Adult social worker pay down 5% in real-terms since 2016, data shows

Average pay for social workers in council adults’ services in England fell by 5.3% from 2016-24, official data shows.

As of September 2024, the (mean) average salary for practitioners was £43,000, up 2% on the level 12 months earlier after taking account of inflation, said Skills for Care’s annual report on the local authority workforce.

In cash terms, practitioners were earning about £9,000 more on average, in 2024, compared with 2016, when the figure was £34,200.

However, once inflation is taken into account, the value of social workers’ pay has fallen by £2,500 over that time.

Skills for Care’s figures show that real-terms pay was relatively static from 2016-21 and then fell dramatically from 2021-22 on the back of the sharp and sustained rise in inflation following the economic recovery from Covid and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.  Since then, only some of the lost ground in real-terms pay has been recovered.

The figures capture the impact of promotions, pay progression and the annual rise in salaries to take account of the cost of living.

This year’s pay claim

For most councils in England, the latter is determined through the National Joint Council for Local Government Services, which is made up of representatives from employers and the three main unions, UNISON, the GMB and Unite.

The unions have put in a bid for a £3,000 increase in pay in 2025-26, alongside a boost to annual leave and a cut in the working week. They have argued that such a rise is “overdue” due to many years of pay settlements they have deemed inadequate.

Employers are yet to make an offer to staff. However, this will likely be far below the unions’ claim, in the context of the significant pressures facing councils in 2025-26, including those arising from the government’s increase in national insurance contributions for employers.

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