The 87 academy trusts whose chief executive pay has been challenged by the government can be named for the first time.
Schools Week can exclusively reveal the trusts which received a letter from the Education and Skills Funding Agency demanding they justify CEOs salaries of more than £150,000.
The letter from Eileen Milner, the head of the ESFA, landed in the postboxes of some of the most well-known and least-known trusts in the country.
The pressure from government follows extensive media coverage of soaring CEO pay as teaching staff’s pay rises remain frozen at one per cent. A Schools Week investigation last week revealed that two-thirds of CEOs of 24 trusts with 20 or more schools trusts got pay rises last year. Together the trusts handed out £118,000 more than in 2015-16 – from £3.9 to £4 million – to their leaders.
The named trusts are those which the ESFA has identified as paying more than £150,000 to their CEOs this year. Of the top 10 biggest trusts in the country, eight make it onto the list.
These are Academies Enterprise Trust, ARK Schools, United Learning, Delta Academies, Harris Federation, The Kemnal Academies Trust, Oasis Community Learning, and Ormiston Academies Trust.
The only two of the biggest trusts not to be sent a letter by Milner were Plymouth Cast and David Ross Education Trust.
Schools Week has recently revealed that former CEO John Mannix’s salary at Plymouth Cast was £55,000 in 2016-17, and interim CEO Dr Karen Cook’s is presumably lower than £150,000 this year too.
And Rowena Hackwood, new CEO at the David Ross Education trust, got a nearly £30,000 pay cut compared with her predecessor Wendy Marshall and was paid exactly £150,000 this year.
The full list, provided by the Department for Education:
Academies Enterprise Trust
AIM Academies Trust
Aquinas Church of England Education Trust Limited
ARK Schools
Ashmole Academy Trust Ltd
Aspirations Academies Trust
Aston Community Education Trust
Bourne Education Trust
Bradford Diocesan Academies Trust
Brampton Manor Trust
Central Learning Partnership Trust
Chingford Academies Trust
City Learning Trust
City of London Academies Trust
Community Academies Trust
Core Education Trust
Creative Education Trust
Delta Academies Trust
Dixons Academies Charitable Trust Ltd
E-ACT
Education South West
Enfield Learning Trust
Eynsham Partnership Academy
Future Academies
Gateway Learning Community
GLF Schools
Graveney Trust
Great Academies Education Trust
Greater Manchester Academies Trust
Greenwood Academies Trust
Guru Nanak Sikh Academy Limited
Haberdashers’ Aske’s Federation Trust
Harris Federation
Hartismere Family of Schools
Hatton Academies Trust
Holy Family Catholic Multi Academy Trust
Inspiration Trust
Inspirational Learning Academies Trust
Kent Catholic Schools’ Partnership
L.E.A.D. Multi-academy Trust
Landau Forte Charitable Trust
Leigh Academies Trust
Lion Academy Trust
Loxford School Trust Limited
Matrix Academy Trust
North East Learning Trust
Northern Schools Trust
Nova Education Trust
Oasis Community Learning
Ormiston Academies Trust
Outwood Grange Academies Trust
Partnership Learning
QED Academy Trust
REACH2 Academy Trust
RMET
South Farnham Educational Trust
Southmoor Academy
Swale Academies Trust
Tauheedul Education Trust
The Boston Witham Academies Federation
The Brooke Weston Trust
The Cardinal Hume Academies Trust
The Collegiate Trust
The Dean Trust
The Education Alliance
The Education Fellowship Trust
The Elliot Foundation Academies Trust
The GORSE Academies Trust
The Heath Family (North West)
The Hoddesdon School Trust
The Howard Partnership Trust
The Kemnal Academies Trust
The Laurus Trust
The Park Federation Academy Trust
The Rodillian Multi Academy Trust
The Rosedale Hewens Academy Trust
The Sabden Multi Academy Trust
The Slough and East Berkshire C of E Multi Academy Trust
The Spencer Academies Trust
The Two Counties Trust
The White Horse Federation
Tollbar Multi Academy Trust
Trinity Multi Academy Trust
United Learning Trust
Washwood Heath Multi Academy Trust
Wellspring Academy Trust
Wembley Multi Academy Trust
On March 12 Schools Week published a piece about how Transforming Lives Education Trust (a multi-academy trust) paid their CEO a salary of between £270,001 and £280,000 in 2016/17.
However Transforming Lives Education Trust doesn’t appear on this list.
I can only hope DfE’s analysis of CEO pay is rather more rigorous than Schools Week’s ‘investigation’.
Also what about the academy trusts with just one school that have staff earning more than £150,000 a year, who were written to at the end of 2017 – has a list of those trusts been published?