NHS Trusts
Barts Health NHS Trust: Pay and Bands
Last updated September 2026 · Independent guidance, not affiliated with NHS England or DHSC
Short answer
Every Agenda for Change band and pay point that applies at Barts Health NHS Trust is exactly the same as the national scale set out in our 2026/27 pay scales guide — a Band 5 nurse or Band 3 healthcare assistant here sits on identical base pay to their counterpart in Newcastle or Cardiff. What is different is location: Barts Health falls within the Inner London High Cost Area Supplement zone, so most staff also receive HCAS on top of band pay. Run the NHS Pay Calculator with Inner London selected to see your exact take-home figure, HCAS included.
What kind of trust is Barts Health?
Barts Health is an acute NHS trust based in London, which in practice means the kind of broad, multi-specialty workforce you'd expect from a large hospital employer: nursing across most fields, medicine, midwifery, a wide spread of allied health professional roles, pharmacy, healthcare assistants, and the administrative, estates and support staff that keep an acute site running. If you're weighing up a move into a specific clinical area, our nursing and allied health professionals guides cover how pay progresses band by band regardless of which acute trust you end up at.
Inner London pay in practice
Because Barts Health sits inside the Inner London HCAS zone, the London weighting is a real and substantial addition to take-home pay — but it's worth remembering HCAS exists precisely because London living costs are higher, not as a straightforward bonus. Before accepting an offer, it's worth running the actual numbers rather than assuming the headline salary tells the full story: the pay calculator factors in your exact band, point and HCAS zone together.
Your employer, not just your role
Barts Health, not "the NHS" generically, is your legal employer if you work here — which matters for continuous service calculations and, in the event of restructuring, for how redundancy pay is worked out. If you're new to how trusts, ICBs and the wider NHS in England fit together, our explainer on NHS structure is a good starting point.
Frequently asked questions
Does Barts Health NHS Trust pay London weighting? +
Yes. Barts Health sits in the Inner London High Cost Area Supplement zone, so most staff receive HCAS on top of their standard Agenda for Change band pay. Use the NHS Pay Calculator with the Inner London HCAS setting for your exact figure.
Is basic pay higher at Barts Health than at a trust outside London? +
No — the underlying Agenda for Change band and pay point rates are identical nationally. The difference at Barts Health is the Inner London HCAS payment added on top, not a higher base rate.
What kinds of roles exist at a large acute trust like Barts Health? +
Large acute trusts typically employ across the full range of clinical and non-clinical roles — nursing, medicine, midwifery, allied health professions, healthcare assistants, pharmacy, and administrative, estates and support staff — all on the same national Agenda for Change or medical/dental pay structures.