NHS Smoking Cessation Advisor Pay 2026/27

Last updated: 5 November 2026 · Figures verified against the NHS Employers 2026/27 pay circular.

By the NHS Bands Pay editorial team

Smoking cessation advisor pay 2026/27: the Band 4 to Band 5 ladder

England awarded Agenda for Change staff 3.3% from 1 April 2026, and that award is already in these figures. A smoking cessation advisor in England in 2026/27 earns £28,392 at Band 4 entry and £31,157 at the top of Band 4. At Band 5 the figures are £32,073 at entry, £34,592 at the intermediate step and £39,043 at the top. Band 4 has two pay points, entry and top, with no intermediate step. Band 5 has three pay points, entry, intermediate and top. The full range on this page, from Band 4 entry to the top of Band 5, is £10,651 a year. Inside Band 4 the range is £2,765, and inside Band 5 it is £6,970. The step from the top of Band 4 to the entry of Band 5 is £916. That repeated small step is worth noting for anyone weighing a promotion: the first year in the higher band pays little more than the last year in the lower band, and the real gain comes from reaching the top of the new band and from the extra responsibility that comes with it.

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 each band follows the usual Agenda for Change pattern: satisfactory appraisal and completion of required training move an advisor from entry toward the top step, but the timing follows the employer incremental progression policy and is not a promise written into the pay scale. The move from one band to the next 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 advisors with similar experience can sit on different bands: one runs quit clinics to a set protocol, the other leads a service, supervises advisors and holds the most complex cases, and Agenda for Change pays the post, not the person. For the wider band ladder, the Band 4 pay guide and the Band 5 pay guide set out what each band means across the NHS, and the advisor posts on this page follow that same ladder.

What a smoking cessation advisor actually does, day by day

Stop smoking support starts with a conversation, not a lecture. The advisor meets the person, often after a GP, pharmacist or hospital clinician has referred them, and asks what smoking means to them, what previous quit attempts taught them, and what a realistic quit date looks like. From that conversation comes a plan: a quit date a week or two ahead, a coping plan for cravings and triggers, and a choice of stop smoking medicine within the service protocol, usually nicotine replacement therapy, sometimes a prescription option agreed with the prescriber or pharmacist where the service requires it. Then comes the follow-up that makes the difference between a quit attempt and a quit: weekly sessions through the first month, carbon monoxide readings where the service uses them, and a check-in at four weeks and beyond, because four-week quit rates are the outcome commissioners track and the point where many quits either hold or slip.

A slip is treated as part of the job, not as a failure of the person. Most successful quitters have several attempts behind them, and an advisor who responds to a slip with blame will lose the person. The skilled response is to find out what happened, adjust the plan, and set a new quit date. That steady manner matters more than any single technique, and it is what separates a good advisor from a good leaflet. Advisors also run group sessions in some services, where people quitting together support each other, and they spend part of the week on outreach: clinics in GP practices, pharmacies and community venues, sessions in workplaces, and targeted work with pregnant people, people with mental health conditions and people in hospital, where a quit attempt during a stay can change a long-term outcome. Hospital tobacco dependence work has grown fast in recent years, and advisors in those services work closely with ward teams to catch people at a moment when quitting feels urgent and support is close at hand.

Two boundaries matter, and both protect patients and advisors. First, advisors provide behavioural support and medicine advice within a protocol: they do not diagnose, and where a prescription medicine is involved, the prescribing decision sits with the prescriber or pharmacist under the service arrangement. Second, advisors are not a substitute for wider support: a person whose smoking is driven by debt, housing worry or low mood still needs help with those problems, and a good advisor connects them with it rather than pretending that a quit plan alone will hold. Those boundaries are also what make the role sustainable: an advisor who tries to carry every problem personally will burn out, while an advisor who supports the quit well and connects people onward can carry a caseload for years. The neighbouring primary care role is the social prescribing link worker, who connects patients with community support more broadly, while the smoking cessation advisor works on one specific, measurable outcome: a quit that lasts.

