NHS Dietitian Hourly Pay 2026/27: What Bands 5, 6 and 7 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

Dietetics is a small profession with loyal searchers and almost no authoritative pay coverage, and it is also one of the few NHS professions where the same job title can sit in an acute hospital, a community team, a GP surgery, a care home or a specialist clinic, with the hourly economics differing in each setting even when the band is identical. This page sets out every dietitian hourly rate for 2026/27 in England, step by step, with the weekend, overtime, on-call, London, mileage and part-time figures worked through in full, so you can see what each kind of hour is actually worth before you compare posts or check a payslip.

If you want the annual picture, the dietitian 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. Dietitian is a legally protected title: you must be registered with the Health and Care Professions Council to use it, and the standard route runs through an approved dietetics degree, usually a BSc or a pre-registration MSc, with practice placements in acute and community settings. Newly qualified dietitians start at Band 5, senior or specialist dietitians who hold a caseload in a defined area sit at Band 6, and highly specialist dietitians or team leads sit at Band 7, with consultant dietitian roles reaching Band 8a and above.

Dietitian hourly rates 2026/27 at a glance

The dietitian band ladder maps neatly onto career stages, which is why the hourly table reads as a career path. Band 5 is the newly qualified dietitian building a general caseload under supervision. Band 6 is the senior or specialist dietitian holding a caseload in a defined area, such as diabetes, gastroenterology, paediatrics or renal care. Band 7 is the highly specialist dietitian or team lead who carries clinical leadership alongside a caseload, supervises junior staff and shapes the service. The table below gives every step from Band 5 entry to Band 7 top.

Two steps in the table deserve a second look. The move from the top of Band 5 (£19.95 an hour) to the bottom of Band 6 (£20.41) is worth only £0.46 an hour, or £916 a year, because the bands overlap. The move from the top of Band 6 (£24.58) to the bottom of Band 7 (£25.23) is worth £0.65 an hour, or £1,270 a year. Both steps matter more than the hourly gap suggests, because a higher band also changes the value of every enhanced hour that follows, and for acute dietitians who cover weekend ward rounds, that second effect adds up fast.

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 6 dietitian at the entry step earns £39,959 a year. Divide £39,959 by 52.2 and you get £765.50 a week. Divide £765.50 by 37.5 and you get £20.41 an hour. The same arithmetic gives £16.38 an hour for a Band 5 entrant on £32,073 (£614.43 a week) and £24.58 an hour for a Band 6 dietitian at the top of the band on £48,117 (£921.78 a week). Monthly pay is the annual salary divided by 12, so the Band 6 entrant takes £3,329.92 a month gross before deductions.

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 hourly rates are covered separately near the end of this page.

Band 5 dietitian hourly pay in detail

Band 5 is where every dietitian career starts. The newly qualified period runs at the entry step, with supervision and a general caseload, and the band has three steps in total. At £16.38 an hour, a new dietitian earns £122.85 for a standard 7.5 hour day and £614.43 for a 37.5 hour week. At the intermediate step, £17.67 an hour gives £132.53 a day and £662.68 a week. At the top of Band 5, £19.95 an hour gives £149.63 a day and £747.95 a week.

Band 5 is also where the unsocial hours uplift first shows up in cash terms, though for most dietitians it is modest, because community and clinic work runs on weekdays. A Band 5 entrant earns £21.29 for a Saturday or night hour and £26.21 for a Sunday or bank holiday hour. At the top of the band, those figures rise to £25.94 and £31.92. A single 7.5 hour Saturday shift at the entry step is therefore worth £159.68 at the enhanced rate, against £122.85 at the plain rate, a difference of £36.83 for one shift.

Pension sits on top of these rates rather than inside them. Under the provisional 2026/27 tiers, a Band 5 entrant on £32,073 pays 8.3% of pensionable pay, which is £221.84 a month, and the employer adds 23.7%, which is £633.44 a month. The intermediate step at £34,592 also falls in the 8.3% tier at £239.26 a month, while the top step at £39,043 falls in the 9.8% tier at £318.85 a month. 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.

