Millions of pounds of schools' funding in Cornwall is being used to pay high salaries of people running Multi Academy Trusts.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) has found that some staff at educational trusts in Cornwall are earning as much as £140,000 a year.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted to every Multi Academy Trust (MAT) in Cornwall asked for details of how much the senior management teams at the organisations are being paid.

This has revealed how much in total is being paid to these managers of schools as well as the salary bands of top earners.

There are 21 MATs operating in Cornwall and we have got the data from 16 of those which shows that in the financial year 2019/20 more than £8.4million was paid out to "key management personnel" working for the trusts.

MATs were created to run clusters of academies which have broken away from local authority control.

They have created trusts which then provide back office and common services for the schools which belong to them as well as management staff who oversee all the schools in the MATs.

When schools were under the control of local councils there would have been one director of education and schools at the local authority leading a team which would have provided the functions which are now provided by the MATs.

As well as showing the total paid to the management staff at MATs, the data also shows how many top earners there are at each MAT and their salary bands.

This shows that several MATs have management staff earning six-figure salaries with the highest on at least £140,000.

The issue of high salaries among MAT management staff has been highlighted by national website Schools Week which earlier this year reported that 98 MAT chief executives earned more than £158,754 – the Prime Minister's salary in 2019/20. None of the MATs in Cornwall is paying salaries as high as that.

Earlier this year the National Education Union expressed concern about the growing level of MAT executives' pay and the gap between their salaries and those of teaching staff.

NEU joint general secretary Mary Bousted told the TES: "I am all for people being well rewarded for the job they do but we should all be concerned in the education sector about the increasing pay differentials between some academy chief executives and teachers' pay. The optics of this situation look bad.

"This is particularly a concern at a time when education funding has been cut in real terms. We should not forget that this is public money and if this money is going to chief executives in salaries of hundreds of thousands, this is money which is not being spent on teachers, supply staff and all the other recurring costs that schools face."

The figures for MATs in Cornwall:

An Daras MAT

Higher paid staff – 1 at £60k to £70k; 1 at £70k to £80k. The total amount of employee benefits received by key management personnel was £168,197 in 2020; compared to £154,759 in 2019.

Bridge MAT

Higher paid staff – 2 at £60k to £70k; 1 at £110k to £120k. The total amount of employee benefits received by key management personnel was £431,299 in 2019; compared to £448,830 the previous year.

Aspire MAT

Higher paid staff – 7 at £60k to £70k; 4 at £70k to £80k; 2 at £80k to £90k; 1 at £100k to £110k. The total amount of employee benefits received by key management personnel was £645,823 in 2020; compared to £906,726 in 2019.

Celtic Cross Education MAT

Higher paid staff – 1 at £70k to £80k; 1 at £80k to £90k. The total amount of employee benefits received by key management personnel was £187,794 in 2020; compared to £257,419 in 2019.

Cornwall Education Learning Trust (CELT)

Higher paid staff – 6 at £60k to £70k; 4 at £70k to £80k; 2 at £80k to £90k; 1 at £90k to £100k; 1 at £100k to 110k; 1 at £110k to 120k; 1 at £130k to £140k. The total amount of employee benefits received by key management personnel was £477,680 in 2020; compared to £687,928 in 2019.

Crofty MAT

Higher paid staff – 2 at £60k to £70k; 1 at £70k to £80k; 1 at £80k to £90k; 1 at £90k to £100k. Total employee benefits for management team of MAT – £391,465

Kernow Learning MAT

Higher paid staff – for 2020/21 there are 5 at £60k to £70k; 3 at £70k to £80k; 1 at £80k to £90k; 1 at £120k to £130k The total cost of senior management team salaries in 2020/21 was £2,340,631; compared to £1,647,472. The MAT said that this increase was due to a reallocation of costs to include staff who are part of the trust following a restructure.

Leading Edge Academies Partnership

Higher paid staff – the total cost of salaries for the senior management team in 202/21 was £268,720

North Cornwall Learning Trust

Higher paid staff – 2 at £60k to £70k; 1 at £70k to £80k. The total employee benefits received by key management personnel of the MAT was £454,921 in 2020 compared to £333,091 in 2019.

Rainbow MAT

Higher paid staff – 2 at £60k to £70k; 1 at £70k to £80k. The total amount of employee benefits received by key management personnel for 2020 was £439,028; compared to £438,758 in 2019.

The Roseland MAT

Higher paid staff – 1 at £60k to £70k; 1 at £70k to £80k; 1 at £80k to £90k. The total amount of employee benefits received by key management personnel was £429,264 in 2020; compared to £366,237 in 2019.

South East Cornwall Multi Academy Regional Trust (SMART)

Higher paid staff – 7 at £60k to £70k; 1 at £70k to £80k; 1 at £80k to £90k; 1 at £90k to £100k; 1 at £100k to £110k. The total amount of employee benefits received by key management personnel was £752,574 in 2020; compared with £682,747 in 2019.

Southerly Point Co-Operative MAT

Higher paid staff – 2 at £60k to £70k; 3 at £70k to £80k; 1 at £90k to £100k; 1 at £120k to £130k. The total amount of employee benefits received by key management personnel was £544,273 in 2020; compared to £539,790 in 2019.

Special Partnership Trust

Higher paid staff – 3 at £60k to £70k; 1 at £80k to £90k; 1 at £100k to £110k.

Truro & Penwith Academy Trust

Higher paid staff – 1 at £50k to £60k; 1 at £60k to £70k; 1 at £70k to £80k; 1 at £110k to £120k. The total salary bill for the MAT senior management team was £303,960.

Wave MAT (Please note that Wave MAT also covers some schools outside Cornwall).

Higher paid staff – 5 at £60k to £70k; 3 at £70k to £80k; 2 at £80k to £90k; 1 at £140k to £150k.

The total amount of employee benefits received by key management personnel was £1,294,467 in 2020. This compared to £1,113,834 in 2019.

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