Deputy and assistant headteacher pay

A deputy or assistant headteacher in a maintained school in England has an individual pay range set by the school’s governing board, and the top of that range cannot be higher than the maximum for the school’s headteacher group. The statutory floor from 1 September 2026 is £53,586 outside London. The ceiling therefore depends on how big the school is, which makes it more useful to know the school’s headteacher group than the national range.

The 2026 document is now published

The School teachers’ pay and conditions document 2026 was added to GOV.UK on 16 October 2026 and is valid from 1 September 2026. It sets the leadership group pay range at £53,586 to £148,829 in England outside London, with higher ranges in the London areas. The leadership pay range guide has the full area table.

How the ceiling is set

Paragraph 9.4 says the maximum of the deputy or assistant head’s pay range must not exceed the maximum of the headteacher group for the school. It adds that a deputy’s range should only overlap the headteacher’s range in exceptional circumstances. The headteacher group comes from a unit score based on the pupils on roll. The 2026 group ranges outside London are:

Headteacher group	Headteacher range	Highest a deputy’s range can reach
1	£60,619 to £80,652	£80,652
2	£63,688 to £86,796	£86,796
3	£68,691 to £93,414	£93,414
4	£73,827 to £100,536	£100,536
5	£81,457 to £110,881	£110,881
6	£87,664 to £122,305	£122,305
7	£94,349 to £134,834	£134,834
8	£104,059 to £148,829	£148,829

These figures are ceilings. The Inner London, Outer London and fringe columns in the document are higher at every group.

How the board decides your range

The board has to take account of all the permanent responsibilities of the role, any challenges specific to the post and any other relevant considerations. The guidance says it should set the range when it plans to make a new appointment or when responsibilities change significantly. It should also consider whether the post is hard to fill. The range must leave appropriate scope for progression over time. Ask for the range in writing before you accept an offer, and ask which headteacher group the school is in.

Progression and what is not paid

The board must consider every year whether to raise the salary of leaders who have completed a year of employment. A recommendation on pay must be made in writing as part of the appraisal report, and the board must have regard to it. Schools that keep performance-related pay can withhold progression only for poor performance. In other schools progression can be withheld only if you are in capability proceedings.

Leaders are not eligible for recruitment and retention incentives. The document says all of those considerations must be taken into account when the range is set, apart from reimbursement of reasonable housing or relocation costs. From 1 September 2026, schools may make modest non-consolidated awards to teachers and leaders for exceptional contribution or achievement.

Acting up

A teacher who is assigned and carries out the duties of a deputy or assistant head without being appointed has to be considered for an acting allowance. The board must decide within four weeks of the duties starting whether to pay one. If it does, total remuneration must not fall below the minimum of the relevant pay range for as long as the allowance is paid. Before this step, middle leaders are usually paid through TLRs, which the 2026 document allows for classroom teachers. TLR1 can be worth £10,531 to £17,819 a year and TLR2 £3,651 to £8,913, and the TLR payments guide explains them.

Older appointments

The 2014 leadership system applies to people appointed to leadership posts on or after 1 September 2014, or whose responsibilities have significantly changed since. If your range was set under an earlier document and its maximum exceeds the highest salary the 2026 document allows, the school must keep paying under the old range until it reassesses leadership pay.

For the role itself, read the deputy and assistant headteacher profile, and for the pay in other teaching grades see teacher pay scales in England. The take-home pay calculator shows what any figure leaves after tax and pension.