum £2,270). At Band 6 entry the raw percentages fall inside the minimum and maximum in every zone, so the supplement is the straight percentage. From Band 6 intermediate upward the outer London percentage hits the £6,137 cap, and from the top of Band 6 the inner London percentage hits the £8,746 cap and the fringe percentage hits the £2,270 cap. That pattern is worth checking on a payslip: a therapist who moves from Band 6 entry to Band 7 top gains £16,556 a year in basic pay, but the inner London supplement only rises from £7,991.80 to the capped £8,746, a rise of £754.20, because the cap holds it back.

Read the table as total pay, basic plus supplement. An arts therapist at Band 6 entry in inner London earns £47,950.80 a year, and at the top of Band 7 in inner London £65,261.00. In the fringe zone the same two posts pay £41,956.95 and £58,785.00. For the full London weighting rules and the calculator, see the London weighting and HCAS guide and the HCAS calculator.

Pension: the 10.7% tier starts only at the top of Band 7

On the provisional 2026/27 England and Wales tiers, every Band 6 step and the first two Band 7 steps sit in the 9.8% tier. Only the top of Band 7 crosses into the 10.7% tier. The employer contributes 23.7% on top of basic pay in every case. The tier is set by whole-time-equivalent salary, so a part-time therapist is tiered on the full-time rate for the post, not on part-time earnings, and the monthly contribution below is the full-time figure unless the post is part time.

The 2026/27 tiers are provisional, calculated from the published 2025/26 tiers, not yet published as final. A therapist who crosses the 9.8% to 10.7% boundary, which happens between Band 7 intermediate (£51,932) and Band 7 top (£56,515), will see the monthly contribution jump by more than the pay rise alone suggests: from £424.11 to £503.93 a month. That is normal tier behaviour, not a payroll error. For the full tier table and the calculator, see the pension contributions guide and the pension calculator.

Part time, travel between sites and uniform costs

Part-time working fits arts therapy well, because the work is session-based and services often build a week from part-time posts. Pay and annual leave are pro rata to the contracted fraction. At 0.8 whole-time equivalent, Band 6 entry pays £31,967.20 a year and Band 7 entry pays £39,509.60 a year. At 0.6 whole-time equivalent, the top of Band 6 pays £28,870.20 a year and the top of Band 7 pays £33,909.00 a year. Hours above contracted hours up to 37.5 a week are paid at plain time, with any unsocial-hours enhancement that applies, and overtime rates only apply above 37.5 hours. Annual leave follows the Agenda for Change tiers: 27 days plus 8 bank holidays at up to 5 years of service, 29 plus 8 at 5 years and over, and 33 plus 8 at 10 years and over, pro rata for part-time staff. The part-time pay guide works through the pro rata maths in full.

Arts therapists who travel between sites can claim business mileage under Section 17: 59p a mile for car travel up to 4,500 miles a year, then 36p a mile above that threshold, for journeys on or after 1 July 2026. A therapist who drives 4,000 miles in the year claims £2,360, one who drives 5,000 miles claims £2,835, and one who drives 6,000 miles claims £3,195 (59p for the first 4,500 miles, 36p for the remaining 1,500). Mileage is reimbursement for travel costs, not pay, and it is paid separately from salary. Travel between home and the normal workplace is not claimable. The full rates and worked examples are on the mileage rates guide.

Uniform costs are a smaller item, and arts therapists rarely wear a uniform in the ward sense. Where a therapist is required to wear a uniform or protective clothing and washes it at home, with no laundry service or allowance from the employer, HMRC flat-rate expenses allow a tax claim. Therapists are named in the data-file list at £125 a year, worth £25 a year in tax relief at the basic rate and £50 at the higher rate, claimable for up to four previous tax years. Where the trust provides clothing and laundry, there is nothing to claim.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Scotland awarded 3.75% from 1 April 2026 under its two-year deal, and moved to a 36-hour week from April 2026. The data file holds the Scotland Band 5 range, £34,494 to £42,977, but it does not hold Scotland Band 6 or Band 7 steps, so this page does not quote them. On the 36-hour week, the overtime threshold in Scotland is 36 hours rather than 37.5, which changes the overtime maths for part-time and full-time therapists alike. Scotland also has its own nine-tier pension structure, at 5.7% to 12.7%, with thresholds that differ from the England and Wales tiers quoted above.

