NHS Healthcare Assistant Hourly Pay 2026/27: What Band 2 and Band 3 Earn an Hour
Last updated: 27 October 2026 · Figures verified against the NHS Employers 2026/27 pay circular.
Healthcare assistants are the largest support workforce in the NHS, and they work the rotas where hourly maths matters most: nights, weekends and bank holidays, often on 12 hour shifts. The annual salary hides how much each kind of hour is actually worth, and for Band 2 staff the unsocial hours percentages are the highest in the whole Agenda for Change scheme. This page sets out every healthcare assistant hourly rate for 2026/27 in England, step by step, with the unsocial hours, overtime, London, part-time and bank figures worked through in full.
If you want the annual picture, the healthcare assistant 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.
Healthcare assistant hourly rates 2026/27 at a glance
Most healthcare assistants are employed on Band 2, which is a single spot rate with no pay steps: every Band 2 healthcare assistant in England earns the same basic pay. Senior healthcare assistants with additional competencies, such as venepuncture, ECGs or catheter care, are usually graded Band 3, which has two steps. Band 4 covers senior healthcare assistants and assistant practitioners, and it is included at the foot of the table as the next rung up.
| Band and step | Hourly rate | Annual salary | Monthly pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Band 2 (spot rate) | £12.91 | £25,272 | £2,106.00 |
| Band 3 entry (senior HCA) | £13.16 | £25,760 | £2,146.67 |
| Band 3 top (senior HCA) | £14.04 | £27,476 | £2,289.67 |
| Band 4 entry (assistant practitioner) | £14.50 | £28,392 | £2,366.00 |
| Band 4 top (assistant practitioner) | £15.92 | £31,157 | £2,596.42 |
Two steps in the table deserve a second look. The move from Band 2 (£12.91 an hour) to the bottom of Band 3 (£13.16) is worth only £0.25 an hour, or £488 a year, because Band 2 and Band 3 sit close together. The move from the top of Band 3 (£14.04) to the bottom of Band 4 (£14.50) is worth £0.46 an hour, or £916 a year. Both steps matter more than the hourly gap suggests, because a higher band changes which unsocial hours percentages apply, and Band 2 has the most generous percentages in the scheme, so moving up a band actually lowers the enhancement rate even as the plain rate rises.
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 2 healthcare assistant earns £25,272 a year. Divide £25,272 by 52.2 and you get £484.14 a week. Divide £484.14 by 37.5 and you get £12.91 an hour. The same arithmetic gives £13.16 an hour for a Band 3 healthcare assistant at the entry step on £25,760 (£493.49 a week) and £14.04 an hour for a Band 3 healthcare assistant at the top of the band on £27,476 (£526.36 a week). Monthly pay is the annual salary divided by 12, so the Band 2 healthcare assistant takes £2,106.00 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 2 healthcare assistant hourly pay in detail
Band 2 is where most healthcare assistant careers start, and it is the only band on this page with no steps at all. At £12.91 an hour, a Band 2 healthcare assistant earns £96.83 for a standard 7.5 hour day and £484.14 for a 37.5 hour week. There is no increment to wait for: the only way the basic hourly rate rises is through the annual national award or a move to a Band 3 post.
Band 2 is also where the unsocial hours uplift does the heaviest lifting. A Saturday or weekday night hour pays £18.20, and a Sunday or bank holiday hour pays £23.63. Put those rates against a 12 hour shift and the rota effect becomes concrete: a Band 2 healthcare assistant earns £154.92 for a plain 12 hour day shift, £218.40 for a 12 hour Saturday or night shift, and £283.56 for a 12 hour Sunday or bank holiday shift. A single Sunday shift is worth £128.64 more than the same shift on a weekday, which is why ward rotas with regular weekends pay noticeably more than the headline salary suggests.
A typical mixed rota shows why the average hourly rate on a healthcare assistant payslip sits well above the plain rate. Take a Band 2 healthcare assistant working one plain 12 hour day, one 12 hour night shift and one 12 hour Sunday shift in a week. The plain day pays £154.92, the night pays £218.40 and the Sunday pays £283.56, a total of £656.88 for 36 hours, which averages £18.25 an hour across the three shifts. That average is not a contractual rate, it is simply what that particular mix of hours produces, but it explains why two healthcare assistants on the same band can take home very different amounts in the same month.
