The new leader of the Liberal Democrats, Jo Swinson, expressed support for the separation of church and state, an end to discriminatory faith-based
school admissions and moves to explicitly outlaw caste-based discrimination during her campaign.
The NSS has written to Amanda Spielman, the chief
inspector of schools in England, to highlight inconsistencies in the way Ofsted handles teaching about LGBT people. Our campaigns officer Megan Manson outlined
these inconsistencies in a recent blog.
The most senior Catholic leader in England and Wales aggressively tried to discredit a BBC documentary
on the church's links to and cover-up of child abuse, The Guardian has revealed. In response the NSS has said religious institutions can't be trusted to put child protection before their own
reputations.
A Catholic school in Northern Ireland is
trying to transfer to integrated status – becoming the second to make the effort in the last
few weeks. The NSS's No More Faith Schools campaign has backed the plans.
Councils in Harrow (in north London) and Southwark
(in south London) have voted to approve the definition of Islamophobia proposed by the APPG on British Muslims. The NSS has criticised these decisions. Meanwhile the government has
appointed Qari Asim, deputy chair of the cross-government anti-Muslim hatred working group, to spearhead work on establishing a new definition of
Islamophobia.
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