Who employs advisors: trusts, councils and commissioned providers

Stop smoking services in England are commissioned locally, and that single fact explains why advisor employment is more mixed than for most roles on this site. Some advisors are employed directly by an NHS trust, usually inside a hospital tobacco dependence service or a community public health team. Others are employed by a local authority, because many councils run or commission stop smoking services as part of their public health duties. Others work for a voluntary sector or private provider commissioned by a council or an integrated care board, while working day to day in NHS clinics and GP practices. A smaller number sit inside GP practices or primary care networks. The employer name on the advert tells you which pattern applies, and it matters for terms: a directly employed trust advisor is usually on Agenda for Change terms, while a council or commissioned provider advisor may be on that organisation terms, which is why this page states its figures as Agenda for Change Band 4 and Band 5 rates and advises checking the advert for any post employed outside Agenda for Change.

What does not change with the employer pattern is the working pattern. Advisor work is clinic-based, normally Monday to Friday, with time split between a base clinic, outreach venues and, increasingly, phone and video contact with people quitting. An advisor day might include a morning of one-to-one quit sessions at a practice, an afternoon group session at a community venue, and time for notes, carbon monoxide records and follow-up calls to people whose quit date is approaching. Travel between clinics and venues is part of the job, which is why the mileage rates guide matters here: business mileage is paid at 59p a mile for a car up to 4,500 miles a year and 36p a mile above that, so 1,000 business miles in a year is worth £590.00 and 4,000 business miles is worth £2,360.00, while home to normal workplace travel is not claimable. For advisors who travel between several clinics in a week, mileage is a real part of take-home income, and it is worth checking the service mileage policy at interview. The contrast with hospital ward roles is instructive: Band 4 ward-based staff work to a rota, while advisors work to a clinic timetable, which is why evening and weekend enhancements are rare here.

One more distinction helps applicants read adverts correctly. Some adverts describe an advisor post as part of a wider wellbeing or public health team, and some describe a senior or lead advisor post at Band 5. The senior post is not simply an advisor with more experience: it usually carries supervision of other advisors, responsibility for the service across a locality, and the most complex cases, including pregnant people, people with severe mental illness and hospital inpatients. An applicant who wants the Band 5 route should look for that supervision and service leadership in the person specification, not just for a higher salary figure. And an applicant who prefers direct quit support should not treat Band 4 as a lesser job: for many advisors, the one-to-one clinic work is the work they value most, and Band 4 is where that work sits.

Working pattern: daytime clinics, with evening exceptions

Advisor work follows the clinic calendar rather than a clinical rota. Most contact happens in daytime hours, when practices, pharmacies and community venues are open, and most advisors work a standard office-hours week. The exceptions are evening clinics, Saturday community sessions and stop smoking campaign events, where an advisor presence helps people take a first step they would not take alone. Those sessions are the hours that can attract unsocial-hours enhancements, and they are also the hours that test whether a service is genuinely accessible: a clinic that only runs at 10am on a Tuesday excludes everyone who works, while an evening session reaches a different group entirely. A service that runs evening or Saturday clinics is usually doing so deliberately, to reach working-age smokers, and advisors who cover those sessions should check that the enhancement rules in the next section apply to their post.

Worked example: a Band 4 advisor at entry who covers an eight-hour Saturday community session earns eight hours at £18.85, which is £150.80, against £116.00 for eight plain hours, a difference of £34.80 for that session. A Band 5 senior advisor at the top step who covers an eight-hour Sunday health event earns eight hours at £31.92, which is £255.36, against £159.60 for eight plain hours, a difference of £95.76. Those examples show the rates clearly, and they also show why they matter less in practice for advisors than for ward staff: a handful of such days a year, not a rota, is the realistic pattern. The full unsocial-hours rules are explained in the unsocial hours and overtime guide, and a quick check with the hourly rate calculator will turn any of these annual figures into an hourly rate for a different contracted-hours pattern.

