NHS Weekend Pay Rates 2026/27: What Saturdays and Sundays Are Worth

Last updated: 6 November 2026 · Figures verified against the NHS Employers 2026/27 pay circular.

By the NHS Bands Pay editorial team

What counts as weekend pay?

Weekend pay in the NHS is not a separate allowance or a bonus. It is the unsocial-hours enhancement in Section 2 of the Agenda for Change handbook, paid on top of your basic hourly rate for hours worked inside an unsocial window. The handbook defines three unsocial periods: weekday nights from 8pm to 6am, Monday to Friday; Saturdays, all hours from midnight to midnight; and Sundays and public holidays, all hours from midnight to midnight. Every hour you work inside one of those windows attracts the enhancement for that window, and every hour outside them is paid at plain time. The enhancement is calculated on your full-time equivalent basic hourly rate, then pro-rated for part-time staff, and it is paid when and as the hours are worked, which means it appears on the payslip for the month the shifts were worked, not averaged across the year.

Two points about the definition matter more than they first appear. First, the whole of Saturday counts, not just the evening, so a Saturday morning clinic earns the enhancement just as a Saturday night shift does. Second, the Saturday rate and the weekday night rate are the same percentage at every band, which is why this page and the night-shift rules share one table: a Tuesday night and a Saturday afternoon are paid at the same enhanced hourly rate. The full rules, including the overtime interaction and the Annex 5 alternative for ambulance staff, are set out in our unsocial hours and overtime guide, and this page is the weekend-only companion to it, with the hourly rate for every band and pay step and the worked examples for full weekend rotas.

One warning belongs at the top of any page about these figures. Several third-party calculator sites still quote the pre-September-2018 Section 2 rates for Bands 1 to 3, which were 50% and 100% for Band 1, 44% and 88% for Band 2, and 37% and 74% for Band 3. Those rates were superseded by the 2018 Agenda for Change framework agreement and are wrong for 2026/27. The percentages on this page are the current rates, verified against the NHS Employers unsocial-hours page, which reproduces Section 2 Table 2 of the handbook and was last reviewed for accuracy in September 2025. If your payslip shows a different rate, check your trust's local policy against the handbook, because the national rates below are the starting point, not a guarantee for every locally agreed arrangement.

The weekend enhancement percentages

The enhancement percentage depends on your pay band, and the pattern is deliberately tilted towards the lower bands. Band 2, where healthcare assistants, porters and many support staff sit, gets the largest percentage uplift, and the percentage falls as the band rises, settling at a flat 30% on Saturdays and 60% on Sundays for every band from Band 4 to Band 9. Band 1, which is closed to new entrants, keeps the highest percentages of all, but very few staff remain on Band 1 in 2026/27.

The Sunday percentage is roughly double the Saturday percentage at every band, and that ratio is the single most useful fact on this page for anyone planning a rota. A Band 2 healthcare assistant earns 41% extra on a Saturday and 83% extra on a Sunday, so swapping a Saturday shift for a Sunday shift on the same rota is worth an extra 42% of the basic hourly rate for every hour moved, £5.42 an hour at the Band 2 spot rate of £12.91. At Band 5 the Sunday premium over Saturday is 30% of basic pay, £4.91 an hour at entry and £5.99 an hour at the top of the band. None of this is a reason to chase Sundays at the expense of rest, but it is the reason Sunday rotas are the most contested shifts in most departments, and why two colleagues on the same band can take home very different amounts in the same month.

The percentages have applied consistently across recent pay years and are confirmed for 2026/27. They apply to the 3.3% Agenda for Change award effective 1 April 2026, announced on 12 February 2026 and paid on time in April salaries in England and Wales. Because the enhancement is a percentage of basic pay, the award lifted weekend hourly rates by the same 3.3% as basic pay: a Band 5 nurse at the top of the band earned £30.89 an hour on a Sunday in 2025/26, at the old top rate of £19.31, and earns £31.92 an hour in 2026/27. The 2026/27 pay rise guide sets out the award in full.

Saturday hourly rates by band and pay step

The table below gives the Saturday hourly rate for every band and pay step in England in 2026/27, with the plain hourly rate and the Sunday rate alongside it so the three can be compared at a glance. Hourly rates are calculated as annual salary divided by 52.2 weeks divided by 37.5 hours, the standard NHS full-time formula. Band 2 is a single spot rate, so it has one row. Bands 3 and 4 have two pay steps, entry and top. Bands 5 to 9 have three, entry, intermediate and top. Band 1 has no row in this table, because the band is closed to new entrants and the verified data file holds no Band 1 salary for 2026/27, so no hourly figure can be stated without guessing.