Band 6 senior and specialist hourly pay in detail

Band 6 is where most career dietitians settle. The band runs from £20.41 an hour at entry to £24.58 at the top, with an intermediate step at £21.54. In day terms, that is £153.08, £161.55 and £184.35 for a 7.5 hour day. In weekly terms, it is £765.50, £807.85 and £921.78 for a full 37.5 hour week.

The unsocial hours figures for Band 6 are the ones acute dietitians will recognise from their payslips. At the entry step, a Saturday or night hour pays £26.53 and a Sunday or bank holiday hour pays £32.66. At the intermediate step, the figures are £28.00 and £34.46. At the top of the band, they are £31.95 and £39.33. Put those rates against a weekend and the rota effect becomes concrete: a Band 6 entrant working a plain weekday shift of 7.5 hours earns £153.08, a 7.5 hour Saturday shift earns £198.98, and a 7.5 hour Sunday shift earns £244.95. Across one of each, the three shifts total £597.01 for 22.5 hours, which averages £26.53 an hour, well above the plain rate, simply because of the mix of hours.

Band 6 also brings the setting split into focus. An acute Band 6 dietitian covering weekend ward rounds in critical care or stroke picks up those enhancements regularly. A community Band 6 dietitian visiting patients at home or in care homes works mostly weekdays and picks up few enhancements, but adds mileage instead, covered below. A paediatric Band 6 dietitian in allergy, gastroenterology or metabolic clinics mostly works weekdays too. Same band, same hourly rate, very different monthly totals, which is why comparing two Band 6 posts on basic pay alone misses the point.

Band 7 highly specialist and team lead hourly pay

Highly specialist dietitian and team lead roles that carry clinical leadership, supervise junior dietitians and shape a service are usually graded Band 7, and the hourly rates reflect that step up. Entry pays £25.23 an hour (£189.23 a day, £946.11 a week), the intermediate step pays £26.53 an hour (£198.98 a day, £994.87 a week), and the top of the band pays £28.87 an hour (£216.53 a day, £1,082.66 a week).

Unsocial hours at Band 7 follow the same 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. Overtime at Band 7 pays time and a half, which is £37.85 an hour at entry and £43.31 at the top, and double time on bank holidays, which is £50.46 at entry and £57.74 at the top. Pension at Band 7 is 9.8% at the entry and intermediate steps (£403.33 and £424.11 a month) and 10.7% at the top step (£503.93 a month) under the provisional tiers.

Consultant dietitian roles reach Band 8a and above, but they sit outside the scope of this page, which covers the Bands 5 to 7 range where the large majority of NHS dietitians work. Staff at Bands 8 and 9 get no contractual overtime pay and take time off in lieu instead, which matters when comparing a Band 7 post with regular overtime against a Band 8a consultant post. Non-medical prescribing and advanced clinical practice credentials increasingly underpin Band 7 dietetic roles, but they usually bring responsibility rather than a separate pay uplift.

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 every dietitian band, 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 the three main dietitian bands.

Two points catch people out. First, the enhancement applies to the hour worked, not to the whole shift: a shift that starts in the evening and runs past 8pm earns plain time before 8pm and the enhanced rate after it, unless local arrangements say otherwise. Second, the percentages above are the current Section 2 rates. Older figures still circulate online, including 44% and 88% for Band 2 and 37% and 74% for Band 3, but those are the pre-September 2018 rates and they do not apply to dietitians on Bands 5 to 7 in any case. If a calculator or forum post quotes them, it is out of date.

For the full unsocial hours rules, including how the enhancements interact with part-time hours, see the unsocial hours and overtime guide. The setting matters here more than in most professions: acute dietitians covering weekend ward rounds earn these enhancements as a routine part of the job, while community, paediatric and clinic-based dietitians, whose work runs on weekdays, may earn none at all.

