Agenda item

To consider a report on behalf of the Director of Children’s Services seeking SACRE’s approval of the findings of the meeting regarding a proposed determination application process for Hampshire SACRE.

SACRE considered a report on behalf of the Director of Children’s Services of the findings of the sub-group that had met on 22 January 2020 to draft a determination application process for Hampshire SACRE (item 9 in the Minute Book). An updated appendix of the draft determination process and application form was circulated for discussion.

Patricia Hannam, the County Inspector/Adviser, briefly recapped about determinations and reminded Members that, to date, one had never been requested from Hampshire SACRE, although other local authorities have them. Following SACRE’s decision at its meeting in November 2019 to formulate a determination process, a small group of SACRE members had met to draft a process.  Patricia Hannam had consulted NASACRE and other SACREs about their processes and the proposed draft had been referred to Hampshire Legal Services twice for checking.  She expressed her gratitude to the Legal Services team for responding so rapidly to her queries.

Members were made aware that Collective Worship and the requirement for it to be ‘broadly Christian’ in content is a contentious issue.  It was made clear that a determination would not excuse a school from collective worship, just from it being ‘broadly Christian’.

In explanation of the application form it was noted that changes had been made to the original published one, on the advice of Legal Services, to remove anything that was not legally required, such as requiring schools to consult with parents or school advisers or to provide information on the new form of collective worship.  The list of faiths had been removed as there was no national or Hampshire definitive list; however, it was felt that it would be legitimate and reasonable to expect a school seeking a determination to provide information about the religious diversity of its pupils.

There was a wide-ranging discussion with comments and questions raised about the documents.  A question was raised about who would be responsible for checking the 5 year limit on a determination - the school or SACRE. Some Members queried in what circumstances that this could be reduced. After discussion it was agreed to amend the process document to include’ The SACRE clerk will remind the school about their determination on or about 1 October each year’; this should ensure that schools would continue to be aware of it.

There were also discussions about what would happen if an application was refused and how soon a school could reapply. Members also raised questions about the criteria on which an application would be judged, as this had not been mentioned.

SACRE divided into its constituent groups to discuss the recommendation to approve the draft determination procedure further.  The result of the voting was that the groups agreed in principle to the documents, but not in their current form.  The groups felt there was a need for further legal advice to set some form of criteria on which SACRE would base their judgement of a determination.

The recommendation as it stood failed and the groups agreed to amend it to

‘that SACRE approves the determination process in principle subject to no objections being raised by any Member of SACRE to the indicative criteria that will be drafted and circulated following further legal advice’. 

The officers would consult with NASACRE and other local authorities about criteria that were being used. They would amend the current process and application form to reflect the changes agreed at the meeting and incorporate proposed criteria.  The revised documents would be reviewed by Hampshire Legal Services before being sent out to SACRE members for scrutiny.

RESOLVED:

That SACRE approved the determination process in principle subject to no objections being raised by any member of SACRE to the indicative criteria that would be circulated following further legal advice.