Read the table from the bottom up and the story of the NHS pay scale is visible in one column. A Saturday hour is worth £18.20 at Band 2 and £106.08 on a Sunday at the top of Band 9, a range of nearly six to one for the same hour of the weekend. The jumps that matter most in practice are the ones inside a single career: a Band 5 nurse moving from entry to the top of the band sees a Saturday hour rise from £21.29 to £25.94, and a Band 6 nurse moving to Band 7 sees a Saturday hour rise from £31.95 at the top of Band 6 to £32.80 at the entry point of Band 7, a small step, because the bands overlap at the boundary. The hourly rate calculator will convert any annual salary on this site into an hourly rate, with the overtime and unsocial-hours equivalents, for a different contracted-hours pattern.

London weighting is paid on top of basic pay for the hours worked, and it is calculated on basic pay, not on the enhanced rate, so a London Band 5 nurse at the top of the band earns the same £25.94 Saturday hourly rate as a colleague outside London, plus High Cost Area Supplement on the basic pay for those hours. The supplement does not multiply the enhancement. The London weighting (HCAS) guide sets out the 2026/27 rates, 20% of basic pay in inner London within a £5,794 minimum and £8,746 maximum, 15% in outer London within £4,870 and £6,137, and 5% in the fringe zone within £1,346 and £2,270.

Sunday hourly rates: the biggest uplift in the NHS week

Sunday is the best-paid regular shift in the Agenda for Change week, and by a clear margin. At Bands 4 to 9 the Sunday enhancement is 60%, double the Saturday rate of 30%, and at Bands 2 and 3 the gap is wider still, 83% against 41% and 69% against 35%. A Band 2 healthcare assistant earns £23.63 an hour on a Sunday against £12.91 in plain time, which means a Sunday hour is worth almost twice a weekday hour. A Band 3 administrator at the top of the band earns £23.73 an hour on a Sunday against £14.04 plain. At the top of the scale, a Band 9 director earns £106.08 an hour on a Sunday against £66.30 plain, and a Band 8d manager at the top earns £88.94 an hour on a Sunday against £55.59 plain.

The Sunday rate is also the rate that applies on public holidays, which is where the weekend rules meet the bank holiday rules, and the two do not stack. A Sunday that is also a bank holiday is paid at double time for Bands 1 to 7, not at the Sunday enhancement plus double time, and the bank holiday section below works through the maths. For a normal Sunday, though, the enhancement stands alone, and it is the largest single lever on a monthly pay packet for staff on regular weekend rotas. A Band 6 nurse at the top of the band who works one 12-hour Sunday a month earns £471.94 for that shift against £294.96 for 12 plain hours, an extra £176.98 for one day, and a Band 5 nurse at entry who works every Sunday in a four-week roster, 7.5 hours each, earns £786.24 for those four Sundays against £491.40 plain, an extra £294.84 in the month. Those are gross figures, before tax, National Insurance and pension, but they explain why Sunday rotas are planned months ahead in most trusts.

One caution applies to Sunday working specifically. Because the enhancement is large, it is tempting to treat it as guaranteed income, but it is paid only for the Sundays actually worked, and rotas change. A month with no Sunday shifts pays no Sunday enhancement at all, and a run of annual leave over Sundays costs more in lost enhancements than the same leave over weekdays. Budget on basic pay, and treat weekend enhancements as the variable top-up they are.

Worked examples: what a weekend is actually worth

Percentages are abstract until they are turned into pounds for a real shift. The examples below use 2026/27 England rates, and each one shows the plain-time comparison, because the enhancement is only meaningful against what the same hours would have paid on a weekday. Shift totals are calculated from the unrounded hourly rate, hours multiplied by basic hourly pay multiplied by one plus the enhancement, then rounded to the nearest penny, which is why a total can differ by a penny or two from the rounded hourly rate multiplied by the hours.

Example 1: Band 2 healthcare assistant, 7.5-hour Saturday shift. Basic hourly rate £12.91. Saturday enhancement for Band 2 is time plus 41%. The shift is worth 7.5 multiplied by £12.91 multiplied by 1.41, which is £136.52. The same 7.5 hours in plain time would be worth £96.83, so the Saturday enhancement adds £39.69 to the shift. This is the most common weekend shift in the NHS, and the enhancement is worth nearly £40 for a single day.

