Balls pushes 'superheads' proposal

Schools secretary Ed Balls wants the best headteachers to be placed in charge of several schools in their local area.

Mr Balls makes the suggestion that the best heads could see their salaries doubled to around £200,000 in an interview with today's Times.

According to the newspaper he says the school teachers pay review board (STPRB) will be asked to prepare pay scales for those assuming additional responsibilities.

"In the private sector, when you identify the best leadership, you put that leadership to work. We want to make sure the pay is there in schools in order that [heads] have got incentives," Mr Balls said.

"If you are head teacher of a school of 1,500 pupils, plus staff, that's a huge responsibility.

"If you are excellent at doing that we want to, where possible and practical, reward you for taking on the extra responsibility of doing that in more than one school."

There are more than 120 headteachers working under the national leaders in education programme, which already seeks to provide "additional leadership to schools in difficulty".

Mr Balls said he was prepared to consider "more long-term funding stability" to the scheme in order to ensure its success.

"If you are going to another school or allowing your senior staff to go into another school for more than one year, you need certainty of funding for more than one year to make that possible," he added.