The Datum Report

Occupation 1171 · Managers, directors and senior officials

Health services and public health managers and directors

Half of full-time health services and public health managers and directors in the UK earn more than £61,573 a year, and half earn less.

Managers and directors in this unit group plan, organise, direct and co-ordinate the resources and activities of health care providers and purchasers at both district and unit levels.

How people enter it

Entrants require a degree or equivalent qualification, a professional qualification and/or relevant experience. Off and on-the-job training is provided through management training schemes. The nature of schemes varies between regions and occupational areas.

What the work involves

• implements policies of the board, ensures statutory procedures are followed, with particular emphasis on patient safety and the management of risk
• liaises with health care professionals to determine short and long-term needs and how to meet these objectives within budgetary constraints
• oversees the day-to-day management of the unit or service and provides leadership to staff
• uses statistical information to monitor performance and assist with planning
• negotiates and manages contracts with providers and purchasers of health care services
• manages staff, including recruitment, appraisal and development
• monitors and reports upon the effectiveness of services with a view to improving the efficiency of health care provision
• coordinates the promotion of public health and wellbeing in the actions and policies of public agencies and their social partners
• monitors and reports upon the state of public health and wellbeing

Also called

Clinical manager · Director of nursing · Health service manager · Information manager (health authority: hospital service)

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for health services and public health managers and directors, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 5 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Social services managers and directors