Example 2: Band 5 nurse, top of band, 12-hour Sunday shift. Basic hourly rate £19.95. Sunday enhancement for Bands 4 to 9 is time plus 60%. The shift is worth 12 multiplied by £19.95 multiplied by 1.60, which is £383.04. The same 12 hours in plain time would be worth £239.40, so the Sunday enhancement adds £143.64. A single long Sunday at the top of Band 5 is worth more than a full plain-time day and a half.

Example 3: Band 5 nurse, entry point, a full weekend. Saturday 7.5 hours at time plus 30% is worth £159.71, and Sunday 7.5 hours at time plus 60% is worth £196.56, a weekend total of £356.27. The same 15 hours in plain time would be worth £245.70, so the weekend is worth an extra £110.57. Notice how the split falls: the Sunday half of the weekend, the same number of hours, is worth £36.85 more than the Saturday half, purely because the Sunday percentage is double the Saturday one.

Example 4: Band 6 nurse, top of band, a full 12-hour weekend. Saturday 12 hours at time plus 30% is worth £383.45, and Sunday 12 hours at time plus 60% is worth £471.94, a weekend total of £855.39. The same 24 hours in plain time would be worth £589.92, so the weekend adds £265.47. At this level a single full weekend is worth more than a plain-time working week of 37.5 hours, which would be £921.75, and the enhancement alone is close to a third of a week's basic pay.

Example 5: Band 5 nurse, intermediate point, every weekend for a month. A 7.5-hour Saturday and a 7.5-hour Sunday each weekend is worth £384.32 a weekend, £172.28 for the Saturday and £212.04 for the Sunday, against £265.05 for 15 plain hours. The extra is £119.27 a weekend, and over four weekends in a month that is £477.08 of extra gross pay. Some months have five weekends, which lifts the figure further, and some have none at all if leave falls across them, which is why the monthly figure is an illustration, not a promise. The Band 5 pay guide sets out the full Band 5 picture, and the Band 6 pay guide covers the next rung, where the same weekend is worth more at every step.

Saturday nights and shifts that cross midnight

Night shifts follow the same percentages as Saturdays, because the weekday night window, 8pm to 6am, carries the Saturday percentage at every band. A night shift on a Tuesday is paid at time plus 30% for Bands 4 to 9, the same as a Saturday day shift, and a night shift on a Friday is paid the same way. The complication comes only when a shift crosses midnight, because the rate follows the clock: hours before midnight take the rate for the day they fall in, and hours after midnight take the next day's rate.

Take a Saturday night shift, 8pm Saturday to 8am Sunday, at Band 5 entry. The four hours from 8pm to midnight are Saturday hours, paid at £21.29 an hour, and the eight hours from midnight to 8am are Sunday hours, paid at £26.21 an hour. The shift is worth £85.18 for the Saturday part and £209.66 for the Sunday part, £294.84 in total, against £196.56 for 12 plain hours. A Sunday night shift running into Monday morning works the other way: the hours before midnight are Sunday hours at the 60% rate, and the hours after midnight fall in the weekday night window, Monday 12am to 6am, and are paid at the Saturday percentage, 30% for Bands 4 to 9. At Band 7 entry that is £40.37 an hour before midnight and £32.80 an hour after it.

The midnight split is the detail most often missed on a payslip check, and it is the first thing to verify if a night shift looks underpaid: count the hours on each side of midnight separately, apply the right percentage to each side, and compare the total with the payslip line. If the trust pays the whole shift at one rate, ask payroll which convention they apply, because local practice on split shifts varies, and the handbook's day definitions are the reference point, not a guarantee of how every trust codes its rotas.

Bank holidays that fall on a weekend

When a bank holiday falls on a Saturday or a Sunday, two different pay rules apply to the same hours, and only one of them can win. Under Section 2, the day attracts the Sunday enhancement, 60% for Bands 4 to 9, 69% for Band 3 and 83% for Band 2. Under Section 3, overtime on a bank or public holiday is paid at double time for Bands 1 to 7. The rules say overtime and the unsocial-hours enhancement cannot both be claimed for the same hours, so the double-time rate replaces the enhancement rather than adding to it, and double time is the better deal at every band.

