£200,000 salary for headteachers who run merged school chains

Headteachers could receive unlimited pay for running new chains of schools under radical plans to overhaul state education.

The best state schools will come under pressure to form mergers with struggling comprehensives in the drive to raise standards and cut costs.

Children's Secretary Ed Balls said chains of schools would have the same brand identity, share administrative staff and be run by one overall "executive headteacher".

"What we are looking to see is a number of not-for-profit state schools directly run by the best education providers," he told The Times.

"We want to see chains of schools run by a single overall leadership, probably with a shared brand, with some shared management and governance with a shared ethos and identity."

Currently headteachers' pay is capped at £107,000 in London. An extra 20 per cent will be available to heads who take on running extra schools on a temporary basis but Mr Balls wants heads who permanently run larger chains to be properly rewarded.

He will not enforce a pay cap on headteachers who take over chains of schools from this September.

The teachers' pay authority will investigate a longer-term solution, the Government said. This raises the prospect of heads being paid £200,000 or more for running the new chains.

The development will concern classroom teachers who fear a headteachers' "gold rush" is already under way in state schools.

Ministers want councils to promote the development of chains, which will be centrally accredited by the Department for Children from next January.

Weak comprehensives will be forced to federate with the groups run by the best schools if their exam results do not improve.

Ofsted will put pressure on successful schools who refuse to join the chains.