Overtime: time and a half at Bands 4 and 5

At Bands 4 and 5, hours above 37.5 a week are paid at time and a half, and double time on bank holidays, for posts on Agenda for Change terms. An overtime hour at Band 4 entry is worth £21.75 and at the top of Band 4 £23.88. At Band 5 entry an overtime hour is worth £24.57, at the intermediate step £26.51 and at the top £29.93. On a bank holiday the double-time rates are £29.00 at Band 4 entry, £31.84 at the top of Band 4, £32.76 at Band 5 entry, £35.34 at the Band 5 intermediate step and £39.90 at the top of Band 5. 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. Overtime and unsocial-hours enhancement cannot both be claimed for the same hours. Staff may elect time off in lieu instead of overtime pay.

Worked example: a Band 5 advisor at the intermediate step who works four extra hours around a stop smoking campaign launch, outside any unsocial window, earns four hours at £26.51, which is £106.04 on top of the basic week. The same four hours on a bank holiday would be four hours at £35.34, which is £141.36. Those figures are gross, before tax, National Insurance and pension, and they assume the extra hours sit above 37.5 hours for the week. Extra hours below 37.5 for a part-time advisor are paid at plain time, so the same four hours for a part-time Band 4 advisor at entry, up to the full-time threshold, would be four hours at £14.50, which is £58.00, plus any unsocial enhancement that applies to those hours. In practice advisor overtime clusters around campaign launches, evening clinics and busy referral periods rather than around a regular rota pattern, and a service lead who plans the clinic calendar well keeps overtime low by spreading event cover across the team.

London weighting: High Cost Area Supplement

Where the post is based in London on Agenda for Change terms, advisors receive the High Cost Area Supplement, which is a percentage of basic pay subject to a minimum and a maximum for each zone. The rates are 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 these bands the minimums matter at the lower steps: the percentages of these salaries fall below the minimums in the inner and outer zones at Band 4 entry, while the fringe percentage sits inside its minimum and maximum. The inner minimum applies at Band 4 entry: 20% of £28,392 is £5,678.40, below the £5,794 minimum, so the minimum applies and the total is £34,186. The outer minimum applies at Band 4 entry the same way: 15% of £28,392 is £4,258.80, below the £4,870 minimum, so the minimum applies and the total is £33,262. The fringe percentage applies at Band 4 entry: 5% of £28,392 is £1,419.60, inside the fringe minimum and maximum, so the percentage applies and the total is £29,811.60. By the top of Band 5 the percentages take over in every zone: 20% of £39,043 is £7,808.60, inside the inner minimum and maximum, so the total is £46,851.60, and 15% of £39,043 is £5,856.45, inside the outer minimum and maximum, so the total is £44,899.45. The full London weighting rules are explained in the London weighting (HCAS) guide.

Note two further cases in the table above. Band 4 top in outer London is a minimum case: 15% of £31,157 is £4,673.55, below the £4,870 minimum, so the minimum applies and the total is £36,027. Band 5 entry in outer London is also a minimum case: 15% of £32,073 is £4,810.95, below the £4,870 minimum, so the minimum applies and the total is £36,943. From Band 5 intermediate upward, every outer total is a straightforward percentage case, because 15% of £34,592 is £5,188.80 and 15% of £39,043 is £5,856.45, both inside the outer minimum and maximum. The supplement follows the base of the post, not the clinic visited on a given day, so an advisor who runs a clinic across a zone boundary does not pick up that clinic supplement for the day. London services are among the largest advisor employers, because one service can serve several boroughs, but the supplement itself follows the same national table as every other Agenda for Change post.

Pension, part-time pay and the smaller extras

On the provisional 2026/27 England and Wales pension tiers, Band 4 entry sits in the 6.5% tier, Band 4 top and Band 5 entry and intermediate sit in the 8.3% tier, and Band 5 top sits in the 9.8% tier. That is £153.79 a month on £28,392, £215.50 a month on £31,157, £221.84 a month on £32,073, £239.26 a month on £34,592, £318.85 a month on £39,043. The employer contributes 23.7% on top, which is £6,728.90 a year at Band 4 entry and £9,253.19 a year at the top of Band 5. 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 advisor is tiered on the full-time rate for the post, not on part-time earnings. The contribution tiers in full are set out in the pension contributions guide.