At Band 5 entry, 7.5 hours on a bank holiday Sunday are worth £245.70 at double time, against £196.56 at the Sunday enhancement rate, so double time wins by £49.14 for that shift. At Band 2, 7.5 hours on a bank holiday Saturday are worth £193.65 at double time, against £136.52 at the Saturday enhancement rate, a difference of £57.13. Staff in Bands 8 and 9 have no contractual overtime pay and receive time off in lieu for bank holiday working instead, so the double-time comparison does not apply to them, and they should agree the TOIL arrangement with their manager before the shift. The full bank holiday rules, including part-time leave calculations for bank holidays, are in our bank holiday pay guide, and the bank holiday pay calculator will work out the exact figure for any band, shift length and part-time fraction.

Weekend work and overtime: you cannot claim both

The rule that causes the most confusion on weekend pay is the simplest one in the handbook: overtime and the unsocial-hours enhancement cannot both be claimed for the same hours. Overtime is hours above 37.5 a week, paid at time and a half for Bands 1 to 7, and double time on bank holidays, while Bands 8 and 9 receive time off in lieu only. Weekend hours inside your contracted 37.5 hours attract the enhancement. Weekend hours above 37.5 hours attract overtime instead, and the enhancement drops away for those hours.

Take a Band 5 nurse at the entry point who works 45 hours in a week, including a 7.5-hour Sunday shift, and whose contracted hours are 37.5. The Sunday shift falls above the 37.5-hour threshold, so those 7.5 hours are paid at time and a half, £24.57 an hour, £184.28 for the shift, and not at the Sunday enhancement rate of £26.21 an hour, £196.56 for the shift. The difference is £12.28 for that shift, and it surprises people, because the Sunday rate looks higher than the overtime rate. The reason is that the two enhancements are alternatives, not additions, and the overtime rate is the one that applies once the week passes 37.5 hours. The same nurse working the same Sunday shift inside a 37.5-hour week would receive the full £196.56. Staff may elect time off in lieu instead of overtime pay, and the overtime calculator will work out both options for any rota. The full overtime rules are in the unsocial hours and overtime guide.

Part-time staff and weekend enhancements

Part-time staff are paid weekend enhancements at exactly the same hourly rates as full-time colleagues on the same band and pay step, because the enhancement is an hourly rate, not a full-time salary figure. A part-time Band 5 nurse at the entry point earns £21.29 an hour on a Saturday and £26.21 an hour on a Sunday, the same as a full-time Band 5 nurse at the same step, and a 7.5-hour Saturday shift is worth £159.71 for both of them. The part-time difference is only in how many hours count as overtime: hours above contracted hours up to 37.5 a week are paid at plain time plus any unsocial enhancement that applies, and overtime rates apply only above 37.5 hours.

Take a 0.6 whole-time-equivalent Band 5 nurse contracted for 22.5 hours a week, who picks up a Saturday shift on top of a normal week. The Saturday hours are paid at the enhanced rate, £21.29 an hour, because they fall inside the unsocial window and below the 37.5-hour threshold, even though they are above the contracted 22.5 hours. If the same nurse worked enough extra hours to pass 37.5 in the week, the hours above 37.5 would switch to time and a half, and the enhancement would drop away for those hours, exactly as it does for full-time staff. The part-time pay guide sets out the pro-rata maths in full, and the part-time pay calculator will work out the exact figure for any whole-time-equivalent fraction.

How weekend pay shows on your payslip

Weekend enhancements usually appear as a separate line on the payslip, labelled as unsocial hours, enhancement, or weekend pay, depending on the trust's payroll system, with the hours and the rate shown alongside the basic pay line. The enhancement is pensionable, so it counts towards your NHS pension, and it is subject to income tax and National Insurance in the normal way, which means the gross figures on this page are not the amounts that land in the bank. A Band 5 nurse at the top of the band earning an extra £143.64 gross for a 12-hour Sunday shift keeps about £89 of it after basic-rate tax, National Insurance and pension, depending on the pension tier and any student loan, and the payslip guide explains how to read each line.

