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<p>Religious education remains compulsory for all state funded schools, including
academies and free schools, at all key stages, and it is part of schools’ activity
to meet their legal duty to promote young people’s spiritual, moral and cultural development.</p><p>
</p><p>Where the Department is made aware that schools are not fulfilling their legal
duties, it will investigate. If an individual is concerned that a school is not meeting
its duty to provide religious education, they should follow that school’s complaint
procedure in the first instance. If the complaint is not resolved, then the issue
can be escalated to the Department’s School Complaints Unit for maintained schools,
or the Education and Skills Funding Agency for academies, free schools, university
technical colleges or studio schools. Information about complaint procedures for schools
can be found at <a href="http://www.gov.uk/complain-about-school" target="_blank">www.gov.uk/complain-about-school</a>.</p><p>
</p><p>The Secretary of State for Education has a range of powers to ensure schools
comply with their statutory obligations. The exact powers used will depend on the
nature of the statutory duty in question and the potential impact of any failure to
comply. The powers used could include a direction under 497 of the Education Act 1996,
a performance and standards warning notice under the Education and Inspections Act
2006 and a referral to Ofsted for an inspection. Where academies are subject to the
same statutory duties as maintained schools, the Secretary of State for Education
has powers to enforce compliance via the terms of the funding agreement.</p><p> </p>
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