Government warning over super-head pay

The Treasury is being slow to deal with “seemingly excessive” pay awards for school super-heads and university leaders, a committee of MPs has warned.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) reviewed government accounts and concluded that the Treasury had failed to show it is ensuring all parts of the public sector stick to the Government’s views on pay restraint.

PAC chairperson Margaret Hodge said: “The Treasury sets the framework for public sector pay but has been slow to exert its direct control over decisions taken by the wider public sector when setting remuneration packages.

“The Treasury has also been slow in identifying and addressing seemingly excessive pay awards for some roles in the education sector, such as University Vice Chancellors and ‘Super-Heads’, and has only recently started to collate information in areas such as the Academy sector.”

A key recommendation from the report is that the government ought to publish “clear expectations of appropriate senior level pay” for all publically funded bodies.

If “pay anomalies” are found the Treasury has said these would be taken up with the Department for Education.

Approximately 4,000 schools have so far converted to academy status or been established as free schools. There are 20,200 head teachers across the country, of which 3,500 are academy head teachers. Multi-academy trusts sometimes also employ executive head teachers who oversee a number of schools.