F1 Resident Doctor Salary 2026/27
F1 is the first year of medical foundation training. Basic pay in England is £41,226 at nodal point 1 for 2026 to 2027, rising to £47,610 at FY2. That figure carries both the accepted 3.5% DDRB award from 1 April 2026 and the negotiated nodal point reform. Rota supplements for nights, weekends and on-call are paid on top of basic.
Typical pay & take-home
- Median gross
- £41,226
- Typical range
- £41,226–£47,610
- Take-home at median
- £33,202 England, no pension applied — use the salary calculator for your scheme.
At the median for this profession, you earn about 6% above the UK full-time median (£39,039), placing you in the top 46% of UK earners.
See exact take-home for £41,226 →
Nodal points, SAS scales, the five consultant thresholds and the salaried GP range, each with take-home after the banded NHS pension: Doctors' pay scales 2026/27, every grade →
What influences junior doctor (f1) pay
Basic pay is national and set by nodal point, not negotiated individually: £41,226 at FY1 and £47,610 at FY2 in England for 2026 to 2027. What varies between posts is the rota, because weekend frequency, night work and on-call availability are all paid as separate supplements on top of basic.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland set resident doctor pay under their own settlements, so the England nodal points do not apply there.
The NHS pension contribution at F1 basic is 9.8%, the 2026/27 tier covering pensionable pay from £35,156 to £52,778. It is a net pay arrangement: full Income Tax relief on the contribution, but National Insurance is still charged on the full gross. Accrual is 1/54th of pensionable pay a year under the 2015 CARE scheme.
Career progression
- FY1: £41,226 basic.
- FY2: £47,610.
- ST1 and ST2 (nodal points 3a and 3b): £55,355.
- ST3 £67,325, ST4 and ST5 £67,998.
- ST6 £76,582, ST7 and ST8 £77,348.
- Consultant (2003 contract): £113,565 rising to £150,569 across five thresholds, since 2a and 2b are separate steps.
Frequently asked questions
- What does an F1 actually take home 2026/27?
- On £41,226 basic with the 9.8% NHS pension tier, take-home is about £29,970 a year or £2,498 a month, after £4,040 pension, £4,923 Income Tax and £2,292 National Insurance. Rota supplements are paid on top and are taxed at the marginal rate, so they add less than the headline percentage suggests.
- Do doctors lose money on the pension annual allowance?
- High-earning senior doctors (consultants with significant additional income) occasionally breach the £60,000 annual pension allowance due to the pension-input-amount calculation for DB schemes. For F1s this is not a concern.