Find nursing shifts across the North West
Book NHS and care shifts from Manchester and Liverpool to Preston, Chester and Carlisle in a few taps, see your confirmed pay before you accept, and get paid without chasing timesheets. Novello is built for nurses and carers who want steady work close to home.
Quick enquiry
Looking for work in the North West?
Leave your details and we’ll come back to you with the nursing, care and support shifts we have near you in the North West — and what they pay. It takes about twenty seconds.
Nursing in the North West
Why nurses choose Novello in the North West
Work that fits around your life, across a region that stretches from the Mersey to the Solway.
Shifts near you, not across the region
Whether you are in Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Lancashire, Cheshire or Cumbria, you pick the shifts that suit you. The app shows what is available nearby, so you are choosing between a ward down the road and a care home round the corner, not driving the length of the M6 for a single shift.
Confirmed pay before you say yes
Every shift shows its rate up front, so your confirmed rate is shown in the app before you accept. You see exactly what you will earn, and you are paid promptly with no chasing timesheets or waiting weeks to find out where you stand.
Compliance sorted once, then out of your way
We handle your DBS, mandatory training and revalidation checks properly, so you can move between an NHS ward in Manchester, a Liverpool care home or a secure unit near Preston without repeating the same paperwork for every placement.
The area we cover
The healthcare landscape in the North West
The North West is the third most populated English region, home to around 7.4 million people at the 2021 Census, and its hospitals, mental health services and care homes across five counties all lean on flexible nursing staff.
Acute care here is unusual in running three separate major trauma networks. In Greater Manchester, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust holds the adult major trauma centre at Manchester Royal Infirmary, with the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital as the regional paediatric centre, and since 2024 the Greater Manchester Major Trauma Hospital has been based at Salford Royal under the Northern Care Alliance. On Merseyside, the Cheshire and Mersey network receives its most seriously injured adults at Aintree University Hospital in Fazakerley, part of the NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group, working alongside The Walton Centre for neurosurgery. And in the north, Royal Preston Hospital under Lancashire Teaching Hospitals is the designated adult centre for Lancashire and South Cumbria.
Around those trauma centres sits one of the densest clusters of specialist hospitals in the country. Manchester has The Christie in Withington, one of Europe’s largest cancer centres, and Wythenshawe’s heart and lung transplant unit. Liverpool adds Alder Hey Children’s, Liverpool Heart and Chest, Liverpool Women’s and the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, while Whiston runs the Mersey Regional Burns and Plastic Surgery Unit. Beyond the cities, Blackpool Victoria houses the Lancashire Cardiac Centre, the Countess of Chester and Leighton serve the Cheshire plain, and North Cumbria Integrated Care and University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay cover Carlisle, Whitehaven, Barrow and Kendal across some of the most rural ground in England.
Where we work
Where we cover in the North West
From the Manchester and Liverpool conurbations out to the Lancashire coast, the Cheshire plain and the Cumbrian fells, we place nurses and carers across every setting and every county.
Hospitals and theatres
We support wards, day units and operating theatres across the region’s acute trusts and independent hospitals, from Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and the Liverpool hospitals group to Royal Preston, the Countess of Chester and the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle.
Care and community
Nursing and residential homes, supported living and community teams across all five counties, from Merseyside and Greater Manchester to some of the oldest and most rural populations in the country in Cheshire East, South Lakeland and the wider Cumbrian coast.
Mental health and secure
Inpatient and community mental health with trusts like Greater Manchester Mental Health, Mersey Care, Lancashire and South Cumbria and Cheshire and Wirral Partnership, plus forensic and secure settings and prison healthcare region-wide.
We cover all five counties of the North West, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Lancashire, Cheshire and Cumbria, from Manchester and Liverpool to Preston, Blackpool, Chester, Warrington, Carlisle and Barrow. Choose your county below.
Bordering areas we also cover include the North East, Yorkshire and the West Midlands.
On the map
Nursing shifts across the North West
We cover all five counties of the North West, from the Manchester and Liverpool city regions out to the Lancashire coast, the Cheshire plain and the Cumbrian fells.
Specialisms in the North West
Specialisms across the North West
From high-secure care at Maghull to major trauma in three cities, wherever your skills sit there is likely a setting nearby that needs them.
- Nursing & care homes
- Mental health
- Prison nursing
- Critical care
- Theatres
Nursing & care homes
The North West has a large and ageing care sector. Skills for Care put the region at around 2,100 care organisations running roughly 5,000 locations, with about 244,000 filled posts in 2023 to 2024. Some of the demand is concentrated where populations are oldest, from Sefton and Southport on Merseyside to Cheshire East, where the over-75s grew by around 41 per cent between 2011 and 2023, and South Lakeland in Cumbria, which had the oldest median age in the country at the 2021 Census. Nursing and residential homes across every county regularly need registered nurses and healthcare assistants.
Mental health
Mental health is delivered by several large trusts. Mersey Care runs Ashworth High Secure Hospital at Maghull, one of only three high-secure psychiatric hospitals in England and Wales, while Greater Manchester Mental Health at Prestwich runs adult forensic and secure services including the Edenfield Centre. Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust runs The Harbour in Blackpool and secure care at Guild Lodge near Preston, and Cheshire and Wirral Partnership covers Bowmere Hospital in Chester. There is steady demand for RMNs and support workers across acute, community and secure settings.
Prison nursing
The North West carries one of the larger prison estates in the country, spread across all five counties. Greater Manchester has HMP Manchester at Strangeways and HMP Forest Bank in Salford, Merseyside has HMP Liverpool and HMP Altcourse, Lancashire holds five prisons including HMP Garth and HMP Wymott near Leyland, Cheshire has the women’s prison HMP Styal near Wilmslow and HMP Risley at Warrington, and Cumbria has HMP Haverigg near Millom. Prison healthcare is nurse-led and always short of hands, and it is some of the most rewarding work going for nurses who want something different from a ward.
