Department for Education Pay 2026/27: Salary by Grade and Take-Home
What Department for Education pays at each Civil Service grade in 2026/27, from the published Cabinet Office medians as at 31 March 2026, with take-home after Income Tax, National Insurance and the alpha pension.
What Department for Education pays by grade
DfE is responsible for schools, further and higher education, apprenticeships and children’s social care policy, and is a comparatively small, policy-weighted department.
Cabinet Office publishes a median salary for each responsibility level in each organisation, as at 31 March 2026. That is what people were actually paid on the day, not a band anyone is placed on: pay below the Senior Civil Service is delegated, so the Department for Education sets its own ranges and no national scale exists to print.
| Grade | Department for Education median | vs whole service | Rank of 9 |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA / AO | £27,240 | -£780 | 8 |
| EO | £31,480 | -£660 | 6 |
| SEO / HEO | £42,810 | -£1,120 | 5 |
| Grade 6 / 7 | £62,340 | -£3,490 | 9 |
| Senior Civil Service | £88,110 | -£7,430 | 9 |
Senior Executive Officer and Higher Executive Officer are published as one combined level, so there is no HEO-only median for Department for Education or for anywhere else. Grade 6 and Grade 7 are combined the same way.
Take-home on those medians
Each median netted through Income Tax, employee National Insurance and the alpha pension contribution due at that salary. alpha is a net pay arrangement: the contribution reduces taxable pay, so it gets full relief at your marginal rate, but National Insurance is charged on the whole gross regardless.
| Grade | Median | alpha | Income Tax | NI | Take-home | Monthly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA / AO | £27,240 | £1,253 (4.6%) | £2,683 | £1,174 | £22,130 | £1,844 |
| EO | £31,480 | £1,448 (4.6%) | £3,492 | £1,513 | £25,027 | £2,086 |
| SEO / HEO | £42,810 | £2,333 (5.45%) | £5,581 | £2,419 | £32,476 | £2,706 |
| Grade 6 / 7 | £62,340 | £4,582 (7.35%) | £10,535 | £3,257 | £43,965 | £3,664 |
| Senior Civil Service | £88,110 | £6,476 (7.35%) | £20,086 | £3,773 | £57,776 | £4,815 |
What the numbers actually say
The Department for Education is one of only three of the nine whose all-grades median sits above its own SEO/HEO median. The middle of this department is more senior than its middle grade.
That is the signature of a policy department: relatively few administrative posts, a large professional population at HEO and above, and enough Grade 6/7 and SCS staff to pull the whole-department median up past the level where most operational departments peak. Its SCS median is the lowest of the nine, so the shape is broad rather than steep - many senior professionals, without the concentration of very senior posts that the central departments carry.
The departments nearest to it
The three departments closest to Department for Education on the all-grades median. The full nine-department comparison, and the whole-service medians, are on the Civil Service pay page.
| Department | All grades | SEO / HEO | Grade 6 / 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Department for Education | £49,000 | £42,810 | £62,340 |
| Cabinet Office | £47,670 | £38,600 | £65,050 |
| Ministry of Defence | £39,120 | £45,550 | £65,560 |
| Home Office | £39,000 | £46,270 | £68,320 |
The 2026/27 award at Department for Education
The Department for Education sets its own pay award for grades below the Senior Civil Service, inside a Cabinet Office control of 3.5% for 2026/27. That control is a cap on the growth of the department's total remuneration cost, and the guidance is explicit that it "does not confirm the amount that an individual in a department will receive": a department can spread it evenly or target the grades it struggles to fill, and going above it needs HM Treasury ministers to agree.
The medians above are a snapshot taken on 31 March 2026. They already contain whatever this department had paid by that date and nothing after it, and they have deliberately not been uprated by the cap - that would produce our number rather than the published one.
Related
- Civil Service pay 2026/27: every grade, the SCS ranges and all nine departments
- By grade: AO, EO, HEO, SEO, Grade 7, Grade 6
- Civil servant pay and take-home
- Salary calculator for any figure not on this page
Frequently asked questions
Is DfE a good department for pay?
At the professional grades it sits mid-table among the nine, and its all-grades median is high because of grade mix rather than higher rates. Its SCS median is the lowest of the nine.
Are teachers included?
No. Teachers are employed by schools and paid on the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document, which is a published national scale. These figures are departmental civil servants.
What does a DfE Grade 7 earn?
The department’s Grade 6/7 median is in the table above. Grade 7 is the main policy lead grade and sits below Grade 6 inside that combined figure.