Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has received representations on the adequacy of funding for Standing Advisory Councils on Religious Education; and if he will make a statement.

The Department has received a copy of a report produced by the National Association of Standing Advisory Councils on Religious Education (NASACRE). The report presents a summary of responses received from local authorities to Freedom of Information requests relating to funding of Standing Advisory Councils on Religious Education (SACREs).

Local authorities are allocated funding through the central school services block (CSSB) for a range of duties that they must meet for all pupils in maintained schools and academies, such as establishing and maintaining a SACRE. In financial year 2021/22, the total funding for ongoing responsibilities in the CSSB is £257 million, a 3.8% increase compared to 2020/21, to keep up with inflation and pupil numbers.

The Department does not specify what proportion of this money should be attributed to different services or duties. It is up to each local authority to decide this for itself. We expect that a SACRE should be sufficiently resourced to meet its statutory duties. If a SACRE is unable to do this, it should first raise a complaint locally about the issue. If it has done this unsuccessfully, the issue can be escalated to the Department’s School Complaints Unit.