CST has released its 2026 salary benchmarking report in conjunction with partners Brightmine and Browne Jacobson.
The 2026 survey has been expanded to cover a broader range of roles in school trusts, and now covers some 40,000 jobs across the sector. It still comes senior salary roles across trusts as well as providing comparisons with the wider public sector, charities, and business.
The survey has been published since 2021, giving an overview of pay in school trusts. Since 2025, we have also published a linked gender pay gap report. It complement's CST's guidance on Setting executive pay.
CST members and survey participants can access the full survey results via a discounted licence for the Brightmine Compensation Planning platform; please contact helpdesk.uk@brightmine.com for more details. Trusts submitting data to the survey receive a personalised report exploring their position within the data - trusts can submit data at any point in the year and receive a proportionality anaylsis and support the sector.
You can also explore the 2026 report further in our joint webinar, Executive pay in school trusts: The governance imperative.
