The Datum Report

Occupation 2461 · Professional occupations

Social workers

Half of full-time social workers in the UK earn more than £44,550 a year, and half earn less.

Social workers provide information, advice and support to those who are socially excluded or are experiencing crisis; they protect the welfare of vulnerable groups including children, young people, people with disabilities, elderly people and people who are mentally or physically ill, and they may specialise in specific areas of work.

How people enter it

Social work is a regulated profession and practitioners must be registered with the appropriate statutory body. To register a social worker must satisfy the criteria for registration. Non-graduates must undertake a three year degree in social work; graduates with relevant experience may take a two year postgraduate diploma/Master’s degree. Prior relevant work experience or relevant voluntary work is encouraged. Background checks including a DBS check are required.

What the work involves

• liaises with other health and social care professionals and agencies to identify those in need and at risk within the local community
• interviews individuals and groups to assess and review the nature and extent of difficulties
• undertakes and writes up assessments to specified standards
• arranges for further counselling or assistance in the form of financial or material help
• organises support and develops care plans to address service users’ needs
• keeps case records, prepares reports and participates in team meetings
• gives evidence in court
• participates in training and supervision

Also called

Independent review officer (social worker) · Mental health social worker · Senior practitioner (local government: social services) · Social worker · Team leader (local government: social services)

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for social workers, 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. 11 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

Clergy · Probation officers · Welfare professionals n.e.c. · Youth work professionals