Two checks are worth doing every month. First, count the weekend hours on the rota and compare them with the enhancement line: a missing Saturday or Sunday is the most common payslip error in this area, and it is usually a rota coding issue rather than a pay error. Second, check the midnight split on any night shift that crossed midnight, because a shift paid entirely at one rate when it straddled two days is the second most common error. Staff who regularly work unsocial hours, most commonly ambulance staff, may instead be covered by Annex 5, which pays an averaged annual enhancement rather than shift-by-shift payments, and since 1 September 2018 ambulance staff in England have been able to choose between Annex 5 and Section 2. If your payslip shows a flat unsocial-hours figure every month rather than a varying shift-by-shift amount, you are probably on Annex 5, and the shift-by-shift rates on this page do not apply to you.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

The rates on this page are the England Agenda for Change Section 2 rates for 2026/27. Scotland and Wales operate their own Agenda for Change handbooks, so staff there should check the local handbook for the exact percentages rather than assuming the England figures apply, and this page does not quote percentages for either nation, because they are not verified in the data file this site works from.

Two differences are worth knowing. 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, because the same annual salary is divided by fewer hours, so a Scottish hourly rate is higher than the England equivalent for the same annual figure. The verified data file holds a Scotland Band 5 range of £34,494 to £42,977, but no Scotland weekend percentages and no Scotland Band 5 intermediate step, so no Scotland hourly weekend rates are quoted here. Wales awarded 3.3%, implemented on 1 April 2026, with a Real Living Wage floor of £13.45 an hour applied to the Band 1, 2 and 3 minimum, and the Welsh Band 2 spot rate is £26,300 a year, but the Welsh scale differs slightly from England and no Wales weekend percentages are quoted here either. In Northern Ireland, the 3.3% award for 2026/27 is recommended but not yet implemented, so staff there should not budget on the England figures until the award is confirmed. The nation guides are NHS Scotland pay, NHS Wales pay and NHS Northern Ireland pay.

What about night shifts?

Night shifts are paid at the Saturday percentage, because the weekday night window from 8pm to 6am carries the same enhancement as a Saturday at every band: time plus 41% at Band 2, time plus 35% at Band 3 and time plus 30% at Bands 4 to 9. A Band 5 nurse at the top of the band earns £25.94 an hour on a Tuesday night, the same as on a Saturday afternoon, and a Band 2 healthcare assistant earns £18.20 an hour on a weeknight, the same as on a Saturday. The night-shift rules, including the overtime interaction, the midnight split and the Annex 5 position for ambulance staff, are set out in full in the unsocial hours and overtime guide, which is the companion page to this one. Our NHS night shift pay guide gives the night hourly rate at every band and pay step, with worked examples for 12-hour night rotas and the 6am finish. If you work nights regularly, that guide is the one to read next, and the Band 5 pay guide and Band 7 pay guide show how night enhancements change take-home pay at the two most common nursing bands.

Frequently asked questions

What is NHS weekend pay?

Weekend pay is the Agenda for Change Section 2 enhancement paid on top of basic hourly pay for hours worked on a Saturday or a Sunday. In 2026/27 in England, Saturdays are paid at time plus 41% for Band 2, time plus 35% for Band 3 and time plus 30% for Bands 4 to 9, while Sundays are paid at time plus 83% for Band 2, time plus 69% for Band 3 and time plus 60% for Bands 4 to 9. Band 1, closed to new entrants, is time plus 47% on Saturdays and time plus 94% on Sundays. The enhancement applies to every hour worked inside the unsocial window, Saturday from midnight to midnight and Sunday from midnight to midnight, and it is paid on top of basic pay, so a Band 5 nurse at the entry rate of £16.38 an hour earns £21.29 an hour on a Saturday and £26.21 an hour on a Sunday.

How much is Saturday pay at Band 5?

At Band 5 in 2026/27, a Saturday hour is worth £21.29 at the entry point (£16.38 basic plus 30%), £22.97 at the intermediate point (£17.67 basic) and £25.94 at the top of the band (£19.95 basic). A 7.5-hour Saturday shift at the entry point is worth £159.71 against £122.85 for 7.5 plain hours, a difference of £36.86, and a 12-hour Saturday shift at the top of the band is worth £311.22 against £239.40 plain, a difference of £71.82. Weekday nights from 8pm to 6am are paid at the same Saturday rate, so a night shift on a Tuesday earns the same enhancement as a Saturday day shift.

How much is Sunday pay at Band 5?

At Band 5 in 2026/27, a Sunday hour is worth £26.21 at the entry point (£16.38 basic plus 60%), £28.27 at the intermediate point (£17.67 basic) and £31.92 at the top of the band (£19.95 basic). A 12-hour Sunday shift at the top of the band is worth £383.04 against £239.40 for 12 plain hours, a difference of £143.64, which is the single biggest uplift available in a standard Agenda for Change week. A full weekend at the entry point, 7.5 hours on Saturday and 7.5 hours on Sunday, is worth £356.27 against £245.70 for 15 plain hours, an extra £110.57 for the weekend.

