Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education

The Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education has the following powers and duties:  

SACRE is established under section 390 of the Education Act 1996. It is not a formal committee of the Council.  The terms of reference and membership are set out below.  Under section 392(7) of the Act, SACRE may regulate its own proceedings and hence the Council’s committee procedure rules do not apply to SACRE.

Terms of reference

(1)          As requested by the local authority or of its own volition, to advise the local authority on matters connected with:

a.       religious worship in community schools or foundation schools which do not have a religious character, and

b.      Religious education, in accordance with the Agreed Syllabus

The matters referred to above include, in particular, teaching methods, choice of materials and teacher training.

(2)          To deal with applications from schools for a determination on whether the statutory requirement for Christian collective worship should apply.

(3)          To determine the manner and form of applications under (2) above.

(4)          To convene from time to time an Agreed Syllabus Conference to review the agreed syllabus.  The representative groups on SACRE, other than Group D, may at any time require a review of the agreed syllabus.  Each of the three representative groups concerned shall have a single vote on the question of whether to require such a review.

(5)          To publish an annual report as to the exercise of their functions and any action taken by representative groups on the council under (4) above during the preceding year.

Membership

Group A – Representatives of Christian and other religious denominations (22)

Group B – Representatives of the Church of England (3)

Group C – Representatives of Teachers (6)

Group D – Representatives of the Local Education Authority (3)

SACRE may also include co-opted members (that is, persons co-opted as members of SACRE by members of SACRE who have not themselves been so co-opted).

Any member who fails to attend three consecutive members of SACRE shall cease to be a member of the Council unless, at the third such meeting, SACRE approves the reason for non-attendance.

An adviser nominated by the Corporate Director, People Services shall also be invited to attend meetings of SACRE.