About NHS Pay Scale
An independent tool that turns official Agenda for Change data into a figure you can check, built by someone with no connection to the NHS and no reason to flatter it.
NHS Pay Scale turns official NHS Agenda for Change pay data into a calculator you can actually use: enter your band and see your real take-home pay, with income tax, National Insurance and pension contributions worked out line by line.
Who Builds It
I am Tom Fenwick, an independent developer. I am not an NHS employee and I do not work in healthcare. I build tools that take official public data and make it usable.
Every figure on this site traces back to a published source, not a summary of one. That distinction matters more than it sounds: of the errors found here so far, the ones that survived longest came from compiled summary pages rather than from the legislation or circulars underneath them.
How the Numbers Are Worked Out
Pay bands come from NHS Employers’ published Agenda for Change circulars, and from the Scottish Government, NHS Wales and the Department of Health in Northern Ireland for the other three nations. Income tax and National Insurance use HMRC rates for the 2026/27 tax year, updated when new thresholds are published. Pension contributions follow each administrator’s published tiers, which differ between England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Where the underlying rule is set in law, I read the law. The 2015 pension accrual rate and its revaluation come from the scheme regulations themselves rather than from a scheme summary, because the summaries state the revaluation basis in a way the instrument does not.
Every figure carries the date it took effect and the source it came from, so you can check the working rather than just the answer. 43 sources, each with the date it was last read: the full list is published.
Where the Four Nations Differ
Pay awards, working weeks and pension rules diverge between the nations, and Northern Ireland in particular often confirms later than the rest. Where a figure is announced but not formally issued, it is marked provisional everywhere it appears rather than presented as settled. Northern Ireland’s 2026/27 pay is in exactly that position as this is written.
The change log records every revision, and the corrections log records every error, including who it affected and how much money was involved.
What I Get Wrong
The corrections log has 8 entries, and most of them are mistakes on my side rather than the source data’s: a threshold typed a pound low, a table that lagged an uprating for a whole year.
Each one is written up with what was wrong, who saw a wrong number, how large it was, and what test now stops it happening again. It is not a comfortable page to publish. It is the page I would want to read before trusting anyone else’s figures.
What This Site Is Not
NHS Pay Scale is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or run by the NHS, NHS Employers, or any NHS body. It is an independent tool built to help.
It is also not financial or HR advice. It cannot see your circumstances, your tax code history, or anything your employer has agreed locally. For anything that affects your actual pay, confirm against your own payslip or your trust’s HR or payroll team. For decisions that matter — a mortgage application, a change of hours, whether to stay in the pension — talk to your payroll department, your union or a qualified adviser.
Get in Touch
Spotted an error or an outdated figure? contact@nhspayscale.co.uk. I read these and fix them, and the fix gets published.
For anything else: enquiries@nhspayscale.co.uk.