Government approvals of salaries for further education leaders have faced significant delays, it has emerged, raising fears about the new sign-off process for academy trusts.
Under controls on trust executive pay that came into force last week, government approval is needed to offer new appointees a salary exceeding £174,000.
The same threshold already applies to further education leaders, whose pay is subject to a similar approvals system.
And Vlog can reveal that the Department for Education took nearly six months to reach a decision on an application to pay an FE leader more than £174,000.
Leora Cruddas, chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, said: “These findings add to our concerns about school trusts being left in limbo when trying to appoint senior staff.”
Delays with DfE salary appovals
FE colleges have been required to secure government approval before advertising senior appointments with remuneration above £174,000 or performance-related pay exceeding £25,000 since June 2025.
The multi-academy trust and FE processes are not identical: the four approved FE applications disclosed to Vlog all required referral to the Treasury, while trust applications are all expected to be assessed by the DfE.
MATs have been told to allow a minimum of 20 working days for decisions, while the timeframe for FE colleges is two months, with faster approval available in exceptional circumstances.
But the figures obtained by Vlog under freedom of information laws show that decisions for FE colleges have taken an average of 106 days (3.5 months) - significantly longer than the official timeframe.
The longest case took 179 days - and was rejected - while the shortest took 47 days.
Ms Cruddas added: “Even the 20 working days target set out in the DfE guidance [for MATs] potentially delays [trust] decisions by a month, and on the evidence of the similar process for FE colleges, by much more.
“Trusts are the employers. We believe that they, not Whitehall, are best placed to decide on what is right for their particular circumstances.”
Four out of 15 applications approved
Of the 15 applications submitted by FE colleges since the £174,000 threshold was introduced last year, only four have been approved so far.
The DfE refused two, four were withdrawn and five were still awaiting a decision as of 1 October.
Riverside College, in Cheshire, applied to pay its CEO and principal £180,000 on 7 November 2025 and received approval on 26 February - 111 days later.
The college’s previous CEO was paid £175,608 in 2025, and the college contributed £50,364 to their pension, bringing their total remuneration to £225,972.
Windsor Forest Colleges Group waited 100 days for approval for its group principal and CEO’s proposed remuneration of between £170,000 and £185,000.
Its previous CEO was paid £171,000 in 2025, with their total remuneration rising to £221,000, including employer pension contributions.
And Loughborough College’s application for £190,000 remuneration for its CEO and principal took 105 days. Its previous CEO earned £168,000 in 2025.
But Truro and Penwith College had the quickest of the four disclosed approvals, waiting 47 days for a decision on a proposed package of between £170,000 and £190,000.
The DfE withheld details of the refused, withdrawn and outstanding applications on commercial grounds. Revealing live recruitment intentions and remuneration negotiations could harm colleges’ ability to recruit candidates, affect negotiations and increase recruitment costs, it said.
MAT delays ‘would affect far more pupils’
Sam Henson, deputy chief executive of the National Governance Association, expressed concern about the DfE’s capacity to make the new executive pay system for academy trusts work.
“The trust sector is significantly bigger than FE, and delayed decisions would affect far more pupils, staff and schools,” he said.
“Unless the DfE resources this very differently, it’s genuinely hard to see how the proposed timescale will work.”
The DfE says it will process applications “as quickly as possible”, but Mr Henson said that job candidates won’t always be willing to wait months for a recruitment process that hasn’t even started.
This means trust boards that follow the process “by the book” could end up losing out to those that set the salary at £173,999 to “avoid the queue”, he said.
“The longer approvals take, the greater the pressure on boards to find ways around the process rather than through it,” Mr Henson added.
Trust boards considering pay packages have been told to consider academic performance, including pupil outcomes; Ofsted ratings; “educational challenge” faced by their schools; and the trust’s financial performance.
Decisions on applications will be communicated through the regional director’s office.
But the NGA said there is still a lack of clarity over exactly what evidence the DfE will require and approve.
Mr Henson said: “The DfE needs to publish its criteria and commit to its own timescale or the policy will create a recruitment bottleneck rather than the accountability it was meant to deliver.”
The DfE has been contacted for comment.
