Setting executive salaries: guidance for academy trusts
Guidance to support academy trusts setting levels of pay for executive leaders.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
Who is this publication for?
This guidance is for:
- trust boards
- chairs of trustees
- academy remuneration committees
- chief financial officers
- accounting officers and 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 the:
- chief executive officer or accounting officer
- chief financial officer or finance director
- executive head teacher or 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.
Updates to this page
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Updated to align with the executive pay sections of the Academy Trust Handbook 2025.
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We've updated our guidance for academy trusts on setting executive salaries.
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First published.