NHS social workers in England will receive a 3.6% pay rise in 2025-26, the health and social care secretary has announced.
The increase is similar to the current rate of inflation, as measured by the government’s preferred consumer prices index (CPI) measure, which hit 3.5% in the 12 months to April 2025.
However, in a parliamentary statement, Wes Streeting claimed that the rise would amount to a real-terms increase over the course of 2025-26 given the government’s forecast for inflation.
The rise applies to staff on Agenda for Change (AfC) contracts, which includes NHS social workers and social care staff, as well as nurses, other health professionals besides doctors and non-clinical staff.
According to Skills for Care, there were an estimated 4,300 filled social work posts in the NHS in England as of March 2024.
Pay rise lower than last year but above government’s plan
The 3.6% increase was recommended by the independent NHS Pay Review Body (NHSPRB). Though well below the 5.5% recommended for 2024-25 – which was also accepted by ministers – it is above the 2.8% increase the government had budgeted for for 2025-26.
In his statement today, Streeting said the NHSPRB’s recommendations were “fair and well-evidenced”, and that the additional rise above the 2.8% planned increase would be resourced through efficiencies.
These include cutting staff numbers at NHS England (NHSE), ahead of its planned abolition, reducing duplication between NHSE and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), cutting corporate services, like NHS communications teams and bringing down integrated care board (ICB) costs by 50%.
“As a result of the savings found, none of the pay increases will be paid for by cutting frontline services,” Streeting added.
Though the NHSPRB’s recommendations cover England, Wales and Northern Ireland, it will be for the devolved administrations in the latter two countries to determine whether to accept them.
Pay dispute on cards in local authorities
The 3.6% increase for England’s NHS social workers is slightly above the 3.2% being offered to most council practitioners by the National Joint Council for Local Government Services’ employers’ side.
All three local government unions – UNISON, GMB and Unite – have recommended that their members reject the offer, though the employers have said that it is their “full and final” proposal.
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What about carers yet again at tbe bottom of the food trail ! Ffs sort it out !
I’m all for pay rises for NHS social workers, but what about those of us who work for local authorities? The NHS is held up on a pedestal, whilst those in LA’s are truly in the trenches and largely forgotten about in the media (unless something goes wrong)!
In my experience, Child Safeguarding Social Workers work as hard as any other profession with huge complexity and challenges. The impact of the work is harder to quantify, however, it is undeniable that preventing and mitigating against childhood trauma and abuse is priceless. Perhaps that’s why we are left out of this pay rise…?
Yes I agree.. What about LA social workers who work just as hard if not harder, NHS have got easy access to MDT NHS resources. There are hardly any resources in the community where LA Social workers are based making their Jobs difficult.
If NHS social works have a rise so should LA social workers
LA social workers (including myself) failed to rise up and reject the proposed pay offer last year and we ended up with less that we should have got. Every year the unions call on workers to vote to reject the offer but the sad truth is we are all too apathatic to actually do it.
We aren’t left out. The NHS pay award and Local Authority pay awards are organised separately. It’s not even anything to do with social workers per se, they are just 2 different employers that employ social workers amongst other professions.
All Social workers deal with individuals children and adults with trauma and significant difficulties that is usually why there are in social care services .
In real terms I am worse off financially than I was 10 years ago with all the cost of living .
As an AMHP my salary was at the time equivalent to top increment band 7 post but now I am paid more than £6 k less than they are . The NHS are recruiting more band 7 is my area as they have been unable to recruit to post with no additional training from when they qualified.
Social Workers need to gain qualification for any increment pay increases . I have like many other SW have post qualify qualifications, AMHP , BIA , practice educator level 2 . But like I said I am still salary wise worse off without these and more qualified than my nhs colleagues .
We cannot criticise the nhs as their union and NMC have stood up and been counted and recognised Whilst SW England have done nothing to push a positive agenda for SW .
⸻
Absolutely agree, Jewels. I’ve been a Social Worker for over 20 years too—with the same qualifications (minus the AMHP)—and I still struggle, financially. We don’t get the same recognition as other public service workers, even when our responsibilities are greater. The work is demanding, often demoralising, and we’re left clinging to the small “wins” just to get through the day. It’s tough, but it helps knowing others feel the same. Solidarity really does make a difference.
