Guidance

Setting executive salaries: guidance for academy trusts

Guidance to support academy trusts setting levels of pay for executive leaders.

• From: Department for Education
• Published: 9 July 2019
• Last updated: 13 November 2023 — See all updates

Applies to England

Documents

Setting executive salaries: guidance for academy trusts

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Details

Who is this publication for?

This guidance is for:

• trust boards
• chairs of trustees
• academy remuneration committees
• chief financial officers
• accounting officers/chief executive officers

Purpose

This guidance will help academy trusts to:

• make robust, fair, reasonable and defensible decisions about executive pay
• identify the key points for consideration when setting executive salaries
• determine a fair remuneration package that appropriately reflects the level of challenge and responsibility of the role
• justify and be accountable for decisions around executive pay

This guidance applies to salaries for:

• chief executive officer/accounting officer
• chief financial officer/finance director
• executive head teacher/principal
• any other executive leadership positions

While academy trusts are free to set their own salaries for staff, high pay in the academies sector has been a divisive issue that has been a topic of media scrutiny, and boards should be conscious that their use of public money must represent the best value for money.

This guidance aims to support trusts in making decisions about pay and further enable boards to be confident about, and accountable for, these decisions.

Published 9 July 2019
Last updated 13 November 2023 + show all updates

1. 13 November 2023

   We've updated our guidance for academy trusts on setting executive salaries.

2. 9 July 2019

   First published.