Asked by Lord Storey To ask Her Majesty’s Government what
assessment they have made of gender pay gaps in academy schools and
trusts. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State,
Department for Education (Lord Agnew of Oulton) (Con) My
Lords, we are one of the first countries in the world to require
all large employers to publish their...Request free trial
Asked by
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Education (Lord Agnew of Oulton) (Con)
My Lords, we are one of the first countries in the world to
require all large employers to publish their gender pay gap
and bonus data. Reporting will help to shine a light on
where women are being held back and where employers can
take action to support their whole workforce. These figures
will mean that academy trusts, as with all other large
employers, can start to analyse the data and take action to
close the gap.
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(LD)
I thank the Minister for that helpful and important reply.
In answer to a Written Question that I put to him about the
gender pay gap he said:
“Academy trusts are free to set their own salaries”.
This is of course taxpayers’ money, and when in 471 multi-
academy trusts the median pay gap was 31.7%, that is not a
proper use of taxpayers’ money. Where some chief executives
of multiacademy trusts now earn upwards of £400,000 a year,
that is not a proper use of taxpayers’ money. Surely it is
time for the Government to use their financial clout and to
realise that with trust comes responsibility.
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of Oulton
My Lords, the noble Lord, , is correct that academy
pay is set by the trusts themselves. However, we have taken
action on high-end pay. One of the first things I did when
I took on this job in September was to ask officials to
write to 29 single-academy trusts where there was high pay.
Since then, we have resolved that 16 of them no longer pay
the levels that were indicated in their returns. We have
now also written to a number of multiacademy trusts, and in
the last couple of weeks we have written to all trusts
which pay more than £100,000 or which have more than two
people in their trust who are paid more than £100,000. So
we are alert to it, I am bearing down on it where we see
excesses, and I will continue to do so.
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(Lab)
My Lords, we have known for some time that senior pay in
multiacademy trusts is out of control. Now we have evidence
that, as the noble Lord, , said, women working in
academy chains suffer some of the worst gender pay gaps. Is
this not public funding, which is being used to entrench
inequality in the education system? I have to say that the
Minister is personally associated with this issue. The
website for the Inspiration Trust, which runs 14 academies
in East Anglia, lists him as a trustee and a person with
significant control. Noble Lords may wonder why, seven
months after being appointed as an Education Minister, he
is allowed to continue to hold those posts. But for now,
can the Minister say that, despite the fact that trusts
have the right to set their own salaries, the size of those
gender pay gaps is a scandal, and are he and his department
prepared to give advice to trusts to begin to close those
gaps?
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of Oulton
My Lords, perhaps I should address the Inspiration Trust
first, as I was indeed its founder. The chief executive
took on 14 schools, seven of which were in special measures
when we took them on. All are now out of special measures.
Thousands of children are getting a better education than
they were five years ago, and that is the essence of what
autonomy of pay is all about. Where we have excess pay and
there is poor performance, as I said to the noble Lord,
, I am bearing down on
that. No one is more messianic about the misallocation of
taxpayers’ money, but we need to strike a balance between
autonomy, where good teachers and good leaders are given
the chance to develop and improve schools, and those who
are not good are held to account.
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(CB)
My Lords, how does the Minister think that some of the
questions that we have heard so far address the gender pay
gap? I believe that the gender pay gap in academy schools—I
declare my interest, having been a chair of two and
currently a trustee of one—is associated with the subjects
that each gender teaches; in other words, people who teach
physics are traditionally paid significantly more than
those who teach arts. That shows that we undervalue some
subjects in these schools.
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of Oulton
My Lords, unfortunately there is a market in different
skills and professions. We know that we have a shortage of
good physics teachers, and in order to bring physics
teachers into the profession we need to offer additional
incentives. However, looking more broadly across the gender
pay gap, academies do not look as bad as people might
suggest. For example, while in the top quartile men occupy
23% of the total workforce but have 32% of the jobs, the
situation in the middle quartile is almost even, with men
occupying 23% of the workforce and only 25% of them having
upper-middle jobs. Therefore, I think that we are seeing
great progress on this. It is also worth pointing out more
generally that in 1997 the gender pay gap stood at 17.4%.
Today, it has been reduced to 9.1%. I do not suggest that
that is enough but it shows that we are making progress
across our economy.
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(Lab)
My Lords, will the Minister be kind enough to clarify
whether he is a director of the Inspiration Trust while
holding the office that he holds at the moment?
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of Oulton
My Lords, I am a director and a trustee. I stood down as
the chairman. That matter was discussed with the Propriety
and Ethics Team in the Cabinet Office. It was fully
disclosed and is in my ministerial declaration.
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(Con)
My Lords, will my noble friend accept congratulations from
the House for the work he has done in enabling children’s
education to be improved? Can he get one of his excellent
teachers to perhaps teach the noble Lord, , the
difference between pay inequality and the gender pay gap?
Is it not the case that men and women doing the same job in
schools are paid on the same basis, and the gender pay gap
is about the relative numbers of men and women in
particular jobs? That is something which, from his
question, it seems the opposition spokesman did not
understand.
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of Oulton
My Lords, my noble friend is quite correct. It is not about
any disparity between a man and a woman doing a job—that was
outlawed in this country 40 years ago. I take my noble
friend’s thanks for the achievements of the Inspiration
Trust. Most of the credit must go to my chief executive, who
is a woman—Dame Rachel de Souza. We have other exceptional
women running trusts: Lucy Heller of ARK and Maura Regan of
the Carmel Education Trust. Indeed, at the primary level, 65%
of head teachers are women, which shows that there is every
opportunity for women in the education system.
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(LD)
My Lords, I am very grateful to the Minister for the very
helpful answers that he has given my noble friend and others. However, is not
the real problem here that disproportionately high pay is
being channelled up to a tiny number of male-dominated posts
at rates far higher than the local authority-run schools can
pay? How does the Minister justify that, especially to the
74% of the teaching profession who are hard-working, highly
professional women?
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of Oulton
The noble Baroness asks a very interesting question. The pay
in maintained and academy schools is actually very close. For
example, the data to November 2016 shows that a maintained
secondary school head teacher earned £88,300, compared to an
academy secondary school head teacher who earned £92,500.
However, the maintained head teacher had a 1% increase in
that year, whereas the academy head teacher had a 0.4%
decrease. In the primary sector, the comparisons are even
closer, at £62,400 for a local authority school and £65,500
for an academy. I do not accept that money is being drawn up
to mostly male teachers. As I mentioned in my earlier answer,
65% of primary heads are women. If we look at the starting
pay for teachers, we see that, for a graduate teacher between
the ages of 21 and 30, the average pay is £27,000, compared
to £25,000 for all graduates. That does not include the very
generous pension scheme that exists in the teaching
profession, which has a 16.4% contribution and is
underwritten by the Treasury.
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