Totally agree with everything you’ve said Matt
.
It’s actually quite hard to understand why for the second year in a row LA social workers will have a lesser pay rise than nhs staff or teachers.
I work for the NHS, and would rather have any rise than no rise at all. I work day to day in the nightmare of what is the appalling NHS system. All public sectors workers should receive the same pay rise what ever your profession.
I work with Consultants on a daily basis who do what ever they want while the rest of us run around after them, because nobody governs them in the workforce, why are they receiving more than others. Equality means the same for everyone. I have always been against striking because it does not help the patients, but this time I would strike if we ballot to do so.
All health and social care staff as well as carers work very hard and all deserve fair pay but to reflect on above comments, ASYE posts local to me in LA advertise at a starting salary of £36,124,in the NHS Band 5 social work starting is £31,049 and you have to wait 2 years for a pay progression then are at £33,487 so there is a significant difference. Again very similar with the band 6 NHS pay is significantly lower than LA.
exactly.. LA social workers dont know they earn way higher than NHS social workers. ASYE is band 5 and thats 29,970 actually. whereas my colleagues in london are earning 40k and above in LA, and the other councils are 35k and above for ASYE.
Try being a care assistant in the community, we prop the NHS up and we get nothing. You all get paid alot more and we have just as much responsibility, we have people lives in our hands
Even then the hourly rate of pay for healthcare support worker in the NHS is just a bit over £12 and hour! So you cannot compare the basic pay of the NHS worker to that if the Social worker as it’s over thousands of pounds more for those just staring out!
Interesting chain of discussion. As an unwaged family carer, unable to claim the useless Carers’ Allowance because I’m retired and turned down for Direct Payments because our late father did his best to make provision for my disabled brother by allocating some of his pension to him without knowing he should have set up a Discretionary Trust; I receive nothing from the LA for working 25 hours per day / 8 days per week and turned down for a Disabled Facilities Grant and turned down for Continuing Health Care funding and exist on 2 to 3 hours sleep per night.
We desperately need more care villages / intentional communities but the CQC is closing down the few that are left and block the new ones needed. I am in a state of total despair. Meanwhile central government throws billions upon billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on white elephant projects: Trident nuclear weapons of mass destruction, nuclear power, London centric high speed rail.
The waste by government is appealing.
Simon
Family carer failed by the system for sixty years
Up north and ignored by the Westminster Village
You are right the admission team in the NHS gets significantly higher pay than us and why
No social workers deserve pay rise for Bad performance payment is based on performance as well as cost of living energy bills will come down in July so pay rise must be below inflation
I totally agree with you.Us health care assistance are the back bone of the Nhs and we get nothing in return ,we get no appreciation we are under paid and under valued
It should be the same pay offer with NHS Scotland, why is NHS England’s pay offer below expectation? Maybe NHS workers in England should start moving to Scotland for a better pay for their hard work
NHS Scotland does not employ Social Workers.
Carers again not really mentioned especially when they’re getting rid of overseas workers who do an amazing job.. if they don’t increase salary and Conditions for uk workers to get them into caring as it’s not at all an easy job but a vocation !! what on earth are they going to do… let more of our elderly die from government neglect , again !! Following the fuel payment cut which will also see people die….
I’m not a carer but do work for the NHS as a receptionist and work closely with them. We also need payment increase !! We are on minimum wage of £12.21ph and expected to to take verbal abuse, threats, physical abuse, being spat at shouted at and be gatekeepers for ALL other members of staff in the GP surgery on literally a daily basis!! Our wage for this is absolutely disgusting for what we do… we literally deal with WVERYTHING from appts to prescriptions issuing : referrals/ complaints/ counselling /calls / shoulders to cry on /mental heath patients if they are unhappy and making scenes or any patients in reception , we deal with as NO ONE will come out to assist, is disgusting our salary , Boatd members at GP surgeries have no clue !!
