Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what consultation was undertaken with the religious education community before removing subject knowledge enhancement grants from religious education.

Subject Knowledge Enhancement (SKE) is only one element of the department’s overall teacher supply strategy and its primary objective is to support recruitment in hard-to-recruit subjects with sufficiency challenges. Considerations including SKE recruitment performance, overall Initial Teacher Training (ITT) numbers and other support available to candidates, including ITT bursaries, informed the recent decision on the SKE programme.

The SKE package is, and will continue to be, reviewed regularly to ensure SKE is targeted at the candidates that need it most. The department has plans to engage with the sector to inform future SKE in the coming months.