2023-2024 Â鶹ԭ´´ workforce mapping survey
News for members

Thank you to everyone who completed the workforce mapping survey between October 2023 and September 2024. This survey helps us gather data on the sectors you work in, the client groups you support, your specialisms and your areas of practice. It also gives us a better understanding of our members’ training levels, income, capacity for additional work and demographic characteristics.

Why your responses matter

We use this data to build a clearer picture of your working practices and identify gaps in provision. This strengthens our case for support with policymakers and commissioners.

We’ve been analysing the results and want to share some key findings with you.

This year’s response rate was 6%*, lower than in previous years, which makes it harder to compare results over time. However, we still want to provide a summary of the 2023 to 2024 results with you and share the work we’ve been doing in some key areas.

Insights from the 2023 to 2024 survey

The most common professional role was as a practitioner in private practice or in the third, charitable and voluntary sector. Approximately one quarter of those who completed the survey were supervisors. Ìý

Under three quarters (67.4%) told us they earn an annual income of £30,000 or less from their counselling work, with 34.36% earning £12,500 or less. Over a third (37.22%) of respondents agreed they could earn a living from their counselling work which is a decrease of 1% from last year (38.54%).

While this decline continues to be a concern for us, we remain committed to representing counselling and psychotherapy to commissioners and policy makers at the highest levels.

Our recent work in this area includes, engagement with UK Government Ministers and Parliamentarians, building on existing relationships and successful influencing work ahead of the 2024 general election to maximise the opportunities for the professions around key mental health commitments. We’ve also made a positive impact in tackling pay inequity across NHS Talking Therapies, and delivered key policy reports demonstrating both the value of third sector counselling services and the long-term cost-effectiveness of investing in school-based counselling.

We also engage closely with Governments across the devolved nations, where we are aiming to grow paid opportunities within statutory settings in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, ensuring our members are reflected and recognised as a vital component of the mental health workforce in each nation. We're continuing to challenge cuts to services, where jobs have been put at risk, particularly in light of challenging budgetary settlements throughout the devolved nations in recent years. This has included focused activity to secure funding for Scotland’s Student Counselling programme, engagement to address cuts to the mental health workforce in Wales and our award-winning campaign to retain funding for primary school counselling in Northern Ireland.

Fewer respondents reported working in the third sector this year (28.28%) compared to 30.47% in our last survey. Of those working in the third sector, 46.21% only work paid hours which is an increase on last time, suggesting fewer members working in the third sector are doing so on a voluntary basis. Despite this, a higher proportion of respondents working in the third sector report that they earn nothing from counselling work, which is higher than in any other sector.Ìý

A similar proportion of respondents said they’re entering the profession at Master’s level - 12.87% this year compared to 12.6% last time. It’s helpful for us to understand more about the levels at which members are joining the profession and that this number appears to be steady year on year. As an Association, we aim to meet the needs of all our members, whatever stage of training you’re at. ÌýÌýÌý

Equality, diversity and inclusion

The majority of people who completed this year’s survey identify as white (90.23%). This is higher than last year’s percentage of 86.73%. A lower proportion of respondents identified as Black; 2.7% this year compared to 3.04%. In comparison to national averages there’s still an underrepresentation of Black and Asian individuals reflected in the responses to this survey. Equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) remains a priority for us and we’re focused on embedding the values that encompass equality, diversity and inclusion within the organisation and our membership.Ìý

Following a successful pilot grants scheme in support of our EDI strategy and after a competitive application process, six new grants were awarded to Â鶹ԭ´´ organisational members in 2024, in support of their work to remove barriers to therapy for people from racialised communities. The grants scheme is delivered through designated funds allocated by the Â鶹ԭ´´ Board in support of our strategy. All sessions of therapy funded by the projects will be delivered by paid therapists.

We’ve also completed an internal review of the EDI criteria for courses, with the project moving into a second stage of review by external group of experts. Our aim is to have the course criteria approved this year.

In response to the racist violence on the streets of towns and cities in England and Northern Ireland in the summer of 2024, we hosted an event which featured a number of high profile speakers from organisations including, Black Lives Matter UK, Muslims Counsellors & Therapy Network, Counsellors Together UK, Lighthouse (Northem Ireland), Nafsiyat London and also Â鶹ԭ´´ members. The event discussed the impact of the racist violence and to reflected on the challenges to the counselling profession in response to racism, lessons learnt from those events and a call to action.

With a fully established EDI team now in place, we want to continue the important work that has already begun, and to do even more to lead the future of the profession and good practice from the inside out. We’ll do so by focusing on two key areas:

• Encouraging and striving to ensure fairness and inclusivity in our profession and for our members
• Fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace for our staff where they feel they belong.ÌýÌý

Our ongoing commitment

We’ll continue sending you the workforce mapping survey once a year, when you renew your membership.

The next survey is due to go out in April 2025, so please keep an eye out.

Your responses ensure we have the most up-to-date member information to support our campaigning and lobbying work. They also help us assess whether our EDI efforts are making a positive impact on diversifying our membership.

Your feedback is vital in helping us understand who our members are, and we encourage you to complete the survey when you receive it. As part of the survey, you’ll be asked if you’d like to consent to linking your demographic data to your member record. If you agree, we’ll use this information to further improve our services and enhance your member experience.

*The changes identified between the two years should be interpreted with caution and do not represent statistically significant differences. It’s not possible for us to determine whether or not respondents were the same over the two years, and so we can only say there are some slight differences in reporting, which may or may not reflect ‘real’ change. However, these findings are useful to understand the working lives of our members and add some narrative to our findings.

Â鶹ԭ´´ Workforce Mapping Survey Report 2023 to 2024 (pdf 13.5MB)

Â鶹ԭ´´ Workforce Mapping Survey Report 2023 to 2024 (Word 174KB)