Receptionist deserve a decent hourly rate !! For the daily threats and abuse we receive.. it’s a pittance !! the GP survey I am in didn’t even back date the minimal rise we got last year which the government gave them the money for! The admitted they spent it on the surgery !! Our money !!! Nurses and reception staff are leaving GP surgeries literally every week… we have had 4 nurses / 5 reception staff / 2 management members leave in that last 14 days leaving us with just 5 nurses to cover 6 surgeries because the way it is ran and salaries paid.. none of the senior management have ANY NhS experience ! The are ALL from supermarkets !! just a business to them …we try our best with the patients but we are all angry and frustrated as management don’t care about patients, no consistency in care things are being missed..! Our hours are 7.45to 6.45 for an open at 8 but again we don’t get paid for that extra 30 mins !! sickness and staff rotation is extremely high !! It’s embarrassing
All other professionals in health and social care especially the NHS are always getting recognised, pay rises but no one ever talks about the domiciliary care workers.
This carers play a very important role in the community,, yet the government continues to fail when it comes to social care, providers are forced to take on packages that don’t cover of the ever increasing costs they have..
It’s a total disgrace, in 2003 carers were paid around the same rates they are being paid in 2025. What a disgrace
Dom care is just taken for granted.
We as carers do more than any NHS.
We are nurses we are phisocihist We are cleaners. We are chefs.
We clean up after NHS.
We take abuse..from all different angles and our pay is disgusting We can not afford to live anymore. We have bills to pay like everyone else.
Love to know where your getting this. Clearly not worked in the NHS. I’ve work in both carer and NHS. Both bad. Many times I’ve had to pick up slack from care homes. Many times I’ve had to put allegations against care Jones why because your understaffed to do your job and so are we.
I work in cardiology and recovering and I tell you now even in critical care conditions we still get punched spat at verbal abuse attitude problems from all side patients and families.
If we don’t do our job right that’s our patients life literally on the line.
I run around my ward like a loony toon to get things done on time and things can change in a second and your doing CPR.
I’m literally saving peoples life’s your not that’s the biggest difference ever yet I get paid £12 an hour for that job to save life’s and learn about the equipment to use to save a life.
Our “job” does not stop there either. We are accountable and responsible in the community to do crp on our days off.. your job stops when you walk out of the door.
There is a massive difference
But I do agree you guys do need a pay rise but I tell you now so do all the NHS staff who actually work on the wards putting there lifes in danger every day and saving patients life’s every day.
Nursing homes no longer even though qualified to do so want do IVs or syringe drives… Why? You have band 5’s that are trained to do so And get paid the same amount if not more than our band 5’s.
I employ social care staff starting salary £35500p.and working 10days a .month. we all want more money it is natural but it has to come from somewhere productivity or taxes or government borrowing. There is no measure of the efficiency of local and central govt.
Our daughter relays on her carers she is fully nhs funded but the carers wages are low. Companies that employ carers offer incentives for night, weekend working we just have one rate. For a night shift there is just 90 pence difference for waking or sleeping.
I agree with Matt and Jules, in terms of employment law equal pay for equal work.The proposal for hospital social workers and not for local authority social workers surely would set a presidency in case law. Our roles may be different but we are all have to be registered under one umbrella, so if you are a social worker for NHS or the local Authority, you are a social worker.Local Authority social workers have a wider remit which not only covers neighbourhoods ,it also covers hospital discharged in some areas due to the demands on the NHS.
I agree totally Matt, I believe that with out LA social worker the NHS Social workers would be lost, we do much more of the front line stuff, andkeep people safe int he community NHS Social workers are in Hosptial teams and all their clients are on Wards, with 24 hour protecion.
The NHS in all its forms has been put on a pedastal – we must protect it – I ask Why so often – With out the LA supporting them they would be lost.
I am all for partnership working but find that this is all one sided US doing the work… We NEED A PAY RISE.
What about Family Workers what are now dealing with Child In Need (CIN) cases? Does this apply to them too?
I work in nhs as a domestic and we are the lowest paid ,we are important as well with out us patient’s would be at risk ,and we all work hard we need a bigger pay rise that’s what we are worth .
