Special and additional needs education teaching professionals Pay Data UK — 2025

Special and additional needs education teaching professionals roles in the UK earn a median of £46,500 per year, equivalent to £28.21 per hour as of 2025. Pay increased 10.6% compared to the previous year. Regionally, pay ranges from £35,500 in North East to £52,000 in East Midlands. Pay has risen over the past 4 years. The ONS national median for this occupation is £47,432/yr (2% below our computed national average).

Labour Market

Employment figures from ONS Annual Population Survey (APS). Counts are estimates; suppressed cells (small samples) are excluded from totals.

Pay by Region

Annual pay for Special and additional needs education teaching professionals across UK regions. The bar shows the typical pay range (25th–75th percentile); the diamond marks the median.

Source: ONS ASHE. Based on broad UK regions (NUTS1).

How Pay Has Changed Over Time

Annual pay grew by +10.6% from 2024 to 2025.

National average (NUTS1 actuals) based on ONS ASHE April snapshot. Shaded band shows 25th–75th percentile range.

Year-on-Year Pay Change

Annual percentage change in median pay for Special and additional needs education teaching professionals.

Percentage change from the prior year's April figure.

About Special and additional needs education teaching professionals

Special and additional needs education teaching professionals organise and provide instruction at a variety of different levels to children who have emotional, behavioural or learning difficulties or physical disabilities. These professionals may also work with exceptionally gifted pupils.

Typical Tasks and Duties

• creates a safe, stimulating and supportive learning environment for students
• assesses student’s abilities, identifies student’s needs and devises curriculum and rota of teaching duties accordingly
• gives instruction, using techniques appropriate to the student’s disability
• develops and adapts conventional teaching methods to meet the individual student’s needs
• encourages the student to develop self-help skills to circumvent the limitations imposed by their disability
• prepares, assigns and corrects exercises to record and evaluate students’ progress
• supervises students in classroom and maintains discipline
• liaises with other professionals, such as social workers, speech and language therapists and educational psychologists
• updates and maintains students’ records to monitor development and progress
• discusses student’s progress with parents and other teaching professionals

Entry Routes and Qualifications

Entry is with a first degree that provides QTS (qualified teacher status) or, in Scotland, TQ (teaching qualification); or other relevant degree followed by further postgraduate training (most commonly PGCE – Postgraduate Certificate in Secondary Education, or, in Scotland, PGDE – Professional Graduate Diploma in Education). Additionally, prior experience in mainstream teaching is usually required, and further training for special needs teaching may be mandatory. A DBS check is mandatory

Related Occupations

Salary data is sourced from official UK pay datasets and updated periodically.