Pension sits on top of these rates rather than inside them. Under the provisional 2026/27 tiers, a Band 2 healthcare assistant on £25,272 pays 6.5% of pensionable pay, which is £136.89 a month, and the employer adds 23.7%, which is £499.12 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 3 senior healthcare assistant hourly pay in detail
Band 3 is for senior healthcare assistants who carry additional competencies beyond the Band 2 role, such as taking blood, recording ECGs or supporting catheter care. The band has two steps. At the entry step, £13.16 an hour gives £98.70 for a 7.5 hour day and £493.49 for a 37.5 hour week. At the top of the band, £14.04 an hour gives £105.30 a day and £526.36 a week.
The unsocial hours percentages at Band 3 are lower than at Band 2, which surprises people who expect a higher band to mean higher enhancements across the board. At the entry step, a Saturday or night hour pays £17.77 and a Sunday or bank holiday hour pays £22.24. At the top of the band, the figures are £18.95 and £23.73. Compare the Sunday hour at the top of Band 3 (£23.73) with the Sunday hour at Band 2 (£23.63): the Band 3 Sunday hour is worth only £0.10 more, even though the plain rate is £1.13 higher. The higher plain rate only starts to pull clearly ahead once overtime or London weighting enters the picture.
Pension at Band 3 is also 6.5% under the provisional tiers at both steps: £139.53 a month at the entry step and £148.83 a month at the top of the band. The employer adds 23.7% in both cases, which is £508.76 a month at entry and £542.65 a month at the top. For the full Band 3 role picture, including the competencies that justify the grade, see the healthcare assistant salary guide.
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. Band 2 gets 41% on top of plain time for Saturday and weekday night hours and 83% for Sunday and public holiday hours. Band 3 gets 35% and 69%. Bands 4 to 9 get 30% and 60%. The table below gives the resulting hourly rates for the healthcare assistant bands.
| Band and step | Plain hour | Saturday / night hour | Sunday / bank holiday hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Band 2 | £12.91 | £18.20 | £23.63 |
| Band 3 entry | £13.16 | £17.77 | £22.24 |
| Band 3 top | £14.04 | £18.95 | £23.73 |
| Band 4 entry | £14.50 | £18.85 | £23.20 |
| Band 4 top | £15.92 | £20.70 | £25.47 |
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, 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 no longer apply. 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.
Overtime hourly rates for healthcare assistants
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.
| Band and step | Plain hour | Overtime hour (x1.5) | Bank holiday overtime hour (x2) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Band 2 | £12.91 | £19.37 | £25.82 |
| Band 3 entry | £13.16 | £19.74 | £26.32 |
| Band 3 top | £14.04 | £21.06 | £28.08 |
| Band 4 entry | £14.50 | £21.75 | £29.00 |
| Band 4 top | £15.92 | £23.88 | £31.84 |
Worked example: a Band 3 healthcare assistant at the top of the band who works four overtime hours in a normal week earns 4 times £21.06, which is £84.24 on top of the normal week's pay. The same four hours on a bank holiday at double time earn 4 times £28.08, which is £112.32. 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.
London healthcare assistant 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. At healthcare assistant pay levels the minimums do most of the work, because the percentages alone fall short of them.
| Band and step | Basic hourly | Inner London hourly | Outer London hourly | Fringe hourly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Band 2 | £12.91 | £15.87 | £15.40 | £13.60 |
| Band 3 entry | £13.16 | £16.12 | £15.65 | £13.85 |
| Band 3 top | £14.04 | £17.00 | £16.52 | £14.74 |
How the table is built, so you can check it: a Band 2 healthcare assistant on £25,272 earns a 20% inner supplement of £5,054.40, which is below the £5,794 minimum, so the minimum applies and the total is £31,066 a year, which is £15.87 an hour. The outer minimum of £4,870 applies instead of 15%, because 15% of £25,272 is £3,790.80, giving £30,142 a year or £15.40 an hour. The fringe minimum of £1,346 applies instead of 5%, because 5% is £1,263.60, giving £26,618 a year or £13.60 an hour. At the top of Band 3, the inner minimum again applies: 20% of £27,476 is £5,495.20, below £5,794, so the total is £33,270 a year or £17.00 an hour, while the fringe percentage of £1,373.80 clears its minimum and gives £28,849.80 a year or £14.74 an hour. The London weighting guide explains the zones and the caps in full.