Part-time pay is pro rata on the full-time figure, and the part-time pay guide explains the mechanics. At 0.8 whole-time equivalent, Band 4 entry pays £22,713.60 a year. At 0.6 whole-time equivalent, the top of Band 5 pays £23,425.80 a year. At 0.8 whole-time equivalent, Band 5 entry pays £25,658.40 a year. Unsocial-hours enhancements and overtime are calculated on the same hourly rates as full-time staff, so a part-time advisor covering a Saturday session earns the same enhanced hourly rate as a full-time colleague on the same band and step. Annual leave follows the England tiers of 27 days plus 8 bank holidays up to 4 years of service, 29 plus 8 from 5 years, and 33 plus 8 from 10 years, pro rata for part-time staff. The mileage rates guide covers the full Section 17 rules for travel between clinics and venues. No uniform flat-rate figure is claimed on this page: the HMRC flat-rate groups name nurses, midwives, healthcare assistants and other listed uniformed roles, and whether a given advisor post falls in a listed group depends on the post and the uniform worn, so the uniform tax rebate guide is the place to check the group that fits.

Two national notes complete the picture. In Wales, the award is also 3.3%, and the Real Living Wage floor of £13.45 an hour applies at the bottom of the scale, with the Band 2 spot rate at £26,300 in Wales. This page does not quote Wales Band 4 to Band 5 step sets, because those steps are not in the verified data file, and this page states its figures as England figures throughout. The same caution applies to Scotland: Scotland awarded 3.75% from 1 April 2026 under a two-year deal and moved to a 36-hour week from April 2026, which changes the hourly maths for Scottish posts, and the verified data file holds a Scotland Band 5 range of £34,494 to £42,977 but no Scotland Band 4 to Band 5 step set, so no Scotland advisor step is quoted here. In Northern Ireland, the 3.3% award is recommended but not yet implemented, so staff there should not budget on the England figures until the award is confirmed.

Qualifications: what they open, and what they do not change

Agenda for Change pays the post, not the person, so a Band 5 lead post pays the Band 5 rate whatever qualifications the holder brings. What adverts commonly ask for is good listening and communication skills, the ability to build trust quickly, accurate record keeping, and the judgement to recognise when a person needs medical input rather than behavioural support alone. Training in stop smoking support is usually provided in post, and many advisors arrive from nursing, pharmacy, health visiting, community health or advice backgrounds. A recognised qualification in community work, advice or health support helps an application, and some advisors study in post, but no single certificate is a national pay condition, and no figure on this page depends on one. The honest route in is a track record of working well with people in difficulty, not a single certificate.

There is one more honest point about qualifications. Quit support skill alone does not make an advisor. The post also needs the professional habits that surround vulnerable people: confidentiality, impartiality, accurate records, and the judgement to refer back to a clinician rather than hold a problem that belongs in clinical care. Services often recruit senior advisors from within their own advisor teams, because a lead needs to know how the referral pathways, the clinic timetable and the commissioner reporting fit together, not just how to hold a good conversation. An advisor arriving from outside stop smoking services brings strong people skills, but should expect a learning period on protocols, medicines and record systems, and should not assume that a previous salary sets the NHS band: the band follows the post evaluation, not the previous earnings.

Progression: senior advisor, tobacco dependence lead, or public health

The honest progression story has three directions. The first is upward inside stop smoking work: Band 4 advisor to Band 5 senior advisor or service lead, then to roles that lead a tobacco dependence service across a trust or a locality. The second direction is sideways into neighbouring public health roles: advisors who know clinic systems and patient pathways well sometimes move into health coaching, social prescribing or community health roles, where the same listening and follow-through skills apply to a wider caseload. The third direction is into wider public health leadership, where running a prevention service at scale is the job, and where the Band 5 lead experience of owning a service end to end is the direct preparation.

