Mental Health Nurse Take-Home Pay 2026/27: What Mental Health Nurses Keep Each Month

Last updated: 10 November 2026 · Figures verified against the NHS Employers 2026/27 pay circular.

By the NHS Bands Pay editorial team

A mental health nurse salary is quoted gross, but nobody budgets gross. The number that matters at the end of the month is what lands in the bank after pension, tax, National Insurance and, for many mental health nurses who qualified recently, a student loan. This page works that number out step by step for every Band 5, Band 6 and Band 7 step in England in 2026/27, so a mental health nurse can find their own step, read across, and see the monthly figure that follows from the published pay scales. The generic nurse take-home pay guide covers the same bands for ward nurses, but it cannot model what makes mental health pay different: the setting. An inpatient nurse on an acute ward earns full unsocial-hours enhancements as a matter of routine, while a community mental health nurse on a weekday caseload earns almost none, and two nurses on the same band can take home several hundred pounds a month apart for that reason alone.

Mental health nursing is a separate Nursing and Midwifery Council field. Nurses qualify as registered mental health nurses and then build specialist competence in post, through de-escalation and restraint training, psychological interventions, crisis assessment and, for the practitioner route, Approved Mental Health Professional training and non-medical prescribing. Newly qualified nurses sit at Band 5, senior staff nurses, charge nurses and specialist practitioners at Band 6, and ward managers, crisis team leaders and advanced practitioners at Band 7. Most of the workforce sits on the three bands this page covers, which is why the table below runs from Band 5 entry to Band 7 top and no further: matrons and service managers at Band 8a and above are covered in the Band 8a guide, and their take-home picture follows the same method with higher pension tiers and no contractual overtime.

Every figure on this page follows the same method. Pension comes off gross pay first, and tax is calculated on what remains. That order matters, because it means pension contributions also reduce the tax bill. National Insurance is calculated on full gross pay, not on pay after pension. Student loan deductions are shown in a separate column, because they apply only to borrowers. The method is the same one used in the nurse take-home pay guide, the midwife take-home pay guide and the paramedic take-home pay guide, and the Band 5 entry row cross-checks against the site take-home calculator: the homepage calculator, run for a Band 5 entrant on the same inputs, gives the same £2,040.21 a month net, to the penny.

Monthly take-home by band step: the full table

Read the table by band and step. Gross salary is the full-time 2026/27 Agenda for Change figure for England. Pension, income tax and National Insurance are monthly amounts. Take-home is what remains after those three deductions, before any student loan. The final column shows take-home after a Plan 2 student loan, the most common plan for recently qualified mental health nurses.

Three steps deserve a second look. The move from the top of Band 5 to the bottom of Band 6 is worth only £916 a year gross, because the bands overlap, and take-home rises by only £48.98 a month. The move from the top of Band 6 to the bottom of Band 7 is worth £1,270 a year gross, and take-home rises by £67.90 a month. Both steps matter more than those gaps suggest, because a higher band also changes the value of every enhanced hour that follows, and in mental health nursing, where nights and weekends are a large share of inpatient work, that second effect is large: 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. The full journey from Band 5 entry to Band 7 top is worth £1,268.78 a month in take-home, or £24,442 a year gross. In hourly terms, the journey runs from £16.38 to £28.87 an hour. Gross monthly pay runs from £2,672.75 at Band 5 entry to £4,709.58 at Band 7 top, before any deductions. For the hourly breakdown of the same bands, see the mental health nurse hourly pay guide, which breaks Bands 5 to 7 down by the hour, including weekend and on-call rates. For the gross salary picture, including role descriptions and progression routes, see mental health nurse salary. The hourly rate calculator converts any of these salaries to an hourly figure for a different contracted hours pattern.

A worked month: the Band 5 entry payslip

Take a newly qualified mental health nurse on Band 5 entry, £32,073 a year, full-time, no student loan, standard tax code. Gross monthly pay is £2,672.75. Pension at 8.3% takes £2,662.06 a year, which is £221.84 a month, leaving £29,410.94 of pay after pension for tax purposes. Take off the £12,570 personal allowance and taxable income is £16,840.94 a year, all of it inside the 20% basic-rate band, giving annual tax of £3,368.19, or £280.68 a month. National Insurance is 8% of the £19,503 between £12,570 and the salary, giving £1,560.24 a year, or £130.02 a month, with no 2% slice because pay sits below £50,270. What is left is £24,482.51 a year, which is £2,040.21 a month. With a Plan 2 student loan, a further 9% of the £2,688 above the £29,385 threshold comes off, which is £241.92 a year, or £20.16 a month, leaving £2,020.05.