Band 4 follows the same pattern at a higher level: a Band 4 healthcare assistant at the entry step earns £17.46 an hour in inner London (£34,186 a year, again the £5,794 minimum) and a Band 4 healthcare assistant at the top of the band earns £19.10 an hour in inner London (£37,388.40 a year, where the 20% supplement of £6,231.40 clears the minimum).
Part-time healthcare assistant hourly pay
Part-time work does not change the hourly rate. A healthcare assistant 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 2, 0.6 whole time equivalent gives £15,163.20 a year, which is £290.48 a week, and 0.8 whole time equivalent (30 hours a week) gives £20,217.60 a year, which is £387.31 a week. At the top of Band 3, 0.6 whole time equivalent gives £16,485.60 a year, which is £315.82 a week. 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.
Bank healthcare assistant hourly pay
Bank healthcare assistants are paid at the same band hourly rate as substantive staff for the shifts they work: a bank Band 2 shift pays £12.91 an hour plain time, with the same unsocial hours enhancements (£18.20 for a Saturday or night hour, £23.63 for a Sunday or bank holiday hour) and the same overtime rules above 37.5 hours. There is no separate bank hourly rate in Agenda for Change, and this page quotes no bank premium, because no national bank uplift figure is in the verified data used here. What bank work changes is the pattern, not the rate: bank staff choose their shifts, so they can pick up more enhanced hours, but they do not get the same guaranteed hours, sick pay or annual leave accrual as substantive staff on a fixed contract. Agency rates are a different market entirely, set by the agency and the trust, and they are not quoted on this page. The agency versus bank guide compares the two routes in full.
Career progression in hourly terms
Progression for healthcare assistants usually runs through the bands on this page and then into registered nursing. A senior healthcare assistant post at Band 3 is the first step, and from there the route often leads to a Band 4 assistant practitioner post or a trainee nursing associate post, and then to a Band 5 registered nurse post at £16.38 an hour. In hourly terms, the full journey from Band 2 (£12.91) to Band 5 entry (£16.38) is worth £3.47 an hour, or £6,801 a year full time.
Band 4 is worth a closer look as the middle rung. Entry pays £14.50 an hour (£108.75 a day, £543.91 a week), and the top of the band pays £15.92 an hour (£119.40 a day, £596.88 a week). Unsocial hours at Band 4 follow the Bands 4 to 9 percentages, so a Saturday or night hour pays £18.85 at entry and £20.70 at the top, while a Sunday or bank holiday hour pays £23.20 and £25.47. Overtime at Band 4 pays £21.75 an hour at entry and £23.88 at the top, and double time on bank holidays pays £29.00 and £31.84. Pension at Band 4 is 6.5% at the entry step (£153.79 a month) and 8.3% at the top step (£215.50 a month) under the provisional tiers, because the top step crosses the 6.5% tier threshold. The Band 4 pay guide and the Band 3 pay guide set out the full salary tables for the two bands where senior healthcare assistants sit.
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 verified data used for this page does not hold Scotland Band 2 or Band 3 pay steps, so this page gives no Scotland healthcare assistant hourly rate rather than an invented one. Staff in Scotland should check the Scotland scale for their own step before budgeting on an England figure.
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, and the Welsh Band 2 spot rate is £26,300 a year. That floor is the figure that matters most for Welsh healthcare assistants, because it sits above the England Band 2 hourly rate. Welsh Band 3 steps differ slightly from England and are not quoted here, because the verified data used for this page gives the Welsh floor and the Band 2 spot rate but not the full Welsh Band 3 step set. 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.
