Revealed: Where heads' pay soars above MAT salary limit

Headteachers at local authority-maintained schools are earning up to £240,000 - far more than the government’s proposed £174,000 threshold for academy executives, Tes analysis finds.

Leaders warn the government’s new controls on multi-academy trust executive teams risk creating a system in which maintained school headteachers can be paid more than CEOs, without facing the same scrutiny.

The discrepancy could make it harder for trusts to recruit successful heads into chief executive roles, flatten pay differences between leaders with vastly different levels of responsibility, and turn the government approval threshold into an effective salary ceiling, experts tell Tes.

One headteacher questioned why a well-paid head would step up to lead numerous schools “with no additional money or, in some cases, less”.

The Department for Education has “not thought beyond the headline” with this policy, a MAT CEO said, asking why a headteacher could be paid more than £200,000 under existing frameworks while trusts would need Whitehall approval.

New pay controls for MATs

The DfE announced earlier this month that, from September, academy trusts will need approval before advertising new senior appointments with proposed remuneration above £174,000.

Trust boards will also need approval to increase executive pay and benefits at a faster rate than the national teacher pay award.

However, it is understood these rules will not apply to headteachers or federation leaders employed by local authority-maintained schools.

Tes has identified at least 10 maintained school leaders whose salaries are above £174,000, including some who receive more than £200,000.

This does not suggest headteachers were paid improperly, but highlights the difficulty of applying one approval threshold to MATs while similar or lower leadership roles elsewhere face different controls.

And leaders have raised questions about whether the DfE has fully considered the relationship between headteacher and CEO pay, and the potential consequences for recruitment and career progression.

Maintained heads above the threshold

While heads at the top of the pay scale can earn up to £153,000, some earn significantly more. This is because governing bodies have the discretion to pay above these limits in “exceptional circumstances”.

The highest-paid LA-maintained headteacher was Joan Deslandes, headteacher of Kingsford Community School in Newham, East London, who received £244,901 in 2025-26, according to Tes analysis of councils’ financial accounts.

Dr David Moody, headteacher of the Jewish Free School in Brent, North London, earned £187,199 in 2025-26.

The Jewish Free School said it achieved “exceptional outcomes”, and it was one of the country’s top-performing schools. The governing body fully complies with the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) to determine pay for all its staff, a spokesperson added.

Rob Fenton, executive headteacher of Wembley Schools Federation in Brent, received £174,955 in 2025-26. The DfE would not confirm whether executive headteachers will be subject to the same controls as MAT executives.

And Neena Lall, headteacher of St Stephen’s Primary School in Newham, received £177,842.

Newham council declined to comment on individual salaries, but said school governors take into account individual circumstances and responsibilities when determining pay.

In Barking and Dagenham, East London, two unnamed senior school leaders were remunerated between £225,000 and £239,000. However, the figures also include employer pension contributions, so they are not directly comparable with basic salary figures.

Tes analysis of council accounts also found a teaching employee in Croydon, South London, receiving between £175,000 and £180,000, a school employee in Enfield, North London, receiving between £180,000 and £185,000, and a teaching employee in Hackney, East London, receiving between £180,000 and £185,000. Enfield council declined to comment.

All of these headteachers are in London, where the upper limit for headteacher pay is £153,490. However, Tes found 13 council-employed school staff outside the capital earning more than the top of the London pay scale.

Different rules

Headteacher pay is governed by the STPCD, but the framework already allows a headteacher’s pay to approach or even exceed £200,000 without DfE approval.

Each school is assigned to a headteacher group, based largely on its size and its number of pupils, which sets broad limits for the role.

Governing bodies can set an individual headteacher’s pay range within those limits, but they can also pay up to 25 per cent above this. 

The STPCD for 2025-26 says pay “should not exceed the maximum of the headteacher group by more than 25 per cent other than in exceptional circumstances”.

In such circumstances, a school’s governing body must seek independent advice before doing so, and “support its decision with a business case”. 

But an academy trust seeking to advertise a chief executive role above £174,000 will have to submit its case to the DfE.

A headteacher currently at the top of the inner-London pay scale would pass £174,000 within five years if they received annual pay increases of 3 per cent.

‘Why, as a well-paid headteacher, would you want to step up into a CEO role with no additional money?’

Nearly 330 state school headteachers earned more than £150,000 - the highest threshold published in DfE data.