That worked month doubles as a cross-check on the whole table, because the same method produces every row. A mental health nurse who gets a different payslip figure can start by looking for a different tax code, a student loan plan, or unsocial hours and overtime on top of basic pay, rather than doubting the arithmetic. Rounded to the pound, the two anchor figures are £2,040.21 a month at Band 5 entry and £3,308.99 at Band 7 top.

Pension: the deduction that also cuts the tax bill

Pension is the largest deduction for most mental health nurses, and it is also the one that does quiet work elsewhere. Because contributions come off before tax is calculated, every pound of pension contribution saves 20p of basic-rate tax at these income levels, and 40p once taxable income passes into the higher rate. The contribution tiers for 2026/27 are the official tiers, and the employer adds 23.7% on top of every member contribution. The full tier set is:

A mental health nurse faces two pension tier changes on this ladder: the rate rises from 8.3% to 9.8% at Band 5 top, where the salary crosses the £35,155 boundary, and again from 9.8% to 10.7% at Band 7 top, where the salary crosses the £52,778 boundary. Between those two crossings, the rate stays at 9.8% through Band 6 and the first two Band 7 steps. The pension also builds at 1/54 of pensionable pay each year under the 2015 CARE scheme, which is £593.94 a year of pension at Band 5 entry, £723.02 at Band 5 top, £739.98 at Band 6 entry, £891.06 at Band 6 top, £914.57 at Band 7 entry and £1,046.57 at Band 7 top, before revaluation. Full pension tier tables by band are in the pension contributions by band guide, and the wider pension picture is in NHS pension contributions. Opting out of the pension would lift take-home in the short term, but it would also give up the employer 23.7% contribution and the pension itself, so this page treats pension membership as the normal case and does not present an opt-out figure as a recommendation.

Student loans: the fifth deduction

Student loan repayments are not tax and they are not pension, but they come off the same payslip, so they belong in any honest take-home figure. The table below shows Plan 2 only, because it is the plan most recently qualified mental health nurses carry. Plan 2 takes 9% of pay above £29,385 a year in 2026/27. Older plans and postgraduate loans use different thresholds, and a mental health nurse on one of those plans should run the threshold for their own plan rather than reading the Plan 2 column as their figure.

At Band 5 entry the loan costs £20.16 a month, a modest slice of a £2,040.21 take-home. By Band 7 top it costs £203.48 a month, because 9% of a much larger amount above the threshold is deducted. The loan does not change the tax or pension figures: it is calculated on gross pay above its own threshold and deducted after tax. A mental health nurse whose loan is paid off will see take-home jump by the full deduction, which is why the headline table and the loan column are shown side by side. The full student loan rules for NHS staff are in the student loan repayments guide.

Unsocial hours: what nights and weekends add to take-home

Basic pay is only the starting point for mental health nurses on inpatient rotas. Acute wards, psychiatric intensive care units and forensic services never close, and their rotas reflect it: long days, nights, weekends and bank holidays as standard. 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 5 mental health nurse at entry earns £16.38 an hour plain time, so a Saturday or night hour is worth an extra £4.91 and a Sunday or bank holiday hour an extra £9.83. At the top of Band 5, those figures rise to £25.94 and £31.92 an hour. A Band 6 mental health nurse at the entry step earns £26.53 for a Saturday or night hour and £32.66 for a Sunday or bank holiday hour, and at the top of the band the figures are £31.95 and £39.33. A Band 7 mental health nurse at the entry step earns £32.80 for a Saturday or night hour and £40.37 for a Sunday or bank holiday hour, and at the top of the band the figures are £37.53 and £46.19.