Pay progression
From here, the natural next steps are the healthcare assistant salary guide for the annual figures and take-home examples, the hourly rate calculator for any other band, and the unsocial hours guide for the full Section 2 rules behind the enhanced rates on this page.
Source: NHS Employers unsocial hours payments. Pay rates also published by Health Careers NHS.
Frequently asked questions
What is the NHS healthcare assistant hourly rate in 2026/27?
In England in 2026/27, a healthcare assistant on Band 2 earns £12.91 an hour. Band 2 is a single spot rate, so every Band 2 healthcare assistant earns the same basic hourly rate. Senior healthcare assistants on Band 3 earn £13.16 an hour at the entry step and £14.04 an hour at the top of the band. Those are plain-time rates for a 37.5 hour week; night, Saturday, Sunday and bank holiday hours pay more.
How is the NHS 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 2 healthcare assistant on £25,272 a year therefore earns £25,272 divided by 52.2 divided by 37.5, which is £12.91 an hour. The same formula gives every hourly rate on this page, and it is the calculation payroll uses for Agenda for Change staff in England.
Why do Band 2 healthcare assistants get higher unsocial hours percentages than nurses?
Agenda for Change Section 2 sets different enhancement rates by band. Band 2 gets the highest percentages in the whole scheme: 41% on top of plain time for Saturday and weekday night hours, and 83% for Sunday and bank holiday hours. Band 3 gets 35% and 69%. Bands 4 to 9, which include staff nurses, get 30% and 60%. The lower bands were given higher percentages because unsocial hours make up a larger share of their working pattern and their basic pay is lower, so the enhancement closes more of the gap.
How much extra is a night or weekend hour worth for a healthcare assistant?
A Band 2 healthcare assistant earns £18.20 for a Saturday or weekday night hour (8pm to 6am) and £23.63 for a Sunday or bank holiday hour, against a plain rate of £12.91. A Band 3 healthcare assistant at the top of the band earns £18.95 for a Saturday or night hour and £23.73 for a Sunday or bank holiday hour, against a plain rate of £14.04.
What is healthcare assistant 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 2 healthcare assistant earns £19.37 an overtime hour and £25.82 on a bank holiday, while a Band 3 healthcare assistant at the top of the band earns £21.06 and £28.08. Overtime only starts above 37.5 hours a week, and you cannot claim overtime and an unsocial hours enhancement for the same hour.
What is the London healthcare assistant hourly rate with HCAS?
London weighting is added to the annual salary before the hourly rate is worked out, so it lifts the hourly figure directly. A Band 2 healthcare assistant earns £15.87 an hour in inner London (£31,066 a year including the £5,794 minimum supplement), £15.40 in outer London and £13.60 in the fringe. A Band 3 healthcare assistant at the top of the band earns £17.00 an hour in inner London, £16.52 in outer London and £14.74 in the fringe.
Do part-time and bank healthcare assistants get the same hourly rate?
Yes. The hourly rate depends on the band and pay step, not on how many hours you work, so a part-time healthcare assistant earns the same rate per hour as a full-time colleague on the same step, and bank healthcare assistants are paid at the same band hourly rate for the shifts they work. What changes is the total: a Band 2 healthcare assistant working 22.5 hours a week (0.6 whole time equivalent) earns £290.48 a week, which is £15,163.20 a year, against £484.14 a week full time.
How does healthcare assistant hourly pay in Scotland and Wales compare?
Scotland agreed a 3.75% award from 1 April 2026 and moved to a 36 hour week, so Scottish hourly rates use a different divisor and cannot be read straight off the England table. The verified data used for this page does not hold Scotland Band 2 or Band 3 pay steps, so no Scotland healthcare assistant hourly rate is quoted here rather than an invented one. Wales applied the 3.3% award with a £13.45 an hour real living wage floor for the lowest bands, and the Welsh Band 2 spot rate is £26,300 a year. Northern Ireland had not implemented the 3.3% recommendation at the last check, so do not budget on it.