Education Act 1996

391 Functions of advisory councils

(1) The purposes referred to in section 390(1) are—

(a) to advise the local education authority upon such matters connected with religious worship in county schools and the religious education to be given in accordance with an agreed syllabus as the authority may refer to the council or as the council may see fit, and

(b) to carry out the functions conferred on them by section 394.

(2) The matters referred to in subsection (1)(a) include, in particular, methods of teaching, the choice of materials and the provision of training for teachers.

(3) The representative groups on the council required by section 390(4), other than the group consisting of persons appointed to represent the authority, may at any time require a review of any agreed syllabus for the time being adopted by the authority.

(4) Each representative group concerned shall have a single vote on the question of whether to require such a review.

(5) Paragraph 3 of Schedule 31 has effect to require the authority, on receiving written notification of any such requirement, to cause a conference constituted in accordance with that Schedule to be convened for the purpose of reconsidering any agreed syllabus to which the requirement relates.

(6) The council shall in each year publish a report as to the exercise of their functions and any action taken by representative groups on the council under subsection (3) during the last preceding year.

(7) The council’s report shall in particular—

(a) specify any matters in respect of which the council have given advice to the authority,

(b) broadly describe the nature of the advice given, and

(c) where any such matter was not referred to the council by the authority, give the council’s reasons for offering advice on that matter.

(8) The council shall send to the head teacher of any grant-maintained school to which section 379 applies and which is in the area of the authority a copy of advice which they give to the authority upon matters connected with religious worship.

(9) The council shall send a copy of advice which they give to the authority on the religious education to be given in accordance with an agreed syllabus to the head teacher of any grant-maintained school which is in the area of the authority and which—

(a) is required, by virtue of section 379 or 381, to provide religious education in accordance with an agreed syllabus, or

(b) was a controlled school immediately before it became grant-maintained.

(10) The council shall send a copy of each report published by them under subsection (6)—

(a) in the case of a council for an area in England, to the School Curriculum and Assessment Authority, and

(b) in the case of a council for an area in Wales, to the Curriculum and Assessment Authority for Wales.