Put those rates against a realistic inpatient month and the effect becomes concrete. Take a Band 6 mental health nurse at the intermediate step (£42,170, £21.54 an hour) on an acute ward. In an illustrative month with 48 night hours and 24 Sunday hours, the night hours are worth 48 times £28.00, which is £1,344.00, and the Sunday hours are worth 24 times £34.46, which is £827.04, for a total of £2,171.04 for 72 shift hours against £1,550.88 at plain time. The uplift is £620.16 in gross pay for the month. Annualised, pensionable pay rises to £49,611.92, still inside the 9.8% pension tier, and monthly take-home rises to £2,945.88, a gain of £397.89 after pension (£405.16), tax (£536.33) and National Insurance (£246.95). The gain is roughly three fifths of the gross uplift, because every extra pound is itself pensionable, taxable and subject to National Insurance. With a Plan 2 student loan the same month takes home £2,794.18.

A single shift shows the same effect at smaller scale. A 12 hour Sunday shift at Band 5 entry pays £314.52 at the enhanced rate, against £196.56 at the plain rate, a difference of £117.96 for one shift. A 12 hour Sunday shift at Band 6 entry pays £391.92, against £244.92 plain. At the top of Band 7, a 12 hour Sunday shift pays £554.28, against £346.44 plain, a difference of £207.84. Because acute wards run around the clock, that difference is not an occasional bonus for inpatient mental health nurses: it is a regular part of the month. Two mental health nurses on the same band can take home very different amounts in the same month, and the setting is usually the reason: a community nurse with the same Band 6 post, working weekdays as a care coordinator, earns the plain rate for almost every hour, with no night or Sunday uplift at all. One caveat matters for the enhancement itself: it 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. The full unsocial hours rules are in the unsocial hours and overtime guide.

The enhancement income above has a price, and inpatient mental health nurses pay it in nights. Permanent night rotations, rapid day-night switches and the cumulative strain of 24/7 ward work are among the main reasons nurses leave inpatient care for community posts. The pay premium is real, as the worked example shows, but anyone choosing an acute ward for the money should price the lifestyle honestly: the nurses who thrive long-term in inpatient mental health care are usually those who would choose the work regardless of the enhancements. Community teams, liaison psychiatry and crisis resolution and home treatment teams offer a pressure valve: mental health nurses at Band 5 to 7 work there with high patient contact and more predictable hours than the main ward rota, on the same pay scale, and crisis teams add on-call cover on top, which is covered in the section on what the figures leave out.

Overtime: time and a half for Bands 5 to 7

Overtime works on top of the same base. Bands 1 to 7 pay time and a half for overtime, and double time on bank and public holidays, with overtime starting above 37.5 hours a week. A Band 5 mental health nurse at the entry step therefore earns £24.57 an overtime hour and £32.76 on a bank holiday, while a Band 6 mental health nurse at the top earns £36.87 and £49.16. At Band 7, overtime is £37.85 an hour at entry and £43.31 at the top, and double time on bank holidays is £50.46 at entry and £57.74 at the top. Four overtime hours at Band 7 top pay £173.24. Matrons and service managers on Band 8a and above are different: Bands 8 to 9 get no contractual overtime pay, only time off in lieu, so the take-home effect of extra hours at those grades is nil in the month worked. Overtime and an unsocial hours enhancement cannot both be claimed for the same hour. Part-time mental health nurses 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 start beyond 37.5. On-call arrangements for mental health nurses vary by trust, with some trusts paying an on-call availability payment and others rostering on-call as part of the post, so check the contract rather than assuming a national on-call rate, because no single national on-call figure applies to mental health nursing.

The 40% tax edge: where higher-rate tax starts on this ladder

No Band 5 or Band 6 mental health nurse pays 40% tax on basic pay alone. A Band 6 nurse at the top has taxable income of £30,831.53 a year after pension and the personal allowance, all of it inside the 20% basic-rate band, with £6,868.47 of basic-rate headroom to spare. The 40% rate first bites on this ladder at the top of Band 7. A Band 7 nurse at the top has taxable income of £37,897.89 a year after pension and the personal allowance, so £197.89 a year crosses into the 40% higher rate, costing £79.16 a year in extra tax. That is the first step on the ladder where any pay is taxed at 40%, and the slice is small enough that the Band 7 top payslip barely shows it. The 40% rate first bites harder in London. A Band 7 nurse at the top with inner London weighting has total pay of £65,261, pension of £6,982.93 a year at 10.7%, and taxable income of £45,708.07, so £8,008.07 a year crosses into the 40% higher rate, costing £3,203.23 a year in extra tax. Unsocial hours and overtime push more pay into the 40% band in the months they are worked, because they are added to taxable income on top of basic pay, which is why a heavy rota month at Band 7 top can show a higher tax rate on the payslip without any payroll error. The pension contribution softens the crossing, because it comes off before tax is calculated: every extra pound of pension contribution at these steps saves 40p of tax rather than 20p once the threshold is crossed.