Getting to Band 5 needs a lead post, and that is the part that takes planning. The usual route is a track record of strong quit outcomes across a patch, ownership of complex cases, support for less experienced advisors, and the judgement that the Band 5 evaluation looks for. Experience across more than one setting, hospital and community, matters, because a lead is judged on the whole service working well, not on one clinic. An advisor who wants the lead route should ask their service manager what the Band 5 posts in the service actually do, and should seek the complex cases and service development work that matches that description before the vacancy appears. For advisors who do not want the lead route, Band 4 advisor posts are skilled jobs in their own right, with the same NHS pension and annual leave as every other Agenda for Change post where Agenda for Change terms apply.

Frequently asked questions

What band is an NHS smoking cessation advisor?

In England in 2026/27, smoking cessation advisor posts sit at Band 4 and Band 5. Band 4 pays £28,392 at entry and £31,157 at the top. Band 5 pays £32,073 at entry, £34,592 at the intermediate step and £39,043 at the top. Band 4 has two pay points, entry and top, with no intermediate step, while Band 5 has three pay points. The band follows the post, not the person: an advisor who runs one-to-one quit clinics, dispenses behavioural support and follows a set protocol sits at Band 4, while an advisor who also leads a service, supervises other advisors, covers the most complex cases or holds responsibility for a whole locality sits at Band 5. Titles vary, and some posts are called stop smoking advisor, tobacco dependence advisor or quit smoking practitioner, so check the band in the advert rather than assuming it from the title alone.

How much does a smoking cessation advisor earn a month?

In England in 2026/27, a full-time smoking cessation advisor at Band 4 earns £2,366.00 a month at entry and £2,596.42 a month at the top, before tax, National Insurance and pension deductions. At Band 5 the monthly figures are £2,672.75 at entry, £2,882.67 at the intermediate step and £3,253.58 at the top. Those are gross figures for a full-time 37.5-hour week, before any overtime or London weighting. A part-time advisor is paid pro rata: at 0.8 whole-time equivalent, Band 4 entry pays £22,713.60 a year, and at 0.6 whole-time equivalent, the top of Band 5 pays £23,425.80 a year. These figures cover posts banded on Agenda for Change; where a local authority or voluntary sector provider employs the advisor on its own terms, the advert, not this page, is the authority for that post.

What does a smoking cessation advisor actually do?

A smoking cessation advisor helps people stop smoking, and stay stopped, through a mix of behavioural support and medication advice. The core of the job is a series of one-to-one or group sessions: setting a quit date with the person, talking through triggers and cravings, agreeing a coping plan for the hard days, and checking in week by week as the quit takes hold. Advisors discuss stop smoking medicines, including nicotine replacement therapy and prescription options, within the service protocol and with the prescriber or pharmacist where the service requires it. They record carbon monoxide readings where the service uses them, track quit rates at four weeks and beyond, and follow up people who slip, without blame, to get the quit back on track. A large part of the work is outreach: clinics in GP practices, pharmacies, hospitals, workplaces and community venues, and targeted work with pregnant people, people with mental health conditions and people in hospital, where a quit attempt during a stay can change a long-term outcome. The job rewards patience, plain speaking and a steady manner with people who have tried before and failed, because most successful quitters have several attempts behind them.

Who employs smoking cessation advisors?

Employment is more mixed than for most NHS roles on this site, and that matters for pay. Some advisors are employed directly by an NHS trust, usually inside a hospital tobacco dependence service or a community public health team. Others are employed by a local authority, because stop smoking services in England are commissioned locally and many councils run or commission them. Others work for a voluntary sector or private provider commissioned by a council or an integrated care board, while working day to day in NHS clinics and GP practices. A smaller number sit inside GP practices or primary care networks. The employer name on the advert tells you which pattern applies. The band and salary on this page are the Agenda for Change Band 4 and Band 5 rates, and they are the right figures for posts banded on Agenda for Change. Where a council, charity or commissioned provider employs on its own terms, the pay may be set by that organisation rather than by Agenda for Change, so the advert figure governs that post. Either way, the work is the same: a caseload of people trying to quit, a clinic timetable, and a record of quit outcomes that the commissioner will want to see.

