Operating Department Practitioner Salary 2026/27: Band 5 Take-Home

What influences operating department practitioner (odp) pay

The band attaches to the registration rather than the job title. Operating department practitioner is a protected title regulated by the Health and Care Professions Council, which describes the work as care and skilled support "during the anaesthetic, surgical and recovery phases of a surgical procedure" - one role covering all three, which is what separates it from theatre nursing. The NHS Employers national job profile suite has two Band 5 profiles for the registered practitioner, both asking for theatre knowledge acquired through a degree or diploma. Below them sits a Band 4 profile in the same suite whose knowledge factor asks instead for theatre knowledge acquired through intermediate level training plus experience.

All three Band 5 points are taxed at the basic rate, but they do not all pay the same pension rate. The NHS 2015 scheme sets the member contribution on actual annual pensionable pay, at 8.3% up to £35,155 and 9.8% from £35,156 to £52,778, and that boundary falls between the second and third points of the band. Entry on £32,073 leaves about £24,483 a year after Income Tax, National Insurance and the 8.3% contribution. The £34,592 point leaves about £26,129, and the £39,043 top point about £28,570. That last step is £4,451 gross but about £2,441 net, and £469 of the shortfall is the rate change on its own: at 8.3% the top point would have left about £29,038.

The tier applies to the whole of pensionable pay, not just the part above the threshold, so the boundary is a cliff rather than a step. Pensionable pay of £35,155 leaves about £26,497 a year; £35,156 leaves about £26,076. One extra pound of pensionable pay costs about £421, because the contribution jumps from about £2,918 to about £3,445. No point on the basic Band 5 scale lands in that pound, but anything pensionable paid on top of basic pay can put you the wrong side of it.

High cost area supplements are paid on top of basic pay, and Section 4 of the Agenda for Change handbook states that they are pensionable, so in London the supplement moves the contribution rate as well as the gross. Inner London is 20% of basic pay, £6,415 on the Band 5 entry point and clamped to a £5,794 to £8,746 collar; outer London is 15% with a £4,870 floor, which is what an entry point attracts. An outer London ODP therefore starts on £36,943 and pays 9.8% from the first day, where the same practitioner outside London pays 8.3% until the third point - about £27,222 a year in the hand against £24,483. Unsocial hours enhancements under Section 2 of the Agenda for Change handbook are paid on top of all of that, since theatre work covers nights, weekends and bank holidays.