The government’s new CEO pay crackdown has allowed the biggest chains to escape scrutiny as the method used to identify “outliers” appears to be loaded against smaller trusts.
Schools Week analysis of Department for Education data used to name and shame 37 leaders over high wages reveals it held some “to a different standard” based on size.
We can also reveal that bungling officials used the wrong figures in their analysis for the country’s best-paid CEO – Harris Federation’s Sir Dan Moynihan. The figure used was £150,000 off his actual salary, fuelling more uncertainty over officials’ workings.
The news comes as the government confirmed it is working on another clampdown – which will again publish the names of trusts deemed to be “outliers” on pay.
‘Unfair’ analysis
To calculate the outliers, the Education and Skills Funding Agency initially grouped trusts into bands by type and pupil numbers “to minimise bias”.
Trust CEOs were deemed to be outliers if they fell into the top 5 per cent in their band for having both the highest pay in absolute terms, but also as a proportion of their overall grant funding.
Officials then wrote to 37 “outlier” CEOs to seek assurances over their pay in 2023, which was based on 2021-22 data. The trusts were named and shamed last year.
All the trusts were “found to be compliant”. But data obtained through Freedom of Information shows there were an additional six CEOs identified as outliers.
They were not named and shamed, however, because the government was “already working” with them.
CEOs were split into 13 bandings to identify outliers, such as SATs with fewer than 500 pupils, and MATs with between 1,000 and 2,000 pupils.
But Philip Nye, a senior data scientist for the Institute for Government think-tank, said the “way in which academy trusts have been put into bands to do this is not without problem”.
Disgruntled leaders
Nye added: “Because GAG funding is tied to pupil numbers, you’re more likely to have been identified as having excessive CEO pay if you have 1,005 pupils than if you have 995 pupils.”
This was clearest in the group in which the largest trusts were placed – MATs with more than 6,000 pupils. It contained several trusts with more than 15,000 pupils.
Despite this, the seven chains in the group that scored highest for pay as a proportion of GAG all had fewer than 7,000 pupils.
Our analysis also shows that just four of the 37 trusts named by the DfE were in the upper half of their assigned group in terms of pupil numbers.
Nye noted that “while pay at all those written to is high in absolute terms, some of them might reasonably feel disgruntled to have received a letter when other similar trusts did not”.
The Frays Academy Trust, which was one of those singled out by DfE, said: “It is not right to hold people to a different standard just because a formula is weighted to focus on smaller trusts.”
The spokesperson said that, while “it is right that how public funds are spent is reviewed and scrutinised… it is just as important… that any scrutiny is done in a way that is fair, transparent and does not prejudice one group over another.
“While it is easy to debate data and metrics, it is vital that the human impact of any misrepresentation is not lost. When lists are published in this way, there is an impact.”
DfE logged wrong figures for best-paid CEO
The figures received through FOI also show that Moynihan’s pay was recorded incorrectly. He is listed as earning £380,000, including pension contributions, but accounts for 2021-22 show he was making at least £530,000.
The DfE claimed this was not an error and that Moynihan had been placed into “a data category for higher earners” of £380,000 or more.
However, our analysis suggests the incorrect figure was used to work out Moynihan’s pay as a percentage of GAG. Even if the sums were done correctly, though, he would not have been in line to receive a letter.
In papers, seen by Schools Week, the DfE confirmed that “preparations for a new round of executive pay engagement with academy trusts have commenced”. It “plans to publish details once that engagement is completed”.
Samira Sadeghi, director of trust governance for the Confederation of School Trusts, noted that “trusts need to look at their own individual circumstances” when setting pay.
This can include the number, type and size of schools, as well as their geography and particular challenges.
She said: “Context is important… because trusts that on the surface look similar in reality can have very different needs and may need different pay arrangements.”
A DfE spokesperson stressed that “the overwhelming majority of academy trusts deliver a high standard of financial management and governance, however, we are clear that strong accountability is non-negotiable”.