This includes 140 leaders in maintained schools and 224 in academies, as well as centrally employed and special-school heads.

A leader on £150,000 would reach £174,735 after just five years of 3 per cent annual pay rises.

Manny Botwe, headteacher of Tytherington School in Macclesfield, Cheshire, and a former president of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the debate should not “demonise CEOs”.

Academy trust chief executive roles are complex and could become more demanding if the sector undergoes further mergers, he said.

There are large and complex trusts where boards could reasonably conclude that a salary above £174,000 was needed to recruit and retain the right person, Mr Botwe added.

“The fact the government has included an approval process for exceptions suggests it recognises that a one-size-fits-all cap won’t work in every case,” he said.

Would heads want to be CEOs?

Nigel Wright, headteacher of Oakmoor School in Hampshire, said it is right to examine the “vast discrepancies” in MAT CEO pay and work towards a more transparent approach.

But the new threshold appears to be a “blunt” response that has not been fully thought through, he said.

A headteacher already earning around £160,000 might be reluctant to take responsibility for 20 or more schools for only a small increase, Mr Wright added.

Asked about maintained-school leaders already earning more than £174,000, he said: “Why, as a well-paid headteacher, would you want to step up into a CEO role with no additional money or, in some cases, less?

One academy trust CEO, speaking anonymously, said the issue will become more pronounced as headteacher salaries continue to rise.

They asked why experienced heads who could already earn close to the threshold should accept a role with wider responsibilities if their remuneration would then be subject to Whitehall approval.

Trust pay varies greatly

Trusts are required to report the salaries of higher-paid employees in £10,000 bands, meaning it is not possible to know the exact number of people earning more than the proposed threshold.

However, 145 MAT employees received more than £170,000 in 2024-25, including around 80 CEOs, according to Tes analysis of financial accounts.

And 180 trust employees received more than £160,000, including 99 CEOs, showing how many senior leaders are already close to the threshold.

But 57 CEOs in some of the largest MATs across the country earned less than £170,000, while running trusts educating up to 14,000 pupils.

At the other end, 60 CEOs earned more than £200,000, including 26 receiving more than £250,000.

This includes England’s highest-paid MAT CEO, Sir Dan Moynihan, of the Harris Federation, who earned at least £530,000 in 2024-25.

Children’s services and DfE leaders above the limit

The £174,000 threshold is roughly equivalent to the prime minister’s pay, but salaries across the education sector and government already dwarf this.

At least 24 council directors of children’s services earned above the threshold, including four receiving more than £200,000.

Susan Acland-Hood, permanent secretary of the DfE, earned between £180,000 and £185,000 in 2024-25, rising to £320,000 including employer pension contributions.

Lara Newman, former chief executive of the DfE’s now-dissolved property company LocatED, received between £220,000 and £225,000, alongside a £40,000 bonus.

Earlier this year, the DfE also advertised for a director-general for digital and infrastructure position with a £200,000 annual salary package.

One trust CEO said the idea that the prime minister’s salary should be treated as a benchmark is “nonsense”.

“That salary does not pretend to be a competitive salary, nor does it reflect the demands of the role,” the CEO said.

Risk of a de facto ceiling

The DfE has stressed that £174,000 is an approval threshold rather than an outright cap. However, experts say its effect would depend on how the department handled applications.

Emma Hughes, head of HR services at law firm Browne Jacobson, said there is a “very real” risk that the threshold will become a de facto ceiling.

Trusts might avoid proposing higher salaries if the approval criteria are unclear or the process is seen as slow and unpredictable, she said, adding that the DfE would need to consider salaries per pupil, per academy and as a proportion of trust income.

Without clear criteria explaining how these factors will be weighed up, boards could simply settle on £174,000 to avoid scrutiny, Ms Hughes added.

Heather Mitchell, partner in education employment at Browne Jacobson, added that lengthy disputes between trusts and the government will be “inevitable” if the process is not properly managed.

The threshold will also reduce the pay gap between CEOs leading organisations of very different sizes and will affect deputy CEOs, chief operating officers, finance directors and other senior staff.

Eddie Caviezel Cox, an executive recruiter specialising in education, said similar controls in further education had not prevented appointments, but some college CEO recruitment processes had been delayed by several months while awaiting Treasury approval.

The DfE has been contacted for comment.