In England, religious education (RE) is a compulsory subject in schools but the curriculum is not devised nationally: syllabuses are set locally by Standing Advisory Councils on Religious Education (SACREs). There are 151 of these in England, one for each education authority. Each SACRE has four subgroups: group A is made up of people to represent the principal religious beliefs in the area (other than the Church of England); group B is for the Church of England; group C is for teacher representatives; group D is for representatives from the local authority.
The purpose of SACREs is to devise the curriculum of religious education – which necessarily includes non-religious viewpoints. Having humanist representatives on group A of a SACRE is consistent with the legislation. We are well on track to providing a humanist representative on all SACREs within our region.
The legal situation regarding non-religious worldviews was recently established by the High Court (read more here).