Member

These are questions that the previous Labour Government looked at when they were in power. In around 2007, the then Government commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers to conduct an audit of senior pay in academies and to make recommendations about job function, job weight and reward. I seem to remember that the report was very lengthy and rather inconclusive. I am sure that the STRB would do much better. This amendment would give the STRB the responsibility of making a recommendation on CEO pay, in addition to its current responsibility to make a recommendation on the pay awards for teachers and senior leaders. In doing so, the STRB would consider all the relevant issues: the recruitment and retention landscape for CEO positions and whether they are hard to fill, the relative weight of the CEO role in comparison with other senior roles in the trust, reward in the private sector and the funding situation in schools. All these considerations would be highly desirable and effective.