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.