NHS employer · Bolton, North West

Nursing careers at North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust

North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust is an ambulance service based in Bolton, North West, organisation code RX7. Below: what the published data says about this organisation, what its type means for a nursing caseload, and where the courses that feed it are taught.

Ambulance serviceEngland
Ambulance service Organisation type ODS code RX7
£32,073 Band 5 starting salary England, 2026/27 scale
Not published CQC rating Not in the open dataset for this organisation
Not published Staff survey response rate Not in the open dataset for this organisation
Not published Nursing staff Organisation-level workforce data is not in the open dataset yet
7,225.2 Staff overall Full-time equivalent, all staff groups, 31 December 2025

What working here is like

An ambulance service provides emergency and urgent care before hospital across a whole region, together with 111, clinical assessment hubs and, in most services, a growing amount of urgent community response. It is built primarily around the paramedic workforce, and none of the five nursing fields or the nursing associate role on this site treat ambulance trusts as a primary employer.

That said, ambulance trusts do employ a small number of nurses, typically in roles such as clinical assessment hubs and 111 services rather than on operational crews. If nursing is your goal, treat an ambulance trust as an occasional, specialist option rather than a standard first-post employer — the acute, community, mental health and integrated organisation types above are where the great majority of nursing posts actually sit.

None of that is specific to North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust — it is what the organisation type tells you, and it is the part that reliably holds. The parts that vary between two organisations of the same type are the size of each ward or team, how the preceptorship year is structured, how much band 6 progression is built into the establishment, and how far apart the sites are. Those are questions for the recruitment page and for the informal visit that most nursing teams will happily arrange before you apply. North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust’s own website is the authoritative source for current vacancies and department structure.

Organisation type
Ambulance service
Based in
Bolton
Region
North West
NHS region
North West
Nation
England
ODS code
RX7
Pay scale that applies
Agenda for Change 2026/27, England

The organisation as a whole

Staff group totals as published, for context on the figures above.

Published staff group totals for North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Staff group Full-time equivalent Headcount As at
All staff groups 7,225.2 7,755 31 December 2025
Ambulance staff 2,795.4 2,943 31 December 2025
Scientific, therapeutic & technical staff 3.5 4 31 December 2025

Where it is, and who trains near it

North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust sits in Bolton, North West. Geography matters in nursing recruitment, because pre-registration courses carry a large block of supervised clinical practice and those placements are commissioned with the trusts and boards nearest the university. Students placed with an organisation know its systems, its staff and its patients before they graduate, and a substantial share of newly qualified appointments go to people who were placed there. 1 university in the North West runs approved nursing courses.

Pay is a national question rather than a local one: North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust pays the England Agenda for Change rates for 2026/27, the same as every other NHS employer in the nation. What does vary between employers is everything around the salary: how long a rotation lasts, how much protected time you get for supervision and continuing professional development, whether band 6 progression is planned into the establishment, and how far you will drive between sites.

Universities in the North West

The providers whose placement circuits are most likely to include this organisation.

Other NHS organisations in the North West

The realistic alternatives if you are looking for a first post in this area — they pay the same bands, so the difference is the caseload.

NHS organisations in the North West
Organisation Type Based in
Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust Specialist trust Liverpool
Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Acute trust Blackpool
Bolton NHS Foundation Trust Acute trust Bolton
Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust Mental health trust Chester
Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Acute trust Chester
East Cheshire NHS Trust Acute trust Macclesfield
East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust Acute trust Blackburn
Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust Mental health trust Manchester
Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust Mental health trust Preston
Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Acute trust Preston
Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Specialist trust Liverpool
Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Acute trust Liverpool
Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trust Specialist trust Liverpool
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust Acute trust Manchester
Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust Acute trust Prescot
Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust Mental health trust Prescot
Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Acute trust Crewe
North Cheshire and Mersey NHS Foundation Trust Integrated care organisation Warrington
North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust Integrated care organisation Carlisle
Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust Acute trust Salford
Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust Mental health trust Ashton-under-Lyne
Stockport NHS Foundation Trust Acute trust Stockport
Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust Integrated care organisation Ashton-under-Lyne
The Christie NHS Foundation Trust Specialist trust Manchester
The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust Specialist trust Wirral
The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust Specialist trust Liverpool
University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust Acute trust Kendal
Wirral Community Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust Community trust Birkenhead
Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Acute trust Wirral
Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Acute trust Wigan

How the pay ladder works here

The same four steps apply at every NHS employer; what differs is how quickly the posts come up.

£28,392 Band 4 · Newly qualified First post after registration, for roles that start at band 4 (e.g. nursing associates).
£32,073 Band 5 · Newly qualified First post after registration, usually rotational.
£39,959 Band 6 · Specialist Typically two to four years in; a defined clinical specialty.
£49,387 Band 7 · Advanced or team lead Clinical leadership, complex caseload, supervision.
£57,528 Band 8a · Consultant or service lead Service-wide responsibility or consultant practice.

Next steps

Where this page’s data comes from