NHS Health Visitor Salary 2026/27: Training and Band 6 Pay

Health visitors are registered nurses or midwives who have trained as specialist community public health nurses (SCPHN). They support families with children under five, from before birth onwards, mostly through home visits and clinics. Health visiting services are commissioned by local councils, but many health visitors are employed by NHS trusts and paid on Agenda for Change.

Health visitor pay for 2026/27

Some providers that are not NHS trusts set their own pay, often using Agenda for Change as a guide.

What a health visitor takes home

Full time, with the NHS Pension and tax code 1257L:

How health visitor training works

To become a health visitor, you must already be a registered nurse or midwife. You then complete an NMC-approved SCPHN programme in health visiting, usually one year full time or two years part time, and register on the SCPHN part of the NMC register.

Funding varies by area and year. In many cases:

• the employer sponsors the course and pays a salary during training, often at Band 5 or at your current band if higher
• you agree to work for the employer for a set period after qualifying

Check carefully what happens if you leave early, as some agreements require you to repay part of the funding.

Travel: mileage claims

Health visitors drive a lot. If you use your own car for work, you can claim mileage under the NHS scheme. For 2026/27:

• 56p a mile for the first 3,500 business miles in the year
• 21p a mile after that

A health visitor driving 300 business miles a month would claim £168 a month at first. Over a year that is 3,600 miles, so the last 100 miles are paid at 21p and the total comes to £1,981. The mileage calculator works out claims across the year, including when you pass 3,500 miles.

HMRC's approved rate for cars is 45p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles in a tax year. If the total your employer pays for the year is less than the approved amount, you can claim tax relief on the difference, called Mileage Allowance Relief. With the NHS rates, that starts to happen at around 5,100 business miles a year. Below that, the NHS pays more than the approved amount, and the excess is taxable. Payroll normally deals with this.

Health visitor working patterns

Most health visiting is during weekday hours, so unsocial hours payments are rare. Many health visitors work part time, and services increasingly offer flexible patterns. Your pay, leave and pension all scale with your hours.

Moving up from Band 6

• Practice teacher or practice educator, supporting students, usually Band 7
• Team leader, usually Band 7
• Specialist health visitor in areas such as perinatal mental health or infant feeding
• Locality or service manager at Band 8a and above

Common questions

Do I have to have been a nurse first? Yes, or a midwife. Health visiting is a post-registration specialism.

Does my Band 5 pay continue during training? If your employer is sponsoring you, often yes. Check the offer letter.

Is the NMC SCPHN registration an extra fee? Your NMC registration covers all the parts of the register you are on. The annual fee qualifies for tax relief.

What health visitors do day to day

Health visitors lead the Healthy Child Programme for children under five. In England, every family should be offered five universal reviews:

1. an antenatal contact, from around 28 weeks of pregnancy
2. a new birth visit, usually 10 to 14 days after the birth
3. a 6 to 8 week review
4. a 1 year review
5. a 2 to 2½ year review

Alongside these, health visitors support families with feeding, sleep, development, perinatal mental health and safeguarding. The caseload and travel involved are part of why mileage claims and flexible working matter so much in this role.

Check your own pay

Use the take-home pay calculator for your Band 6 take-home, and the mileage calculator for your travel claims.