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Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education - Wednesday, 3rd December, 2025 2.00 pm
December 3, 2025 View on council websiteSummary
The Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE) of Cornwall Council is scheduled to meet on Wednesday 3 December 2025. The agenda includes a budget report, a presentation on the approved syllabus, and a discussion of the SACRE improvement plan. The meeting is open to the public and will be livestreamed.
SACRE Improvement Plan
The meeting will include a discussion of the SACRE Improvement Plan, with reference to the SACRE Improvement Plan Report and the Cornwall SACRE Improvement Plan 2025-2026 documents.
The SACRE Improvement Plan is designed to assist Cornwall SACRE in advising the local authority on religious education and collective worship, and to support the council in reflecting on its practices. The plan is intended to be used alongside the SACRE Self-Evaluation Tool.
The toolkit highlights five key dimensions of SACRE's work:
- Management of the SACRE and building partnerships
- Promoting improvement in standards, teaching quality, and provision in RE
- Evaluating the effectiveness of the locally agreed syllabus
- Promoting improvement in the provision and quality of collective worship
- Contributing to cohesion across the community and the promotion of social and racial harmony.
The SACRE Improvement Plan 2025-2026 document details targets, actions, success criteria, responsibilities, timelines, resources, and monitoring strategies for each of these key areas. For example, to improve membership and training, Richard Orpwood is scheduled to create a list of vacancies and contact relevant organisations to seek new members, with the goal of filling the majority of vacancies by March 2026.
The report pack states that SACRE consultants Clifflynn Banfield and Greg Parekh have liaised with the SACRE agenda group and SACRE Self-Evaluation Task and Finish about priorities and with the local authority through the Education Effectiveness Service.
Budget Report
The meeting agenda includes a budget report that outlines Cornwall Council's contribution to the SACRE budget for the financial year 2025-2026.
Cornwall Council's contribution to the SACRE budget for 2025/26 has been approved as £15,000, as it was in the previous financial year, 2024/25. In addition to this, Cornwall Council has committed a further £10,000 of growth funding in the 2025/26 financial year to take account of the additional costs incurred in the convening and launch of the Agreed Syllabus 2025-2026.
The report details spending intentions that align with the SACRE Improvement Plan activities. As of 31 October 2025, the budget summary is:
| SACRE Budget | 2025/26 Budget | Actuals as at | Budget Remaining |
|---|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | £ | |
| Consultants | |||
| 8,000 | 3,600 | 4,400 | |
| 0.00 | |||
| Aspect 1 (Management of SACRE and Partnerships with Stakeholders) | 1,500 | 175 | 1,325 |
| Aspect 2 (Standards, Quality and Provision of RE) | 1,500 | 1,500 | |
| Aspect 3 (Monitoring and Evaluation of the Agreed Syllabus) | 2,000 | 1,591 | 409 |
| Aspect 4 (Standards, Quality and Provision of Collective Worship) | 1,000 | 1,000 | |
| Aspect 5 (Contributing to Community Cohesion, Social & Racial Harmony) | 1,000 | 1,000 | |
| Growth Funding in 2025/2026 (LA) to support ASC and AS Launch | 10,000 | 10,000 | |
| Ringfenced Funding in 2025/2026 (LTLRE and CASH) to support ASC and AS Launch | 8,125 | 8,125 | Ω |
| Gross Expenditure | 33,125 | 23,491 | 9,634 |
| (8, 125) | (8, 125) | 0 | |
| 0 | |||
| Income | (8, 125) | (8, 125) | |
| Net Expenditure | 25,000 | 15,366 | 9,634 |
The report recommends that the SACRE ensures that the funds allocated to it for the financial year 2025-2026 are utilised in line with the identified areas agreed within the SACRE Improvement Plan and that, therefore, SACRE approves the spending intentions detailed in paragraph 11.1 of the Budget Report.
Agreed Syllabus Presentation
The consultants to SACRE are scheduled to provide a verbal update on the Agreed Syllabus. The Agreed Syllabus 2025-2030 follows on from the previous Agreed Syllabus 2020-2025 with updates around pedagogy and the addition into the main section of the syllabus unique local references to Cornwall which had previously been contained within appendices.
Other Items
The agenda also includes:
- Apologies for absence
- Declarations of interest
- Minutes of the meeting held on 11 September 2025
- Public questions and statements to SACRE
- Membership report by the Clerk to SACRE
- Any other business that the Chairman considers to be of urgency
Attendees
Topics
No topics have been identified for this meeting yet.
Meeting Documents
Reports Pack