School business manager (SBM) pay

There's no national pay scale for SBMs, but make sure you know who's responsible for setting their pay in your school. Find information about average salaries for SBMs, and what you should consider when setting a salary.

Last reviewed on 13 October 2023
School types: AllSchool phases: AllRef: 4888
Contents
  1. Pay is determined locally
  2. Average salaries
  3. Setting a salary
  4. Pay for SBMs on the SLT

Pay is determined locally

There's no national pay scale for support staff, including SBMs. Instead, it’s the employer’s responsibility to agree pay and progression. Your employer will depend on your school type.

  • Community or voluntary-controlled (VC) school – the local authority (LA) is the legal employer, so pay and conditions for SBMs are based on the LA's scale of pay grades
  • Foundation or voluntary-aided (VA) school – your governing board is responsible for determining the pay and conditions for SBMs 
  • Academy – your trust can set its own pay and conditions, but staff whose employment transferred to the academy at the point of conversion retain their existing pay and conditions (unless the trust renegotiated these after the transfer)

This is explained in section 6.6.7 (pages 97 to 98) of the Governance Handbook.

Average salaries

For an experienced SBM, this could be £30,000 to £40,000 per year, and for