Do you get paid more for working a Saturday night?

Yes. A night shift that starts on a Saturday evening is paid at the Saturday rate for the hours before midnight, because Saturday is an unsocial day from midnight to midnight and weekday nights from 8pm to 6am carry the Saturday percentage. The rate follows the clock: hours before midnight take the rate for the day they fall in, and hours after midnight take the next day's rate, so a Saturday night shift that runs past midnight is paid at the Saturday rate up to midnight and the Sunday rate from midnight onwards. At Band 5 entry that is £21.29 an hour before midnight and £26.21 an hour after it, and the same midnight split applies to a Sunday night shift running into Monday morning, where the hours after midnight fall in the weekday night window and are paid at the Saturday percentage.

What happens if a bank holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday?

You get double time instead of the weekend enhancement, if you are in Bands 1 to 7. Under Agenda for Change Section 3, overtime on a bank or public holiday is paid at double time, and overtime and the unsocial-hours enhancement cannot both be claimed for the same hours, so the double-time rate replaces the Saturday or Sunday enhancement rather than adding to it. At Band 5 entry, 7.5 hours on a bank holiday Sunday are worth £245.70 at double time, against £196.56 at the Sunday enhancement rate, so double time is the better deal by £49.14 for that shift. Staff in Bands 8 and 9 have no contractual overtime pay and receive time off in lieu for bank holiday working instead. The full rules are in our bank holiday pay guide, with a calculator in the bank holiday pay calculator.

Do part-time NHS staff get weekend enhancements?

Yes, at exactly the same hourly rates as full-time colleagues on the same band and pay step. Weekend enhancements are paid on the hours actually worked inside the unsocial window, regardless of whole-time equivalent, so a part-time Band 5 nurse at the entry point earns £21.29 an hour on a Saturday and £26.21 an hour on a Sunday, the same as a full-time Band 5 nurse at the same step. The part-time rules only change the overtime position: hours above contracted hours up to 37.5 a week are paid at plain time plus any unsocial enhancement that applies, and overtime rates apply only above 37.5 hours a week. A 0.6 whole-time-equivalent Band 5 nurse working a 7.5-hour Saturday shift earns £159.71 for that shift, the same as a full-time colleague working the same shift.

Is NHS weekend pay pensionable?

Yes. Unsocial-hours enhancements are pensionable pay, so the extra money earned on Saturdays and Sundays counts towards your NHS pension, and it is also subject to income tax and National Insurance in the normal way. That has a second effect worth knowing: regular weekend enhancements can push your pensionable pay over a contribution tier threshold, which changes the percentage deducted from your pay. On the official 2026/27 England and Wales tiers, Band 5 entry basic pay of £32,073 sits in the 8.3% tier, which runs from £28,855 to £35,155, so a Band 5 nurse at entry who regularly works weekends can cross into the 9.8% tier on pensionable pay. Your payslip, not this page, is the authority for any individual case, and the pension contributions guide sets out the tiers in full.

Does weekend pay apply in Scotland and Wales?

The rates on this page are the England Agenda for Change Section 2 rates for 2026/27, verified against the NHS Employers unsocial-hours guidance. Scotland and Wales operate their own Agenda for Change handbooks, so staff there should check the local handbook for the exact percentages rather than assuming the England figures apply. Two differences are worth knowing: Scotland moved to a 36-hour week from April 2026, which changes the hourly maths for Scottish posts because the same annual salary is divided by fewer hours, and the verified data file holds a Scotland Band 5 range of £34,494 to £42,977 but no Scotland weekend percentages, so no Scotland hourly weekend rates are quoted here. In Northern Ireland, the 3.3% award for 2026/27 is recommended but not yet implemented, so staff there should not budget on the England figures until the award is confirmed.

Sources and independence

Source: NHS Employers, Unsocial hours payments (Section 2 Table 2).

Source: NHS Employers, Unsocial hours factsheet.

Source: NHS Employers, 2026/27 pay award announcement.

Source: Health Careers NHS, Agenda for Change pay rates.

NHS Bands Pay is an independent guide and is not affiliated with the NHS. Figures were verified against official sources on 6 November 2026 and can change, always confirm with the relevant official body before making financial decisions.