Critical care
Critical care and trauma are exceptionally well developed here, with three separate adult major trauma centres at Manchester Royal Infirmary, Aintree University Hospital in Fazakerley and Royal Preston, backed by the Greater Manchester Major Trauma Hospital at Salford Royal and The Walton Centre’s neurosciences. Intensive care units run across the Liverpool hospitals group, Wythenshawe’s transplant unit, Blackpool’s Lancashire Cardiac Centre and the acute trusts of Cheshire and Cumbria. We place experienced ITU and HDU nurses where the pressure is highest.
Theatres
Theatre work runs across both sectors and every county. Scrub, anaesthetic and recovery roles come up at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, the Liverpool hospitals group, Wrightington with its national orthopaedic reputation, Royal Preston, the Countess of Chester and Furness General in Barrow, alongside the region’s independent hospitals. We place theatre nurses across elective and emergency lists right across the North West.
Care & support work in the North West
Care and support work in the North West
Most care across the North West is delivered by care assistants and support workers rather than registered nurses. The region carries one of the largest social care workforces in England — Skills for Care counts around 244,000 filled adult social care posts across roughly 5,000 locations — and the work spans elderly care homes, supported living and specialist neuro-rehabilitation. Whatever your background, there is regular work near you.
- Care assistant
- Support worker
- Dementia care
- Brain injury
Care assistant
Demand for care assistants is heaviest where the population is oldest. In Cheshire East the number of over-75s grew by around 41% between 2011 and 2023, and Sefton and Southport on the Merseyside coast are among the oldest areas in the region. Care assistants are the backbone of the North West’s care homes, supporting residents with everyday living, personal care and companionship.
Support worker
The North West is home to the Whalley site near Clitheroe in Lancashire, formerly Calderstones — long the only NHS hospital in the country dedicated to learning disability — and Mersey Care has been steadily moving people out of hospital and into community supported living. That shift, echoed by councils across the region, means steady demand for support workers who help the people they support live as independently as possible, in their own homes and out in the community rather than in an institutional setting.
Dementia care
Close to a million people are living with dementia in the UK in 2024, a figure projected to reach 1.4 million by 2040, and the risk rises steeply with age. That weighs most heavily on the North West’s oldest communities — at the 2021 Census, South Lakeland in Cumbria had one of the oldest median ages of any district in England. Dementia care is some of the most valued work in the sector, supporting residents to live well day to day.
Brain injury
The North West has a genuine specialist neuro cluster centred on the Walton Centre in Fazakerley, a dedicated neurosciences NHS trust that hosts the Cheshire and Merseyside Rehabilitation Network hub and treats patients from across the region, North Wales and the Isle of Man. Rehabilitation support workers here help the people they support rebuild skills and independence after a brain or spinal injury, work closely related to the complex-care roles that involve tracheostomy and other clinical support.
Not sure which fits? See all care & support roles →
The Novello app
Your work life, in one app
Find the North West shifts, see your confirmed pay and keep your compliance in one place. No more chasing paperwork. Everything you need, on iOS and Android.
For the North West employers
Need nurses in the North West?
We help services from Merseyside to Cumbria fill shifts fast, with staff who are checked and ready.
Whether you run a nursing home in Liverpool, a ward in Manchester or Preston, a mental health unit in Cheshire or a community team in Cumbria, we can supply compliant nurses and carers at short notice. Tell us what you need and we will match reliable local staff who know the setting.
Reviews
Don't just take our word for it.
Novello are highly professional, making the onboarding process easier. What I like most is the fact I can book shifts on the app at my own convenience!
Sarah Theatre
Very competent staff and a welcoming, supportive team. What I like most is the variety of shifts in the Novello app!
Khadra RGN
Everything is really simple. The whole process of joining, and then finding and booking shifts. It's so simple!
Dan SFA
Frameworks & accreditations
Good to know
North West nursing agency FAQs
What kind of nursing shifts can I pick up in the North West?
Plenty. We cover acute wards and theatres across trusts like Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, the NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group and Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, along with care homes, community rounds, mental health units and prison healthcare, across all five counties from Greater Manchester and Merseyside to Lancashire, Cheshire and Cumbria.
Which areas of the North West do you cover?
All five counties. Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Lancashire, Cheshire and Cumbria, from Manchester, Liverpool and Preston to Blackpool, Chester, Warrington, Carlisle and Barrow. Choose your county to see local detail.
How does pay work?
Every shift shows its rate before you accept, so your confirmed rate is shown in the app and you always know exactly what you will earn. You are paid promptly, with no chasing timesheets or waiting weeks to find out where you stand.
Do you place mental health and prison nurses in the North West?
Yes. The region runs major mental health trusts including Mersey Care, which operates Ashworth High Secure Hospital at Maghull, and Greater Manchester Mental Health with the Edenfield Centre, alongside a large prison estate from HMP Manchester and HMP Liverpool to HMP Garth and HMP Styal. We place nurses and support workers into secure, forensic and inpatient settings as well as general wards.
I am an employer in the North West. Can you help us with staffing?
Yes. We supply checked, compliant nurses and carers to hospitals, care homes, mental health units and secure settings across all five counties, often at short notice. Get in touch and we will help you fill your rota.
Ready to work on your terms in the North West?
Join Novello and start booking NHS and care shifts from Manchester and Liverpool to Preston, Chester and Carlisle today, with confirmed pay up front and real support behind you. Download the app or get in touch to get started.
Call 0333 307 8897 · hello@novellohealthcare.com
