How NHS interviews are scored

There is no single NHS interview scale. Each trust or health board sets its own, and the panel scores every question against points it agreed before the interview.

Three NHS scoring scales you can read

These are examples from three organisations, not a national standard. Other trusts use their own scales and number of questions.

How values-based interview questions are built

Health Education England's guide to structured interviews for values-based recruitment describes good practice: questions are linked to criteria from the role, answers are scored against predetermined criteria that are the same for every applicant, and each lead question comes with pre-agreed probing questions. In a values-based interview, the probes ask how and why you made your choices, not only what you did.

The guide recommends:

• criteria from the person specification and the trust's values; in England these sit alongside the NHS Constitution values;
• positive and negative indicators for each criterion, so every applicant is assessed against the same standard;
• probing questions agreed in advance, such as “Why was this relationship significant?” or “What did you learn from this experience?”

Some trusts also allow follow-ups that were not planned: Salisbury's guidance describes probing questions as additional unscripted questions to explore an answer in more detail.

What a top-scoring answer does

On Salisbury's scale a 3 is a confident answer that shows three or more positive indicators. In practice, strong answers:

• answer the question asked, with one specific example from your own experience, or for a scenario, what you would do first and who you would involve;
• make clear what you personally did and why;
• cover the parts of the person specification the question is testing;
• say what you learned or would do differently;
• stay within your role and say when you would escalate.

Pass marks and getting your scores

There is no national NHS pass mark. Trusts set their own, and many do not publish one. As one example, a 2021 FOI response from Northern Ireland's Business Services Organisation gave an interview pass mark of 66 out of 100 for a single post, and released the candidate's panel scores.

If you are not appointed, ask the recruiting manager for feedback. Notes and scores the panel recorded about you are your personal data, so you can also ask for a copy through a subject access request.

Practise against these points out loud

The free drills on our role pages let you answer a practice question out loud and compare it with what panels look for.

More NHS interview practice