By Ashley Young-
Twenty eight academy trusts have been ordered by the Schools Minister to justify salaries over £100,000. The probe is part of the British Government’s drive to ensure pay in schools matches individual responsibilities and the standard of education on offer.
Academies Minister Lord Agnew has written to 28 chairs of trustees today as part of the Government’s commitment to curb ‘excessive’ salaries based on the size, standards, and financial health of trusts. The academies have been asked to provide more details on the pay of executives who earn more than £150,000 – and those earning £100,000 if two or more people in a school earn a six-figure salary. Pay executives and school heads are known to earn massive salaries, not justified by their posts or the quality of education provided in their schools.
The quality and standard of education in a school will have to be very high with impressive pass rates, before a school head or pay executive can come close to justifying salaries close to £100,000, Heads of private schools that deliver an exceptional standard of education to their pupils which is evidenced by their performance are probably the only school bosses who may be able to justify very high salaries.
Lord Agnew’s request forms part of the Government’s requirement for academy trusts to publish high salaries in their accounts, providing a far higher level of public scrutiny than local authority schools, who are not required to prepare individual statutory accounts. The letter, which has been sent to fewer than 1% of academy trusts nationwide, Lord Agnew calls on the chairs to work with the Government on the “divisive issue” of high pay, asking them to justify salaries and reassure ministers that that they are not “diverting financial resources that could be more effectively deployed on the front line of education”.
This is the latest step taken by the Department for Education to bear down on academy trusts that pay excessive salaries and ensure they are more accountable for the money they spend, bringing them in line with the overwhelming majority of academy trusts . Fewer than 4% of trusts pay two or more salaries between £100k-£150k. The Department Of Education is keen to make sure funds that should be going to developing and bringing out the best from schools are not being abused by greedy bosses.
Extra funding has been bumped into the education system in Britain in the last year to increase facilities in schools including technological equipment, expand the supply of libraries, fund trips, and also improve teachers’ wage packages. This does not mean reasonable wage packages should be exceeded. In January 20129, a £1.33million funding boost is given to the Department for Education’s music education hubs, to help hundreds of thousands of young people learn to play an instrument in whole classes in 2016/17. Assisting school pupils with music instruments not only improves their skills, but also makes them receptive to other academic lessons.
The new curriculum will be developed by a group of teachers, education leaders and musicians and will be published in summer 2019. It will provide schools with a sequenced and structured template curriculum for Key Stages 1, 2 and 3.
It follows the news that more than 50% of pupils in state-funded schools in England are now studying in an academy or free school, and new research which shows that, in the majority of cases, standards have risen more quickly in sponsored academies than similar council-run schools.
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Schools System Lord Agnew, said:
Academies are raising standards in schools across the country – replacing underperforming council-run schools in some of the most disadvantaged areas and helping young people to raise their aspirations through a better standard of education.
The best academies place freedom in the hands of school leaders but with that autonomy comes greater accountability and transparency, which is exactly why I am insistent that the salaries of their executives are justifiable. And just because we are advocates of the academies programme, doesn’t mean we won’t call a trust out where we believe they are not acting responsibly.
The overwhelming majority of academies are behaving responsibly and by publicly challenging the minority of trusts that are not complying with this request, we will ensure that every pound of public money is spent as effectively as possible to continue improving the standard of education in our schools.
Today’s letter follows a successful drive to ensure pay is justifiable and proportionate in England’s schools. To date, Eileen Milner, CEO of the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) has written to the chair of trustees at 213 academy trusts, 45 of which have reduced salaries.
Last week – to mark the milestone of 50% of children in state-funded schools in England now being taught in an academy or free school – Education Secretary Damian Hinds called for more schools to consider the freedom and opportunities offered by becoming an academy, urging them to join more than 8,300 schools in the country that have become an academy or opened as a free school, with hundreds of schools making the positive choice to convert to become an academy in the last 12 months alone.