Wales awarded 3.3%, implemented 1 April 2026 and paid on time. The data file holds the Wales Band 5 steps, £32,557, £35,114 and £39,631, and the Band 2 spot rate of £26,300 set by the Real Living Wage floor of £13.45 an hour. The data file does not hold Wales Band 6 or Band 7 steps, so this page does not quote them. The Real Living Wage floor applies to the lowest bands in Wales and does not bind at Band 6 or Band 7.

Northern Ireland is different: the 3.3% award was recommended but had not been implemented at the time the data file was last checked, so Northern Ireland therapist pay should not be budgeted on the England figures. The Scotland pay guide, the Wales pay guide and the Northern Ireland pay guide carry the nation positions in full.

Is arts therapy a stable NHS career?

For someone who wants clinical work that is creative without being casual, arts therapy offers a distinctive mix: a protected therapeutic role, a small professional community and a caseload where the work itself is varied even when the hours are stable. The posts are fewer than nursing or physiotherapy posts, and that scarcity is the honest trade-off. A newly qualified therapist may need to apply widely, accept part-time or fixed-term posts at first, and build a portfolio across settings before landing a substantive full-time post. The small size of the workforce cuts both ways: teams are close, supervision is often strong, and a good reputation travels quickly, but there are fewer posts to move between in any one city.

The ceiling inside the clinical ladder is Band 7 for most therapists, with Band 8a roles for service leads and consultant-level therapists in larger services. Band 8a entry in England in 2026/27 is £57,528 a year, which puts the next step in context: the move from Band 7 top (£56,515) to Band 8a entry is only £1,013 a year in basic pay, and the real change, again, is responsibility rather than money. A therapist who wants a long NHS career can build it through supervision, teaching, service development and specialist practice, and the pay ladder on this page shows exactly what each step is worth. The work itself, helping a patient say through an image, a song or a scene what words cannot carry, is the reason most therapists stay, and the pay, while not the highest in the NHS, is solid, pensionable and predictable across a career.

Frequently asked questions

What band is an arts therapist in the NHS?

In England in 2026/27, arts therapists sit mainly at Band 6 and Band 7 on Agenda for Change. Band 6 pays £39,959 at entry, £42,170 at the intermediate step and £48,117 at the top. Band 7 pays £49,387 at entry, £51,932 at the intermediate step and £56,515 at the top. Those are full-time figures for a 37.5-hour week. A qualified arts therapist working a standard clinical caseload usually sits at Band 6. A therapist who leads a service, supervises other therapists, holds a complex or specialist caseload, or carries clinical responsibility across a team usually sits at Band 7. The exact band is set by the job evaluation for each post, so check the advert rather than assuming the band from the job title.

How much does an arts therapist earn a month?

In England in 2026/27, a full-time arts therapist at Band 6 earns £3,329.92 a month at entry, £3,514.17 at the intermediate step and £4,009.75 at the top, before tax, National Insurance and pension deductions. At Band 7 the monthly figures are £4,115.58 at entry, £4,327.67 at the intermediate step and £4,709.58 at the top. Those are gross figures for a full-time 37.5-hour week, before any unsocial-hours enhancement, overtime or London weighting. A part-time therapist is paid pro rata: at 0.8 whole-time equivalent, Band 6 entry pays £31,967.20 a year, and at 0.6 whole-time equivalent, the top of Band 7 pays £33,909.00 a year.

What is the difference between art therapy, music therapy and dramatherapy?

The three disciplines share a band range and a way of working, but the medium is different, and that difference shapes the caseload. Art therapists work through image making: drawing, painting, sculpture and other visual media, used as a way for a patient to express and explore feelings that are hard to put into words. Music therapists work through sound: instruments, voice, rhythm and listening, used to build communication, reduce distress and support rehabilitation. Dramatherapists work through story, role play, movement and performance, used to explore relationships, identity and difficult experiences in a contained, creative space. A service may employ one discipline or all three, and a patient may be referred to the discipline that fits their needs best. The pay picture on this page covers all three together, because they sit on the same Band 6 to Band 7 ladder and the Agenda for Change figures do not differ by discipline.

