New award scheme recognises £457 million market of 8,000 practitioners
Are you an independent practitioner? Enter The Independent Impact 50 and help raise the profile of the £457 million sector of the public relations industry.
The freelance or independent practitioner market is one of the UK’s least understood aspects of the public relations industry. It doesn’t receive media coverage and is often an afterthought in industry award schemes.
Yet, it is important in terms of size, revenue, and the services it provides to the industry and the broader business community.
The CIPR State of the Profession reports in 2022 and 2024, both based on self-reported data from practitioners, said that 13 per cent and six per cent of practitioners respectively, declared themselves independent.
The CIPR PR Population Report published in 2024 reported that eight per cent of practitioners identify as running a small business or are self-employed. It’s the most accurate dataset available based on 2021 Census data from England and Wales (data from Scotland and Northern Ireland is unavailable).
The 2021 PRCA census reported 99,900 practitioners are working in the UK industry. This means the independent practitioner market accounts for approximately 8,000 practitioners in the UK.
The PR Cavalry, a marketplace for freelance public practitioners, surveyed independent practitioners in the UK to understand the independent practitioner economy and market dynamics. The data collection was undertaken in Q4 2024 and had 189 responses.
We’ve had an exclusive look at the PR Cavalry dataset to see what it says about the nature of the independent and broader market for public relations services.
The headline is that practitioners earn a mean gross income of £57,249 per year. This means the estimated value of the UK public relations independent practitioner market is around £457 million. It exceeds the combined income of the UK's top five agencies: Brunswick, Weber Shandwick, Edelman, Teneo and FTI Consulting.
Rod Cartwright, an independent practitioner specialising in reputation management and issues and crisis preparedness and The PR Cavalry's Nigel Sarbutts have created The Independent Impact 50 to celebrate the work of this community. It’s a showcase for independent practitioners.
If you’re an independent practitioner or work in an agency of no more than two people, please consider entering and helping showcase and speak up for the work of this market sector. The deadline is this coming Friday, 10 January.
Enter the Independent Impact 50
“The awards are all about challenging the narrative that independent practitioners are the Cinderellas of the public relations world, quietly being effective in the shadows,” said Nigel Sarbutts.
"The reaction to the scheme, as a long-overdue initiative, has been quite remarkable. However, as the deadline approaches, the volume and pace of entries hasn't quite matched that wall of enthusiasm. Even among some seriously impressive independents, we're picking up a sense of 'I'm not worthy' or 'I won't be competitive' - particularly when gender, ethnicity and age (in both directions) are factored in,” said Rod Cartwright.
We plan to revisit the PR Cavalry data over the coming weeks and share further insight and events for freelance and independent practitioners.
A final note of caution: My calculations should be interpreted critically because of the limited sample size and the assumptions I have shared. But even with these caveats, this estimate suggests that independent practitioners substantially contribute to the UK's public relations industry and that deserves recognition.