London weighting: take-home with HCAS

High Cost Area Supplement is pensionable, so it lifts both gross pay and, where it crosses a tier boundary, the pension rate. Inner London pays 20% of basic pay 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 zone pays 5% with a minimum of £1,346 and a maximum of £2,270. The caps bind at these bands: 20% of a Band 5 entry salary is £6,414.60, inside the inner range, but 20% of a Band 7 top salary is £11,303, above the inner maximum, so the inner supplement is the flat £8,746 at Band 7 top, and the outer supplement is likewise capped at £6,137.

At Band 7 top the caps bind in every zone. Inner London 20% of £56,515 would be £11,303, but the £8,746 maximum caps it, giving total pay of £65,261. Outer London is likewise capped at £6,137, giving £62,652, and fringe at £2,270, giving £58,785. All three Band 7 top London totals cross a pension tier boundary: totals of £65,261, £62,652 and £58,785 sit above £52,778, so the pension rate rises to 10.7% and the monthly pension deductions are £581.91, £558.65 and £524.17, against £503.93 with no supplement. Even so, the inner London Band 7 top mental health nurse takes home £3,684.92 a month, against £3,308.99 with no supplement. At Band 5 entry the outer London supplement is the £4,870 minimum, because 15% of £32,073 is only £4,810.95, giving total pay of £36,943. The full London weighting rules are in the London weighting HCAS guide, and the HCAS calculator works out the supplement for any band and zone.

Part-time mental health nurse take-home pay

Part-time mental health nursing is common, in community teams, crisis services and on inpatient wards alike, and part-time take-home does not scale in a straight line from full-time take-home. Tax and National Insurance fall, because both are calculated on actual pay. Pension follows the same rule: the contribution tier is set by the pay actually earned, not by the full-time salary for the post. A Band 5 mental health nurse on 0.6 WTE pays 6.5%, because the tier is set by the £19,243.80 that lands in the bank, and a Band 7 mental health nurse on 0.6 WTE pays 8.3%. That is the NHSBSA rule, and it is why the part-time pension figures below are lower than a reader who worked the tier from the full-time salary would expect.

Two practical points follow. First, a part-time mental health nurse whose actual pay falls below the Plan 2 threshold of £29,385 pays no Plan 2 deduction at all, which is the case at Band 5 entry on both 0.8 and 0.6 WTE here. Second, hours worked above contracted hours up to 37.5 a week are paid at plain time, not overtime rates, so a part-time mental health nurse picking up extra shifts should check whether those hours are plain time or overtime before budgeting on them. The part-time pay guide and the part-time pay calculator cover the pro-rata maths in full.

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, with its own pay scale and its own income tax bands. A Band 5 mental health nurse in Scotland earns £34,544 at entry, £36,911 at the intermediate step and £43,039 at the top, which is £18.40, £19.66 and £22.93 an hour on the 36 hour week. A Band 6 mental health nurse in Scotland earns £43,231 at entry, £45,135 at the intermediate step and £52,679 at the top, which is £23.03, £24.04 and £28.06 an hour. A Band 7 mental health nurse in Scotland earns £52,845 at entry, £54,863 at the intermediate step and £61,466 at the top, which is £28.15, £29.23 and £32.74 an hour. Scotland also has a nine-tier pension structure from 5.7% to 12.7%, with the employer adding 22.5%. The table below applies the Scottish tax bands and pension tiers to those salaries, using the same method as the England table: pension first, tax on the remainder, National Insurance on gross pay.

