The Datum Report

Occupation 2323 · Professional occupations

Education advisers and school inspectors

Half of full-time education advisers and school inspectors in the UK earn more than £44,549 a year, and half earn less.

Education advisers and school inspectors plan, organise and direct the educational activities and resources in a local authority education area, and undertake inspections of schools and other training establishments excluding universities.

How people enter it

Job holders usually possess an education-related degree or relevant postgraduate qualification and have gained relevant experience in teaching and/or school management. Before being appointed, an inspector has to attend a course of training provided or approved by OFSTED. Most inspectors are or have been head teachers, deputy heads or heads of department. A DBS check may be required.

What the work involves

• advises on all aspects of education and ensures that all statutory educational requirements are being met
• plans and advises on the provision of special schools for children with physical or learning disabilities
• appoints and controls teaching staff
• verifies that school buildings are adequately maintained
• arranges for the provision of school medical and meals services
• observes teaching, assesses learning level and discusses any apparent faults with teachers, heads of department and head teachers
• prepares reports on schools concerning teaching standards, educational standards being achieved, the spiritual, moral and social development of pupils, resource management etc

Also called

Advisory teacher · Assessor (further, higher education) · Curriculum adviser · Early years adviser · Education officer · School inspector

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for education advisers and school inspectors, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 6 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Early education and childcare services managers · Education managers · Head teachers and principals · Other educational professionals n.e.c