Entry level band 3 is still £63 below the £25000 threshold…this is so frustrating, painful and heartbreaking…a lot of overseas health and care workers are about losing their jobs..working so hard after so many years, just to lose it all now
Call that a pay increase……those on band 2 (bottom of the pile) that got the rise in line with the minimum wage won’t be getting the 3.6% increase….that minimum wage increase will be taken off the 3.6% and leave litterly pennies of a rise again. Junior doctors are getting 4% and a one off payment of £750 this year along with the 22%(spread over 2 years)increase from last year that’s not a bad pay rise and well deserved. But keep treating the lower bands like dirt that you wipe of your shoe and you’ll end up like last years strikes but with alot more people walking out, porters, domestics, security, hca’s,kitchen staff, housekeepers etc etc etc….tick tock tick tock
Now we will have social workers in joint local authority teams getting different pay deals . All publ8c sector social care staff need to come under one regulated body so that the system is fair .publ8c sector needs butvthat a universal sector in each of the 4 nations of the UK its wrongvthat we have joint teams doing the same work but on different pay scales it’s time to bring in universal pay in the public sector .
Is this backdated aswel?
I agree with the the above comment (Keith) that all public sector social care staff should come under one pay-scale. It is wrong that there are joint teams doing the same work for different pay rates. We should look to the unions to negotiate with local and central government on behalf of social workers,
Social workers should check that the union they pay into is a member of the Trade Union Congress(TUC) to ensure that their union can be at the negotiating table. Many unions are members of the TUC. The Social Workers Union (SWU) BASW’s union arm are not a member of the TUC and therefore not recognised by employers. SWU has no seat at the negotiating table and could not support social workers who wish to take strike action.
I have changed union from BASW to Unison, as this may be part of the reason voting was so low as some unions don’t have a vote…so your say on pay and reward. Integration should include pay scales as well as services, where equivalent jobs should be equally recognised. All staff across frontline services, including carers, cleaners and receptionist are the backbone of community support and deserve to be able to pay their own bills around maintaining a work life balance. No one should be living hand to mouth whilst working so hard. There is a lot of waste in the NHS, children and adult services, especially at the top tiers which needs modernisation and simplifying so staffing on the ground can be improved to retain staff and not pay extra for agency staff. The government need to properly resource Access to Work to support people into work and value this contribution. People are at burnout point where there is no time for day to day reflection or improving our wellbeing alongside the people we seek to support. Wes seems to be focusing solely on the NHS at the expense of other associated organisations and workforces. Not very reassuring as more of the same. People need to feel the difference that we can go into work, get the job done and deliver cost effective, high standards of health and social care. Which requires human focused cross party departmental policies of services from antenatal, birth to end of life and everything in between. The cost of some health and care packages can be high cost and risk averse, where big profits are taken at the expense of the children, adults and carers who receive and deliver. We know health and children’s seem to have a bigger pot when setting up care and support, then adult care have to pick up and reduce these risk averse, deprivation of liberties. When costs of care run into £10k per week and services and pay don’t reflect it is a slap in the face. Pay, reward and training of skilled health and social care workers please Wes. Mental Health and DWP are intertwined as people can’t live and work well within the broken systems. Informal, unpaid carers, respite options and the voluntary sectors are not supported over profit.
All this money is going to be back dated?
Hi Desmond,
Yes the money will be backdated.
Thanks
Mithran
When will we get the backpay?
If social workers actually stopped navel gazing and ascribing imagined expertise unique only to them they would realise that, a: they shouldn’t really be confused that two different employers each determine the pay of their workers, b: nurses generally are better trained and qualified than them, c: nurses have greater responsibility and are scrutinised by way more qualified and expert managers than in social work, d: comparing social work tasks and responsibilities to clinical skills and medication management really don’t favour social workers. The list can be longer. Stop envying other workers and advocate for yourselves if you believe you are hard done by. Me? I trained as a nurse and after 6 years working on NHS wards realised that whatever the pressures, whatever the lack of resources, whatever the frustrations of being ‘supervised’ by incompetents our lot is infinitely better. I normally wouldn’t engage in a “better” “worse” narrative as I value all workers but frankly the level ill informed sniping I’ve read here warrants breaking that rule. And for my AMHP colleagues just one question: ever worked a night shift on a psychiatric ward? I have. Let’s compare notes.
Brutal and perhaps overstated but it’s good to have a reality check once in a while. The “woe is me” social worker narrative has endured far too long.