Revealed: the academy trust leader whose pay has trebled in 10 years

The chief executive of England’s 11th-largest multi-academy trust saw his pay rise by at least £40,000 last year, or 13 per cent –meaning that his remuneration has trebled in the past decade.

Simon Beamish, of the 32-school Leigh Academies Trust (LAT), received pay of £350-£360,000 in 2023-24, as it climbed from £305-£310,000 the previous year, newly-published accounts for last academic year show.

The increase, which could be as much as £55,000 or 18 per cent, appears to be* comfortably the largest seen among any of the major chains in 2023-24. It leaves Mr Beamish clear in second place on the list of England’s highest-paid academy leaders.

With Sir Dan Moynihan, CEO of the 55-academy Harris Federation, confirmed on Friday night as the possessor of the first £500,000 pay package in English state education, this means that the pay and pensions payments of the country’s two most-well remunerated academy leaders between them topped £1 million last year.

Mr Beamish’s rise for 2023-24 was in the range 12.9 to 18 per cent. This compares to the rate for most classroom teachers, as seen in the national School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD), of 6.5 per cent for 2023-24. So the CEO’s increase last year was in the order of at least double that seen for classroom staff.