Pay of leader of England’s largest multi-academy trust rose by up to 15 per cent last academic year

The pay of the chief executive of England’s largest multi-academy trust rose by up to 15 per cent last academic year, newly-released accounts information has shown.

Sir Jon Coles, who leads United Learning which has 90 academies and 14 fee-charging schools, saw his pay climb from £260-£270,000 in 2022-23 to £290-£300,000 in 2023-24.

The increase, which was in the range £20,000-£40,000 in cash terms, was the highest among any of the largest 10 academy chains whose 2023-24 accounts were available as of last night, with trusts having until the end of today to publish these financial data on their websites.

As a percentage increase, Sir Jon’s remuneration rise was in the range 7.4 per cent to 15.4 per cent, depending on where in the published band – trusts only have to disclose senior pay in rough terms – the actual figures were. Assuming remuneration in both years was in the middle of the published band, the increase would have been 11.3 per cent.

This is a higher increase than that enjoyed by teachers nationally last year. The rate for a teacher in the middle of the main pay scale (M4), increased by 6.5 per cent, from £33,850 to £36,051.

Figures for other large chains

The picture, in terms of the remuneration of the highest-paid person in 2023-24, was very mixed and still emerging as the accounts publication deadline neared.

Only five of the 10 largest trusts appeared to have published their accounts on their websites by yesterday evening (January 30^th) – a remarkable figure, perhaps, given that the DfE’s Academies Accounts Direction requires trusts to have disclosed their financial statements in this way by today (January 31^st).

One of the remaining five trusts, Outwood Grange, cannot be compared to others in terms of its chief executive, because its former leader, Sir Martyn Oliver, left as a trustee early in the 2023-24 year to become head of Ofsted, and his successor Lee Wilson took over as a trustee much later in the year.*

Of the other trusts to have published their accounts:

-The Kemnal Academies Trust (TKAT) saw the remuneration of its chief executive, Karen Roberts, rise by 8.3 per cent on a like-for-like basis (assuming pay was in the middle of the published band), from £235-£245,000 to £255-£265,000.

-Ark Schools, saw the remuneration of its managing director, Lucy Heller, increase by 3 per cent, from £208,671 to £214,931;

-And Ormiston Academies Trust actually saw a decline in the remuneration of its leader, with new chief executive, Tom Rees, receiving £202,203 compared to the £214,974 paid to his predecessor, Nick Hudson, although the latter was received no employer’s pension contributions in 2022-23, while Mr Rees was paid £41,301 in pensions payments in 2023-24**.

Further comparative detail on Sir Jon Coles’ pay package

As mentioned above, the increase in the remuneration of Sir Jon Coles was in excess of that seen for teachers as a whole. As of a few years back, the academies minister at the time, Lord Agnew, appeared to be pushing back against rises for academy leaders which went above that seen in the workforce as a whole.

United Learning has its own pay scales, although pinning down the precise details is tricky. Providing the data on Sir Jon’s pay, United Learning suggested that progression of individual teachers up the pay scales, as well as increases to the pay rates for individual points on the scale, needed to be factored in, when assessing the comparative scale of the chief executive’s rise last academic year.

The trust said: “Increases in school leaders’ base pay in the year were on the same basis as the national 6.5% rise in teachers’ and leaders’ pay; some leaders also received contribution-related pay increases.

“In that year, teachers on the main scale in United Learning would have seen increases of between 10.6% and 14.8% through a combination of the 6.5% pay scale increase and progression up the pay scale.”

One other bit of context may work more in Sir Jon’s favour. Assuming his actual pay was in the middle of the published band, his pay rises appear not actually to have kept pace with that of main-scale teachers nationally over the past five years, until 2023-24.

From 2019-2023, his pay rose from £240,000 to £260-£265,000, or a gain of around 10 per cent. By comparison, the pay of a teacher on M4 of the national pay scales rose from £29,780 to £33,850, or an increase of 14 per cent.

However, taking into account Sir Jon’s increase in 2023-24 his percentage gains over the period 2019 to 2024 were slightly higher than that of the national workforce as a whole, at 23 per cent compared to 21 per cent.***

It will be interesting to see more trusts' data on pay, after the accounts deadline comes into force this evening. 

*Academy trust accounting rules – which can appear to be lacking, in terms of transparency, compared to disclosure requirements relating to local authority senior leaders – only require the pay of chief executives to be disclosed against their names if they happen to be a trustee. Sir Martyn only served as a trustee at Outwood Grange until November 2023, while Mr Wilson only became a trustee in April 2024. So the pay that was disclosed for each of them - £40-£45k for Sir Martyn, and £70-£75k for Mr Wilson, did not add up to a full year. The trust’s highest-paid earners in 2022-23 were two people on £180-£190k, compared to a single person the previous year who was paid £190-£200k.  

**Ormiston’s accounts also say that someone in the organisation received £240-£250,000 in salary alone last academic year, leaving a mystery as to who this person was, and why they were paid more than the chief executive.

***For these calculations, I have assumed that Sir Jon’s pay was in the middle of the published bands.