Over 180 academy bosses earn above Labour’s £174,000 cap

More than 180 academy trusts are paying their chief executives more than the government’s newly unveiled cap of £174,000.

Schools Week analysis shows all but a handful received a rise last year, with the list of the country’s highest earners dominated by white men.

Those on the list have criticised Labour’s plans to limit wages, saying the “blunt instrument” could force potential leaders to shun the top jobs as they won’t pocket much more than heads.

But Daniel Kebede, the general secretary of the National Education Union, believes the findings “demonstrate just how profoundly out of touch MATs are with the reality of what educators and school communities are facing”.

“While schools are struggling and education staff face pay restraint, MAT CEOs are experiencing bumper pay rises on top of already huge salaries. Unfortunately, this is what happens when you let MATs decide on pay behind closed doors.”

Until now, executive pay has been set by academy trust boards. Rules state decisions must “follow a robust evidence-based process and are a reasonable and defensible reflection of the individual’s role and responsibilities”.

Ministers announced last week they will impose a £174,000 cap on academy trust executive pay.

Under the new rules – which come into force in September – trusts will need to seek government approval before advertising roles over the threshold, or awarding performance-related bonuses of more than £25,000.

Schools Week analysis of more than 1,000 academy trust accounts shows 182 paid their chief executives at least £175,000 last year. Ninety per cent had been given a rise.

Moynihan’s £530,000

Dan Moynihan, of the Harris Federation, was paid the most. He bagged at least £530,000 during 2024-25.

He was followed by Leigh Academies Trust boss Simon Beamish (£380,000 minimum) and Brampton Manor Trust chief Dayo Olukoshi (£350,000 minimum).

While the pay of incumbent chief executives will not be cut, Pepe Di’Iasio of the Association of School and College Leaders believes the changes will leave trusts facing difficult decisions in future.

“The government has left some wriggle room by saying that trusts will have to seek government approval for pay above the salary cap.

“However… it leaves trusts in a dilemma when replacing existing leaders paid above the cap over whether to pitch salaries below this threshold, potentially making it harder to recruit a replacement, or argue for a higher salary to the DfE with the likely delay that creates.”

But Kebede said the MAT “gravy train” had to be stopped.

“This means ensuring that a cap on CEO pay applies retrospectively, not just to newly advertised posts.

“It also means establishing a fair and mandatory national pay structure to include pay arrangements for MAT CEOs.

“This must include transparent arrangements with effective monitoring and challenge with regard to pay outcomes. This is the best way to ensure fairness, accountability and to put an end to the waste and duplication in the MAT system.”

Our analysis shows the 182 trusts run 12 schools, on average. Thirty-two had five or fewer on their books, with 12 overseeing single-academy trusts.

‘Will new guidance fix things?’

More than 120 of the chief executives were men (69 per cent). Just nine (5 per cent) were black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME).

One chief executive who featured on our list, and wished to remain anonymous, acknowledged there were some “extraordinarily large salaries. One wonders whether this new guidance fixes that.”

He also argued officials had applied “no nuance here” as factors such as London weighting and pupil numbers did not shift the cap.

“The CEO of a two-school, two-form entry primary multi-academy trust has the same cap as a 20-school secondary MAT. Feels a bit of blunt instrument to me.”

Chief executives have also flagged that a number of academy trusts pay other senior staff more than £174,000.

“People will not want to be CEOs if they’re not paid a reasonable rate above being a headteacher,” one anonymous boss warned.

“The issue is how the education market works when heads get paid an awful lot of money for running one school – how then do you encourage people to become CEOs?”

Our analysis suggests 22 employees below chief executive level across the 20 largest trusts on our list are making cap-busting sums. Nine of those work for Moynihan’s Harris Federation.

Headteacher pay scales from September show those leading schools in inner London could earn up to £158,863.

Governors of council-maintained schools can also decide to lift wages up to 25 per cent over these limits, taking the maximum a head can make to more than £198,000.

This can only be exceeded in “exceptional circumstances”.

‘Attack on trusts’

Jon Coles, the chief executive of United Learning, England’s biggest MAT, noted this meant council-maintained schools could do this “without need for anyone else’s consent”, while trusts “must get DfE permission to pay £175,000 to that head”.

“Hard to see that as anything other than an attack on trusts. Attracting and employing the best leaders is key to turning schools round.

“It’s just a huge shame that in their approach to making policy, the government hasn’t chosen to work with the sector, consult or collaborate. Instead uninformed officials cook up bad ideas in secret and try to impose them.”

The Department for Education also said annual rises to existing executive pay would also be “brought in line with the wider school workforce”. This meant they would not be able to receive hikes “higher than those set for classroom teachers”.

Georgia Gould, the schools minister, told Schools Week: “School leaders are important public servants, but we need to make sure our rules are in line with those across the public sector whether that’s leadership of NHS trusts, senior staff in justice.”

But Leora Cruddas, the chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, said leaders “still have many unanswered questions”.

“A week after they were announced we are still waiting for any meaningful details that would allow trusts to plan for September.

“The current rules on pay say trust board decisions must be reasonable and defensible.

“Whatever you think of individual pay arrangements, the DfE’s chaotic approach to these new rules so far has been neither of those things.”

No more details

The DfE refused to shed more light on the cap, instead saying updated guidance on setting executive salaries would be published ahead of the new school year.

This would “set out the process for trusts preparing and submitting an application” to pay over the limit, with “information about additional benchmarking factors that will be considered by the department”.

Current academy rules state that decisions around pay “may be challenged by DfE”.

In 2023, the DfE named and shamed 37 trusts it wrote to during a CEO wage crackdown.

Through a freedom of information request, the DfE said it has since conducted two more clampdowns.

The details of these would be published before the end of the current academic year.