Information about the Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE).

Councils have a duty to set up a Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE). The duties of the SACRE include gaining an overview of the quality of religious education provision in local authority maintained schools and developing effective strategies to promote the highest standards.

The Agreed Syllabus Conference (ASC) holds the legal responsibility for revising the Agreed Syllabus. The ASC members are all members of SACRE.

Part of a SACRE’s role is to support the effective provision of collective worship in community schools and to advise the local authority on issues related to provision and quality. It must also consider applications from head teachers in community schools that the requirement for collective worship to be wholly or mainly of broadly Christian character be disapplied for some or all of the pupils in that school.

SACRE ‘determines’ the appropriateness of that application and grants a ‘determination’ to those schools where the application is judged to be in the best interest of the pupils. All pupils in schools with determination continue to have an entitlement to daily collective worship.

A SACRE is set up to represent a balance of all the interests of the local community. This includes elected councillors, representatives’ of local faith communities and members of the education community. The constitution of the SACRE is determined by law. There are four communities which make up the SACRE.

For more information please contact Vikki Oxley, Democratic Services Officer by email at vikki.oxley@north.gov.uk.