Do arts therapists work evenings and weekends?

Some do, but far less than ward-based staff, because most arts therapy work is planned daytime clinic and ward work. Evening groups, weekend sessions and work on inpatient wards can still fall in the unsocial windows, and those hours attract Section 2 enhancements: time plus 30% for Saturdays and weekday nights (8pm to 6am) and time plus 60% for Sundays and bank holidays at Bands 6 and 7. A Saturday hour at Band 6 entry is worth £26.53 against a plain hourly rate of £20.41, and a Sunday hour at the top of Band 7 is worth £46.19. A therapist weighing two posts should ask about evening and weekend working, because a post with regular weekend groups will pay more in practice than a weekday-only post at the same band.

Do arts therapists get overtime pay?

Yes, at Bands 6 and 7. Hours above 37.5 a week are paid at time and a half, and double time on bank holidays. An overtime hour at Band 6 entry is worth £30.62 and at the top of Band 6 £36.87. At Band 7 entry an overtime hour is worth £37.85 and at the top of Band 7 £43.31. On a bank holiday the double-time rates are £40.82 at Band 6 entry and £49.16 at the top of Band 6, and £50.46 at Band 7 entry and £57.74 at the top of Band 7. Part-time staff are paid at plain time, plus any unsocial-hours enhancement that applies, for hours above their contracted hours up to 37.5 a week, with overtime rates only above 37.5 hours. Staff may elect time off in lieu instead of overtime pay.

How much do arts therapists earn in London?

Yes, where the post is based in a London trust, arts therapists receive the High Cost Area Supplement: 20% of basic in inner London (minimum £5,794, maximum £8,746), 15% in outer London (minimum £4,870, maximum £6,137) and 5% in the fringe zone (minimum £1,346, maximum £2,270). At Band 6 entry the supplement is £7,991.80 inner, £5,993.85 outer and £1,997.95 fringe, giving totals of £47,950.80, £45,952.85 and £41,956.95. At the top of Band 7 the percentage is capped in every zone, so the supplement is £8,746 inner, £6,137 outer and £2,270 fringe, giving totals of £65,261.00, £62,652.00 and £58,785.00. The supplement follows the base of the post, not the site visited on a given day.

How much pension does an arts therapist pay?

On the provisional 2026/27 England and Wales tiers, every Band 6 step sits in the 9.8% tier, at £326.33 a month on £39,959, £344.39 a month on £42,170 and £392.96 a month on £48,117. Band 7 entry and the intermediate step also sit in the 9.8% tier, at £403.33 a month on £49,387 and £424.11 a month on £51,932. Only the top of Band 7 crosses into the 10.7% tier, at £503.93 a month on £56,515. The employer contributes 23.7% on top, which is £9,470.28 a year at Band 6 entry and £13,394.06 a year at the top of Band 7. The 2026/27 tiers are provisional, calculated from the published 2025/26 tiers, not yet published as final. The tier is set by whole-time-equivalent salary, so a part-time therapist is tiered on the full-time rate for the post, not on part-time earnings.

How do you move from Band 6 to Band 7 as an arts therapist?

The route is a new post, not time served. A Band 6 therapist builds the case for Band 7 through the work itself: holding a specialist or complex caseload, supervising students or junior therapists, leading a group programme, contributing to service development, and showing the clinical judgement that a lead post needs. Moving to Band 7 usually needs a vacant lead, senior or supervisory post, applied for in the normal way, because Agenda for Change pays the post, not the person. A therapist who has done Band 7 work for years but sits in a Band 6 post is still paid at Band 6. A therapist aiming for Band 7 should ask what the service expects of its leads, seek supervision and service-development experience deliberately, and keep a record of outcomes, teaching and service changes that a Band 7 panel can assess.

Sources: NHS Employers Agenda for Change pay circular 2026/27; NHS Employers unsocial hours payments; NHS Staff Council mileage mechanism (June 2026); GOV.UK flat-rate expenses list. Figures checked against the site pay data file for 2026/27.