Overtime hourly rates for dietitians

Overtime under Section 3 pays time and a half for Bands 1 to 7, and double time on bank and public holidays. Overtime only starts above 37.5 hours in a week. Part-time staff earn plain time, plus any unsocial enhancement that applies, for hours above their contracted hours up to 37.5, and overtime rates only kick in beyond that point. You cannot claim overtime and an unsocial enhancement for the same hour, and staff may elect time off in lieu instead of payment.

Worked example: a Band 6 dietitian at the top of the band who works four overtime hours in a normal week earns 4 times £36.87, which is £147.48 on top of the normal week's pay. The same four hours on a bank holiday at double time earn 4 times £49.16, which is £196.64. If those overtime hours fall on a Sunday, the choice is between the overtime rate and the unsocial rate for the same hours, not both added together. The overtime calculator runs the same maths for any combination of hours and enhancements.

Weekend cover and on-call: where they apply in dietetics

On-call is far less central to dietetics than to nursing or laboratory work, and that difference is worth stating plainly, because job adverts sometimes imply otherwise. Most dietetic posts carry no on-call at all. The exceptions sit in acute hospitals, where weekend ward rounds in critical care, stroke and gastroenterology exist, and in a small number of specialist services with out-of-hours cover.

Where on-call does exist, Agenda for Change pays an availability payment for the on-call period plus call-out payments at overtime rates when you attend. The call-out maths is fixed, but the availability payment is set locally, so two Band 6 posts in different hospitals can pay very differently in practice even when their basic rates match. Worked example: a dietitian at Band 6 entry, on £20.41 an hour, called in for three hours earns 3 times £20.41 times 1.5, which is £91.85 for the call-out, plus the availability payment for the on-call period.

Before accepting an acute post, ask for the weekend and on-call policy in writing: which weekends are rostered, the availability payment, the minimum call-out period, and how often call-outs actually happen on that rota. A post that looks identical on basic pay can differ by hundreds of pounds a month once weekend cover is counted, and the difference is invisible in the annual salary table. Community and clinic-based dietitians should instead ask about mileage and lease car terms, which is where their extra earnings usually sit.

London dietitian 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. The fringe pays 5% with a minimum of £1,346 and a maximum of £2,270. Where the percentage gives less than the minimum, the minimum applies, and where it gives more than the maximum, the supplement is capped.

How the table is built, so you can check it: a Band 5 entrant on £32,073 earns a 20% inner supplement of £6,414.60, giving a total of £38,487.60 a year, which is £19.66 an hour. The outer minimum of £4,870 applies instead of 15%, because 15% of £32,073 is £4,810.95, below the minimum, giving £36,943 a year or £18.87 an hour. The fringe rate is 5%, which is £1,603.65, giving £33,676.65 a year or £17.20 an hour. At the top of Band 6, the inner supplement is capped: 20% of £48,117 is £9,623.40, above the £8,746 maximum, so the total is £56,863 a year or £29.05 an hour. The London weighting guide explains the zones and the caps in full.

Community mileage: the extra community dietitians actually earn

For community dietitians, mileage is often worth more than any unsocial hours enhancement, because home visits are the job. Under Agenda for Change Section 17, car mileage pays 59p a mile for the first 4,500 miles in the mileage year and 36p a mile beyond that, with motorcycle at 30p, pedal cycle at 20p, a passenger allowance of 5p a mile and a reserve rate of 30p. Mileage is an expense reimbursement, not pay: it is not pensionable and it does not count towards the hourly rate, but it lands in the bank all the same.

Worked example: a community dietitian driving 5,000 business miles in a year claims 4,500 miles at 59p, which is £2,655, plus 500 miles at 36p, which is £180, a total of £2,835 for the year. That is £236.25 a month on average, before any lease car or travel time arrangements the trust may offer. Note the review caveat: Section 17 rates are reviewed twice a year, and the October 2026 review may change rates from 1 January 2027, so check the current rate before relying on the 59p figure for a new post. The mileage rates guide carries the full Section 17 table and the worked examples.

