The Datum Report

Occupation 2225 · Professional occupations

Clinical psychologists

Half of full-time clinical psychologists in the UK earn more than £58,366 a year, and half earn less.

Clinical psychologists work with people experiencing emotional, psychological or behavioural distress, perform tests and assess their emotional, cognitive and behavioural processes, and determine treatments to help patients improve their mental wellbeing.

How people enter it

Entrants require a degree in psychology recognised by the British Psychology Society. Postgraduate and professional qualifications relating to different areas of psychology are available and are required for certain posts.

What the work involves

• administers tests to assess patients' needs through interviews, psychometric tests and observation of their behaviour
• determines appropriate treatment and may refer patients to other mental health professionals
• provides treatment or guidance using a variety of therapy and counselling techniques
• helps patients to manage their own psychological conditions
• maintains required contacts with family members, education or other health professionals, as appropriate, and recommends possible solutions to problems presented
• writes reports on their work and conducts applied research

Also called

Clinical psychologist · Consultant clinical psychologist

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for clinical psychologists, 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

Occupational therapists · Other psychologists · Physiotherapists · Psychotherapists and cognitive behaviour therapists · Speech and language therapists · Therapy professionals n.e.c.