Wales applied the 3.3% award with a Real Living Wage floor of £13.45 an hour. The Wales Band 5 steps are in the verified data: £32,557, £35,114 and £39,631, which is £16.63, £17.94 and £20.25 an hour on the standard 37.5 hour week. The Wales Band 5 take-home figures are:

The Wales Band 6 and Band 7 steps are not in the verified data file, so this page quotes no Wales Band 6 or Band 7 take-home figure rather than estimating one from the England scale. Northern Ireland had the 3.3% award recommended but not implemented at the last check, so the table below uses the 2025/26 scale that is actually in payment now, with the Health and Social Care pension tiers. On that scale, Band 5 hourly rates are £15.86, £17.11 and £19.31, Band 6 rates are £19.76, £20.85 and £23.80, and Band 7 rates are £24.42, £25.68 and £27.95. Do not budget on the 3.3% in Northern Ireland until it is confirmed.

For the devolved picture, see the Scotland pay guide, the Wales pay guide and the Northern Ireland pay guide.

What the figures leave out

These are basic-pay figures for full-time contracts unless a section says otherwise, and real mental health nurse income is usually higher and messier. Locum and agency mental health nursing pays the highest hourly rates with no benefits, but there is no national rate card and rates vary widely by region, urgency and setting, so this page quotes no locum figure. The Agenda for Change rate is still the right benchmark, because it is the pension-building foundation: every agency 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 agency work does not. Mileage for community mental health nurses is an expense reimbursement, not pay, and is covered in the mileage rates guide rather than counted in take-home here. Any local recruitment premia are also left out, because they are local payments, not basic pay: forensic and secure services sometimes add them, but they are trust-specific, so check the advert. On-call is the last layer this page does not fold into the headline figures. Crisis teams, home treatment teams and liaison psychiatry run on-call rotas alongside shift rotas, and Agenda for Change pays an availability payment for the on-call period plus call-out payments at overtime rates when a nurse attends. A mental health nurse at Band 6 entry, on £20.41 an hour, called in for three hours overnight 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. A payslip that differs from this page by a small amount usually differs because of a different tax code, a student loan plan, or unsocial hours and overtime on top of basic pay. Monthly components are rounded to the penny, so adding rounded monthly components can differ from the monthly take-home by 1p.

Mental health nurses on maternity leave, sick leave or a career break should not read these monthly figures as leave pay: maternity pay, sick pay and the career break guide each follow different rules. Annual leave entitlement itself does not change take-home in a normal month, but the annual leave guide sets out the 27, 29 and 33 day tiers plus bank holidays by length of service.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a mental health nurse take home each month in 2026/27?

In England in 2026/27, a full-time mental health nurse on Band 5 takes home £2,040.21 a month at the entry step (£32,073 a year), £2,177.41 at the intermediate step (£34,592) and £2,380.80 at the top of the band (£39,043), after income tax, National Insurance and NHS pension contributions and before any student loan. A Band 6 mental health nurse, typically a senior staff nurse, charge nurse or specialist practitioner, takes home £2,429.78 at entry (£39,959), £2,547.99 at the intermediate step (£42,170) and £2,865.96 at the top (£48,117). A Band 7 mental health nurse, a ward manager, crisis team leader or advanced practitioner, takes home £2,933.86 at entry (£49,387), £3,078.24 at the intermediate step (£51,932) and £3,308.99 at the top (£56,515). A Plan 2 student loan takes a further £20.16 a month at Band 5 entry and £203.48 at Band 7 top. Those are basic-pay figures: nights, weekends and bank holidays add a large amount in inpatient mental health care, and the worked example in the unsocial hours section shows how much.

How is mental health nurse take-home pay calculated?

Pension contributions come off first, which reduces taxable income. Income tax is then calculated on what is left, using the 2026/27 personal allowance of £12,570, the 20% basic rate on taxable income up to £37,700 and the 40% higher rate above that. National Insurance is charged on full gross pay, at 8% between £12,570 and £50,270 and 2% above. Student loans are shown separately, because not every mental health nurse still carries one. All figures on this page use a standard tax code and basic pay only, with unsocial hours, overtime and London weighting covered as additions.

What pension contribution comes off a mental health nurse's pay?