Part-time dietitian hourly pay

Part-time work does not change the hourly rate. A dietitian on 0.6 whole time equivalent works 22.5 hours a week and earns the same rate per hour as a full-time colleague on the same band and step. The annual salary and the monthly pay are scaled by the fraction, and so is the weekly total.

At Band 5 entry, £16.38 an hour gives £368.55 a week at 22.5 hours (£19,243.80 a year) and £491.40 a week at 30 hours (£25,658.40 a year). At Band 6 top, £24.58 an hour gives £553.05 a week at 22.5 hours (£28,870.20 a year) and £737.40 a week at 30 hours (£38,493.60 a year). Part-time staff also accrue annual leave pro rata, and hours above contracted hours up to 37.5 are paid at plain time plus any unsocial enhancement, as set out in the overtime section above. The part-time pay guide works through the leave and pension effects in detail. Dietetics has a large part-time workforce, and job shares and compressed hours are common in community and clinic teams.

NHS versus freelance and private dietitian work

This is the comparison dietitian applicants ask about most, because dietetics has an active freelance market: private clinics, sports nutrition, corporate wellness, care-home contracts and medico-legal work. Freelance day rates can substantially exceed the NHS daily equivalent, but that headline comparison leaves out the missing pieces: no NHS pension with its 23.7% employer contribution, no occupational sick pay, no paid annual leave, plus indemnity, HCPC fees and unpaid business development. This page quotes no freelance rate, because freelance rates are set per practitioner and no single verified scale exists to quote.

The honest maths: freelancing usually wins on headline income for established dietitians with full caseloads, while the NHS wins on security, pension accrual and paid leave. Many dietitians do both, with an NHS post as the base and private clinics on top. If you compare a freelance day rate with an NHS hourly rate, convert the NHS figure properly first: a Band 6 dietitian at the top of the band earns £24.58 an hour, which is £184.35 for a 7.5 hour day before enhancements, pension and leave are counted. The pension contributions guide explains what you would be leaving or joining.

Career progression in hourly terms

Progression through dietitian bands is usually driven by the post rather than by time served: a newly qualified post is Band 5, a senior or specialist post is Band 6, and a highly specialist or team lead post is Band 7. In hourly terms, the full journey from Band 5 entry (£16.38) to Band 7 top (£28.87) is worth £12.49 an hour, or £24,442 a year full time. The single biggest step in the journey is inside Band 6, from entry (£20.41) to top (£24.58), worth £4.17 an hour or £8,158 a year.

That progression also changes the value of every enhanced hour. A Sunday hour rises from £26.21 at Band 5 entry to £32.66 at Band 6 entry, £39.33 at Band 6 top and £46.19 at Band 7 top. For an acute dietitian working regular weekends, the band step therefore matters twice: once in the plain rate and again in every unsocial hour that follows. Specialist routes within the profession, such as diabetes, gastroenterology, renal care, paediatrics and eating disorders, generally progress through the same Bands 6 and 7 structure rather than through a separate pay ladder. The Band 6 pay guide and the Band 5 pay guide set out the full salary tables for the two bands where most dietitians sit, and the pharmacist salary guide shows a longer clinical ladder in a related field.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Scotland agreed a two-year deal with 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. The published Scotland Band 5 range of £34,494 to £42,977 therefore works out at £18.36 to £22.87 an hour. The full Scotland step-by-step scale is not in the verified data used for this page, so this page gives the range endpoints only and does not invent intermediate steps.

