Foundation Year 1 (F1) Salary
The short answer
A Foundation Year 1 doctor takes home £28,434 a year — £2,369.51 a month — after income tax, National Insurance and pension contributions.
F1 Pay (2016 contract, England)
| Pay Point | Annual | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Nodal Point 1 | £38,831 | £3,235.92 |
F1 Pay (2016 contract, England)
| Pay Point | Gross | Pension | Tax | NI | Net | Monthly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nodal Point 1 | £38,831 | £3,805 | £4,491 | £2,100 | £28,434 | £2,369.51 |
Basic pay only. Almost every F1 earns more than this through enhanced pay for nights, weekends and on-call, which depends on the rota and is not included. The NHS Pension contribution is deducted before income tax.
Check your own figure
Foundation Year 1 is the first year of practice after medical school, and it sits on nodal point 1 of the 2016 contract at £38,831. The nodal point system replaced the old incremental scales: pay steps at defined training milestones rather than annually, so an F1's basic pay does not change during the year.
Basic pay is the smaller part of the story for most F1s. The 2016 contract adds enhanced pay for night shifts, weekend frequency and on-call availability, and the total depends entirely on the rota. Two F1s at the same trust on different rotas can take home materially different amounts on identical basic pay.
The NHS Pension contribution matters more than doctors often expect. At £38,831 an F1 falls in the 9.8% tier, and because the tiers are banded rather than marginal the rate applies to the whole of pensionable pay. It is deducted before income tax, so the real cost in take-home is lower than 9.8% of gross.
One practical note for new F1s: your first payslip rarely matches the monthly figure below. Pay usually starts part way through a month, tax codes are often wrong initially while HMRC catches up with a new employment, and the pension deduction may lag by a cycle. It generally settles by the third month, and any overpaid tax comes back automatically through PAYE.