Do smoking cessation advisors get unsocial hours pay?

Most quit clinics run in daytime hours, so unsocial-hours enhancements are uncommon, but the Section 2 rates still apply to any hours that fall in an unsocial window for posts on Agenda for Change terms. For Bands 4 and 5, which sit in the Bands 4 to 9 group, the rates are time plus 30% for Saturdays and weekday nights (8pm to 6am) and time plus 60% for Sundays and bank holidays. A Saturday hour at Band 4 entry is therefore worth £18.85 against a plain rate of £14.50, and a Sunday hour at the top of Band 5 is worth £31.92 against a plain rate of £19.95. In practice the only advisor hours that commonly fall in those windows are an evening clinic, a Saturday community session or a weekend health event, and nobody should take an advisor post expecting regular unsocial-hours income. The rates matter mainly as a protection: if the job does ask for a Saturday clinic, the enhancement is contractual, not discretionary, for posts on Agenda for Change terms.

Do smoking cessation advisors get overtime pay?

At Bands 4 and 5, yes: hours above 37.5 a week are paid at time and a half, and double time on bank holidays, for posts on Agenda for Change terms. An overtime hour at Band 4 entry is worth £21.75 and at the top of Band 4 £23.88. At Band 5 entry an overtime hour is worth £24.57, at the intermediate step £26.51 and at the top £29.93. On a bank holiday the double-time rates are £29.00 at Band 4 entry, £31.84 at the top of Band 4, £32.76 at Band 5 entry, £35.34 at the Band 5 intermediate step and £39.90 at the top of Band 5. 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. Overtime and unsocial-hours enhancement cannot both be claimed for the same hours. Staff may elect time off in lieu instead of overtime pay. In practice advisor overtime clusters around evening clinics, community events and stop smoking campaigns rather than around a regular rota.

How much do smoking cessation advisors earn in London?

Where the post is based in London on Agenda for Change terms, advisors 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 these bands the minimums matter at the lower steps, because the percentages of these salaries fall below the minimums. Band 4 entry pays £34,186 in inner London, because 20% of £28,392 is £5,678.40, below the £5,794 minimum, so the minimum applies. Band 4 entry pays £33,262 in outer London, because 15% of £28,392 is £4,258.80, below the £4,870 minimum, so the minimum applies. Band 5 top pays £46,851.60 in inner London, because 20% of £39,043 is £7,808.60, inside the minimum and maximum, so the percentage applies. The supplement follows the base of the post, not the clinic visited on a given day, so an advisor who runs a clinic across a zone boundary does not pick up that clinic supplement for the day.

How do you become a smoking cessation advisor, and what comes next?

There is no single national qualification requirement, and that is worth stating plainly. Agenda for Change pays the post, not the person, so a Band 5 lead post pays the Band 5 rate whatever qualifications the holder brings. What adverts commonly ask for is good listening and communication skills, the ability to build trust quickly with people who may be anxious, defensive or resigned about quitting, accurate record keeping, and the judgement to recognise when a person needs medical input rather than behavioural support alone. Training in stop smoking support, often the national training for practitioners, is usually provided in post, and many advisors arrive from nursing, pharmacy, health visiting, community health or advice backgrounds. Experience of working with people in difficulty transfers well, and a personal history of quitting, while never a requirement, helps an advisor understand what the hard days feel like. Progression usually runs from Band 4 advisor to Band 5 senior advisor or service lead, then sideways or upward into tobacco dependence leadership, public health or community service management. No single certificate is a national pay condition, and no figure on this page depends on one.