Wales applied the 3.3% award from 1 April 2026 with a real living wage floor of £13.45 an hour for the lowest bands. Welsh Band 5 steps of £32,557, £35,114 and £39,631 give hourly rates of £16.63, £17.94 and £20.25 on the standard 37.5 hour week, slightly above the England equivalents at each step. Northern Ireland is the exception to the whole 2026/27 picture: the 3.3% award was recommended but had not been implemented at the last check, and staff there should not budget on rates that have not yet been paid. The Scotland pay guide and the Wales pay guide carry the nation-level detail.

Source: NHS Employers unsocial hours payments. Pay rates also published by Health Careers NHS.

Frequently asked questions

What is the hourly rate for an NHS dietitian in 2026/27?

In England in 2026/27, an NHS dietitian on Band 5 earns £16.38 an hour at the entry step, £17.67 an hour at the intermediate step and £19.95 an hour at the top of the band. A senior or specialist dietitian on Band 6 earns £20.41 an hour at entry, £21.54 an hour at the intermediate step and £24.58 an hour at the top. A highly specialist dietitian or team lead on Band 7 earns £25.23 an hour at entry, £26.53 an hour at the intermediate step and £28.87 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 dietitian 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 6 dietitian on £39,959 a year therefore earns £39,959 divided by 52.2 divided by 37.5, which is £20.41 an hour. The same formula gives every hourly rate on this page. Enhancements in the tables below are worked out from the rounded hourly rate, which is how the site's other hourly guides present them.

What is the hourly rate for a newly qualified dietitian?

A newly qualified dietitian starts at the bottom of Band 5: £32,073 a year, which is £16.38 an hour and £2,672.75 a month before tax, National Insurance and pension. The post requires registration with the Health and Care Professions Council, and the standard route runs through an approved dietetics degree, usually a BSc or a pre-registration MSc, with practice placements in acute and community settings. The next Band 5 steps pay £17.67 an hour (£34,592 a year) and £19.95 an hour (£39,043 a year), and Band 6 is the normal step up once you hold a specialist caseload.

Do NHS dietitians 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 6 dietitian at the entry step therefore earns £26.53 for a Saturday or night hour and £32.66 for a Sunday or bank holiday hour, against a plain rate of £20.41. Dietetics is overwhelmingly a weekday profession, so most of the weekend work sits in acute hospitals, covering weekend ward rounds in areas such as critical care and stroke, rather than in community or clinic-based teams.

What is dietitian 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 5 dietitian at the entry step earns £24.57 an overtime hour and £32.76 on a bank holiday, while a Band 6 dietitian at the top of the band earns £36.87 and £49.16. Overtime only starts above 37.5 hours a week, and you cannot claim overtime and an unsocial hours enhancement for the same hour. Part-time staff earn plain time, plus any unsocial enhancement that applies, for hours above their contracted hours up to 37.5, and overtime rates only kick in beyond that point.

Do dietitians get on-call pay?

Some do, but on-call is far less central to dietetics than to nursing or laboratory work. Where a service runs on-call cover, Agenda for Change pays an availability payment for the on-call period plus call-out payments at overtime rates when you attend. A dietitian at Band 6 entry, on £20.41 an hour, called in for three hours would earn about £91.85 for the call-out itself, which is 3 times £20.41 times 1.5, 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. Community and clinic-based dietitians rarely carry on-call at all.

What is the London dietitian 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 5 dietitian at the entry step therefore earns £19.66 an hour in inner London, £18.87 in outer London and £17.20 in the fringe, against a basic rate of £16.38. At the top of Band 6, the inner supplement is capped at £8,746, giving £29.05 an hour.

Do Scotland and Wales pay different dietitian hourly rates?

Yes. 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. The published Scotland Band 5 range of £34,494 to £42,977 therefore works out at £18.36 to £22.87 an hour. 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 give £16.63, £17.94 and £20.25 an hour on the standard 37.5 hour week. Northern Ireland had not implemented the 3.3% recommendation at the last check, so do not budget on it. Dietitians in private practice are a separate case: they set their own rates and sit outside Agenda for Change entirely, so the band rates on this page do not apply to them.