NHS Agenda for Change · unsocial hours · 2026/27
NHS unsocial hours
What you are paid on top of basic pay for working evenings, nights, weekends and public holidays. The percentage falls as the band rises — band 1 gets +47% where bands 4–9 get +30%.
When it applies
- All day Saturday, midnight to midnight.
- Weekday nights, 8pm to 6am.
- All day Sunday and public holidays (which include the bank holidays), midnight to midnight — at the higher rate.
If a weekday night or evening shift runs partly outside 8pm–6am, the enhancement applies to the whole shift when more than half of it falls inside those hours. Only one rate is paid for any given hour, and you cannot draw unsocial hours and on-call for the same hour.
It applies to your standard hours. Paragraph 2.9 sends any extra time worked in a week, above standard hours, to Section 3 instead — so those hours attract the overtime rate rather than the unsocial hours percentage, and never both.
It is worked out on basic salary — including a long-term recruitment and retention premium, but not a short-term one and not London weighting. It is pensionable, and it counts towards occupational sick pay and contractual maternity pay. It is not paid on annual leave or sickness, even where those days would otherwise have attracted it.
Check any table that shows the enhancement rising with band. It is the other way round: the published tables pay the lowest bands the most. Several widely-used sites have it inverted, which costs a band 2 or 3 worker the difference on every unsocial shift they claim.
England
| Band | Saturday, and weekdays 8pm–6am | Sunday and public holidays |
|---|---|---|
| Band 1 | +47% | +94% |
| Band 2 | +41% | +83% |
| Band 3 | +35% | +69% |
| Bands 4–9 | +30% | +60% |
A percentage added to your hourly rate for those hours, on top of basic pay.
From Pay scales for 2026/27. England pay bands.
Scotland
| Band | Saturday, and weekdays 8pm–6am | Sunday and public holidays |
|---|---|---|
| Band 1 | +50% | +100% double time |
| Band 2 | +44% | +88% |
| Band 3 | +37% | +74% |
| Bands 4–9 | +30% | +60% |
A percentage added to your hourly rate for those hours, on top of basic pay.
From NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook, version 21. Scotland pay bands.
Wales
| Band | Saturday, and weekdays 8pm–6am | Sunday and public holidays |
|---|---|---|
| Band 2 | +41% | +83% |
| Band 3 | +35% | +69% |
| Bands 4–9 | +30% | +60% |
A percentage added to your hourly rate for those hours, on top of basic pay. The Wales table lists no rate for band 1. That is what the document says; no figure has been carried across from another nation to fill it.
From Pay Letter AfC(W) 01/2026. Wales pay bands.
Northern Ireland
| Band | Saturday, and weekdays 8pm–6am | Sunday and public holidays |
|---|---|---|
| Band 1 | +47% | +94% |
| Band 2 | +41% | +83% |
| Band 3 | +35% | +69% |
| Bands 4–9 | +30% | +60% |
A percentage added to your hourly rate for those hours, on top of basic pay.
From NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook, version 21. Northern Ireland pay bands.
How the nations differ
Northern Ireland uses the same percentages as England. That is a fact from its own document, not an assumption — it says so, and we checked.
Scotland is different. It pays more at the lowest bands: +50% on a Saturday and double time on a Sunday at band 1, against England’s +47% and +94%. And because the enhancement is a percentage of the hourly rate, Scotland’s move to a 36-hour week raised it again, by more than the pay award did.
Wales is different. Its table lists no band 1 at all — it begins at band 2. We have not filled that gap with another nation’s figure.
What the enhancement itself counts towards
It is not a payment that stops at your bank. Paragraph 2.14 makes unsocial hours payments pensionable, so they raise both what you pay into the pension and what it is worth, and it makes them count towards contractual maternity, adoption and shared parental pay — so a run of nights before maternity leave is not lost.
Paragraph 13.9 adds them to pay during annual leave, under “payments for work outside normal hours”, calculated on what you would have received had you been at work. What they do not feed is the overtime rate: paragraph 2.15 keeps unsocial hours payments out of the calculation of overtime, on-call, and any other payment in the handbook.
What this page does not do
It does not work out what you will be paid. That needs your hourly rate, the hours you actually worked in each window, and your tax and pension position — and this site does not estimate take-home pay. What it gives you is the correct percentage to apply, and the document it comes from. See the methodology and the source register.
Sources for the unsocial hours percentages 4 documents · last checked Verified
- NHS Terms and Conditions 2026 (Agenda for Change) — pay bands and pay points from 1 April 2026, England NHS Employers ·2026-27 · Effective · checked · independently checked Also relied on: NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook, version 21 — Section 2 (England), Table 2: unsocial hours payments Pay scales for 2026/27 — High Cost Area Supplement rates, NHS Employers Pay scales for 2026/27 — NHS Employers' HTML publication of the same pay table, used as the corroborating second document Verified
- NHS Circular PCS(AFC)2026/1 — Pay and conditions for NHS staff covered by the Agenda for Change agreement (Annex B rates, Annex C full pay journey) Scottish Government, Health Workforce — Culture, Pay and Partnership Division ·2026-27 · Effective · checked · independently checked Also relied on: NHS Circular PCS(AFC)2025/1 — Reduction of the working week for Agenda for Change staff to 36 hours NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook, version 21 — Section 2 (Scotland), Table 2: unsocial hours payments Verified
- Pay Letter AfC(W) 02/2026 — Agenda for Change pay arrangements 2026/27, Wales, Annex 1 Welsh Government, Health and Social Services Group ·2026-27 · Effective · checked · independently checked Also relied on: NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook, version 21 — Section 2 (Wales), Table 2(a): unsocial hours payments Pay Letter AfC(W) 01/2026 — advance uplift to the Living Wage Foundation rate of £13.45 an hour from 1 April 2026 Verified
- Circular HSC (AfC) 06/2025 — Agenda for Change Pay Arrangements 2025/26 (Annex A: pay bands, on-call, unsocial hours) Department of Health (Northern Ireland), Workforce Policy Directorate ·2025-26 · Effective · checked · independently checked Also relied on: Workforce policy guidance 2026 — the Department's own index of circulars issued this year, which lists no Agenda for Change pay award NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook, version 21 — Section 2 (Northern Ireland), Table 2: unsocial hours payments Verified