North Yorkshire Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education

 

10 December 2024

 

North Yorkshire SACRE – Annual Report 2023/24

 

Report of the Clerk to North Yorkshire SACRE

 

 

1.0       PURPOSE OF REPORT

 

1.1       To summarise the procedure for approving the Annual Report.

 

 

2.0       BACKGROUND

 

2.1       Under Paragraph 13 of the North Yorkshire SACRE Constitution, the SACRE is required to publish an Annual Report in the Spring term. 

 

2.2       Members have been sent drafts of the Annual Report while it is in preparation, along with an invitation for comments and amendments.

 

2.3       The Annual Report will be voted on at the meeting.  If approved, it will be shared with SACRE Members, all schools, the School Improvement Service and Council Members, as well as being sent to the Department for Education and NASACRE.

 

3.0       VOTING PROCEDURE

 

3.1       The procedure for voting is set out in Paragraph 9 of the Constitution, and is summarised below:

 

a)    For business generally, the SACRE aims to operate on a basis of consensus and, therefore, a formal vote will rarely be necessary.

 

b)    On any question to be decided by the SACRE, its constituent Groups each have a single vote, but Co-opted Members do not have a vote.  For any voting to take place, SACRE must be quorate, with representatives from all four Groups present at the meeting.

 

c)    Decisions within an individual Group do not require unanimity.  Each Group must regulate its own proceedings, including provision for resolving deadlock.  If there is a tied vote of the four Groups (i.e., two Groups in favour and two against), members will be asked to reconsider, following further discussion.  Only SACRE Members present at the meeting are eligible to vote (note that under Paragraph 8.2, this is a hybrid meeting, and members of the SACRE can participate virtually and be considered fully “present”).

 

d)    In the event of the matter still being deadlocked, the Chair shall not have a casting vote and the matter will be declared a non-decision vote.

 

3.2       Following discussion of the Annual Report, the Clerk will break the virtual attendees into separate “breakout rooms”, one room per Group, to discuss their vote. In person attendees will be provided with a separate computer in a private room, so they can participate in these discussions.

 

3.3       Following the conclusion of the separate group discussions, the Groups will be invited to return to the main meeting, and a spokesperson from each Group will report their vote back.

 

 

4.0

 

RECOMMENDATION

 

4.1

That:

 

a)    subject to the addition of data which are still being sought, the Annual Report for 2023/24 be approved.

 

b)    delegated authority be given to the Principal Education Advisor (Monitoring) to make the necessary non-material changes to the report by adding the data, in consultation with the Chair.

 

 

 

            APPENDICES:

 

            Appendix A – North Yorkshire SACRE Annual Report 2023/24 – Draft.

 

 

 

 

Report Author – Edward Maxwell, Senior Democratic Services Officer and SACRE Clerk