NASACRE is delighted to read the Policy Paper published on 9th March 2026 Protecting What Matters: Towards a more confident, cohesive, and resilient United Kingdom. We welcome the government’s fresh commitment to acting on social cohesion. The paper recognises that His Majesty’s Government has already made steps to improve cohesion but has more to do, and so the paper takes the form of an action plan. In this we are pleased to see a commitment to celebrating faith and belief communities by expanding Inter Faith Week, boosting faith and belief literacy in government and wider society, and most significantly for us, strengthening the role of Religious Education, including through improved engagement with Standing Advisory Councils for Religious Education (SACREs). The government is committed to driving up standards in RE and is carefully considering including RE in the national curriculum.
SACREs already play a strategic role in local community linking, especially through collaborative working between different faith and belief communities in creating:
- locally focussed RE syllabuses which promote critical thinking and can help pupils navigate our complex local, national and global society,
- supporting other multi-faith engagement events (such as Inter Faith Week)
- providing collective worship guidance.
The local nature of SACREs is a protective factor against division, because locally grounded RE helps pupils to understand the diversity around them.
NASACRE looks forward to continuing our work with MHCLG and the DfE and welcomes the recognition of the role of SACREs in promoting social cohesion. We await further detail of how these two departments will promote the role of SACREs and welcome their offer of support with analysis of SACRE annual reports. With this improved analysis, we hope to help government to better understand the role SACREs play in communities including in relation to cohesion.
NASACRE Chairs group,
March 2025