We have produced our third benchmarking report for academies, covering academies across the whole of the UK. It is designed to bring together information which you can use to benchmark your academy against others.
Our report looks at developments and trends over the past year, but also looks to the future. With staff costs by far the largest expense for schools, what impact will the increase in employers national contributions have for you? We also look at an area of public interest and scrutiny – headteacher and staff salaries and compensation payments, and the updated Charity SORP’s additional requirements for disclosure in these areas.
Our report covers 100 academies in total including mainly UHY clients, but also some other academies to gain a wider spectrum of information. There is a mixture of secondary school and primary school academies, new and old style sponsored academies, as well as information from individual academies within multi-academy trusts.
Highlights of our 2015 report include:
- The average academy, whether a secondary school or primary school, has staff costs of around 70% of the total cost
- Over half of academies in our sample had a teacher to pupil ratio of between 10 to 18
- The average salary paid to primary headteachers is £64k, whilst the average salary paid to secondary school heads is closer to £100k
- On average academies derive 70% of their income from the General Annual Grant (GAG)
- Over half of all academies spend between £100 and £500 per pupil, with an almost equal split between the £100 and £250 and £250-£500 bands
- Despite budget pressures, the majority of academies achieved a GAG surplus for the year to 31 August 2014
- 48% of academies disclosed related party transactions
- more academies saw an increase in trustee numbers than academies showing a decline
Throughout the report we provide commentary on a range of issues that are likely to be topical for you, or that you should at least be considering. In addition, this year we have provided a data sheet to allow you to compare your results with our report’s averages. We can also plot this information for you, just contact your local UHY academy partner.
