Updated guidance on setting executive salaries for academy trusts - Here’s what Trustees need to know.

The Department for Education (DfE) recently published guidance on setting executive salaries for academy trusts (published 6 November 2025) strengthening compliance by aligning with the Academy Trust Handbook (ATH). The updated guidance introduces mandatory language, capped pay increases relative to teacher pay, and requires full board approval for executive pay decisions. It also makes DfE oversight explicit, shifting from advisory principles to binding requirements to ensure transparency, proportionality, and accountability for the public purse.

Actions for Trustees include:

1. Mandatory compliance

• Review and update the Trust’s pay policy to reflect mandatory compliance with the ATH and set out the Trust’s approach for determining executive pay.

   

2. Maintain pay restraint

• Benchmark executive pay annually against sector norms including teacher and public sector pay increases to maintain proportionality.

   

3. Full board approval

• Ensure full board approval for all executive pay decisions, with no delegation.

   

4. Defensible decisions

• Decisions are carefully documented to demonstrate clear evidence and rationale to withstand potential DfE scrutiny, with the presumption that executive renumeration should not increase faster than teachers’ pay