NHS Trusts & Health Boards

Agenda for Change pay is a national pay system: a Band 6 nurse, physiotherapist or administrator is on the same national pay scale whether they work for a hospital trust in Newcastle or a health board in Cardiff. See the full Agenda for Change pay scales for 2026/27 for every band and point. So in one sense, "how much does this trust pay?" has a simple answer — the same as any other NHS employer at the same band — give or take two things that genuinely do vary depending on where you work.

The first is the High Cost Area Supplement (HCAS) — the London and fringe weighting that adds a percentage on top of band pay for people working in and around London. Whether it applies, and at what rate (inner, outer or fringe), depends entirely on your employer's location, so it's worth checking for the specific trust or health board you're applying to before you assume a number. Use the NHS Pay Calculator to see your exact figure, HCAS included.

The second is which organisation is actually your employer. Your trust or health board — not "the NHS" as a single entity — is your legal employer, and that matters for things like continuous service and how redundancy pay is calculated, as well as for understanding how the wider system fits together locally. See our guides to NHS redundancy pay and how NHS trusts and health boards are structured for what that means in practice.

Browse major trusts and health boards below by nation to see the region, organisation type and HCAS status for each, then click through for pay-and-working-there specifics.