Less than half of academy trusts challenged by the government about high pay have given their written agreement to reduce salaries, it has emerged.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) annual report reveals that more than 105 trusts were written to in 2019-20 as part of “a high-pay challenge process” in order to “increase the level of transparency and achieve appropriate use of public funds”.

A template of the letter sent by ESFA chief executive Eileen Milner to trusts with an executive salary above £150,000, or multiple salaries between £100,000 and £150,000, asked for the “rationale for setting these levels of salaries”.

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It also said the educational performance of organisations should be considered when setting the pay of the most senior officers, and it warned that the trusts would be published on the GOV.UK website as part of ESFA’s “ongoing campaign to challenge academy trusts with high levels of executive pay”.

However, the ESFA annual report published today states that just 42 trusts from the 105 trusts written to have given a written commitment to reduce the salaries identified through the high-pay exercise.

Nansi Ellis, assistant general secretary of the NEU teaching union, said: “This finding shows that the government doesn’t have a handle on excessive pay in the academies sector. It has no tools to ensure that pay is fair in academies - meek and unenforceable requests to reduce high pay are not enough. Fundamental reform of the system is needed to ensure taxpayers’ money is going where it should - on improving pupils’ education.”

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Trusts come in different shapes and sizes, and there will be existing contractual arrangements in place, so there’s bound to be variation in executive pay and in the response to the ESFA letters.

”Our advice to governing bodies is to follow the sensible and balanced guidance published by the National Governance Association on setting executive pay.”

Earlier this year, Tes revealed the multi-academy trusts that raised their top salaries, despite being challenged by ESFA.  

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “The responsibilities of school leaders have changed significantly in recent years, with many now running several academies in a multi-academy trust. However, pay must be justifiable and our expectations are clearly set out in the 2019 Academies Financial Handbook.

“The government continues to challenge academy trusts paying high individual salaries and leadership costs to ensure they are justified, with evidence of robust processes for setting salaries, and reductions where appropriate.

“Our aim is for the sector to get better at identifying and challenging total leadership team costs. We have embedded high pay into ESFA’s risk assessment processes for a holistic understanding of trusts we have concerns over or that are in intervention, coupled with our approach with Integrated Curriculum Financial Planning and Schools Resource Management Advisors.”