Under the official 2026/27 tiers, a Band 5 mental health nurse pays 8.3% of pensionable pay at the entry and intermediate steps, which is £221.84 and £239.26 a month, but 9.8% at the top of Band 5, £318.85 a month, because its £39,043 salary crosses the £35,155 tier boundary. Band 6 pays 9.8% at every step, from £326.33 a month at entry to £392.96 at the top. Band 7 pays 9.8% at the entry and intermediate steps, £403.33 and £424.11 a month, but 10.7% at the top, £503.93 a month, because its £56,515 salary crosses the £52,778 boundary. The employer adds 23.7% on top in each case. The full tier set is in the pension contributions by band guide. For part-time mental health nurses, the tier follows the pay they actually receive, not the full-time salary for the post.

How much do nights and weekends add to mental health nurse take-home pay?

A lot on an inpatient rota, and far less in a community team, because the enhancements follow the hours worked. A Band 6 mental health nurse at the intermediate step earns £21.54 an hour plain time, so a Saturday or night hour is worth an extra £6.46 and a Sunday or bank holiday hour an extra £12.92. In the worked example on this page, a Band 6 nurse at the intermediate step who works 48 night hours and 24 Sunday hours in a month earns an extra £620.16 gross, and monthly take-home rises to £2,945.88, a gain of £397.89 after pension, tax and National Insurance. A single 12 hour Sunday shift at the Band 5 entry step is worth £314.52 at the enhanced rate, against £196.56 at the plain rate.

How much does a student loan take from mental health nurse pay?

A Plan 2 loan takes 9% of pay above the 2026/27 threshold of £29,385 a year. That is £20.16 a month at Band 5 entry, £72.44 at Band 5 top, £140.49 at Band 6 top and £203.48 at Band 7 top. Plan 1, Plan 4, Plan 5 and postgraduate loans use different thresholds, so the Plan 2 column is a guide for the most common case among recently qualified mental health nurses, not a figure for every borrower. The full student loan rules for NHS staff are in the student loan repayments guide.

What does a mental health nurse take home in London?

With High Cost Area Supplement, a Band 5 mental health nurse at entry takes home £2,351.10 a month in inner London, £2,268.52 in outer London and £2,127.56 in the fringe zone, against £2,040.21 with no supplement. A Band 7 mental health nurse at the top takes home £3,684.92 a month in inner London, £3,572.78 in outer London and £3,406.56 in the fringe zone. London weighting is pensionable, so it also lifts the pension contribution, and at Band 7 top the inner, outer and fringe London totals all cross into the 10.7% pension tier.

What does a part-time mental health nurse take home?

A Band 5 mental health nurse at entry on 0.8 WTE (30 hours) takes home £1,721.62 a month on actual pay of £25,658.40, and £1,364.54 on 0.6 WTE (22.5 hours, £19,243.80). A Band 7 mental health nurse at the top on 0.8 WTE takes home £2,710.64 a month (£45,212 actual pay) and £2,140.21 on 0.6 WTE (£33,909). One point catches people out: the pension tier follows the part-time pay itself, not the full-time salary for the post. A Band 5 mental health nurse on 0.6 WTE pays 6.5%, because the tier is set by the £19,243.80 actually earned, and a Band 7 mental health nurse on 0.6 WTE pays 8.3%, set by the £33,909 actually earned. A part-time mental health nurse whose actual pay falls below the Plan 2 threshold of £29,385 pays no Plan 2 deduction at all, which is the case at Band 5 entry on both 0.8 and 0.6 WTE here.

Do PICU, forensic or crisis skills change mental health nurse take-home pay?

Not directly. Agenda for Change pays the band for the post, not a supplement for each skill inside it, so a Band 6 nurse on a psychiatric intensive care unit earns the same basic take-home as a Band 6 nurse on a general acute ward. Skills change the band you can apply for: PICU and forensic experience, de-escalation competence and crisis assessment skills are what move a nurse into a Band 6 senior post, and Approved Mental Health Professional training plus advanced practice open the Band 7 route (£49,387 to £56,515 a year). The skill pays when it carries you into the higher-banded post. Forensic and secure services sometimes add local recruitment premia on top of Agenda for Change, but those are trust-specific, so check the advert rather than assuming a figure.