Under the Children and Social Work Act 2017, the government committed to making relationships education (primary) and relationships and sex education (secondary) statutory in all schools, including local authority maintained schools, academies, free schools and independent schools. Health education will be compulsory for all state-funded schools, while independent schools are already required to teach this under the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014. In late February, the Department for Education published the outcomes from its consultation on the introduction on these different areas of education for primary and secondary schools in England. It also published draft regulations and statutory guidance for these subjects.
Statutory guidance
Revised guidance was presented on 25 February, with the final guidance being published in the spring. The guidance is statutory, which means schools "must have regard" to it, and "where they depart from those parts of the guidance which state that they should (or should not) do something they will need to have good reasons for doing so". Ofsted is currently consulting on its revised inspection framework, which will include evidence of how well the curriculum is implemented.
The updated draft guidance lists what pupils should know at the end of primary and secondary school on topics including: respectful relationships; online relationships; being safe for primary schools; and intimate and sexual relationships, including sexual health for secondary schools. It also includes provision for the introduction of compulsory female genital mutilation education as well as covering "honour-based" abuse, grooming, forced marriage, consent and domestic abuse in secondary schools and compulsory education on menstruation.
Opposition to changes in the draft guidance has included concerns that young children will be taught about lesbian and gay relationships. However, there is no requirement to teach primary-age children about sexual relationships - rather, the guidance for this age group reflects the fact that children are raised in families that include lesbian, gay and transgender parents.
POINTS FOR PRACTICE
- Schools must have a written policy on how they plan to teach relationships and sex education, available online to all who request them.
- Schools must also take into account religious background of all pupils when planning their teaching and comply with equalities legislation, not discriminating against anyone on the basis of age, sex, race, disability, religion or belief, gender reassignment, pregnancy or maternity, marriage or civil partnership, or sexual orientation.
- They must also ensure teaching and materials are "appropriate to age and background of pupils".
- Schools "should ensure that parents know what will be taught and when, and clearly communicate the fact that parents have the right to request that their child be withdrawn from some or all of sex education delivered as part of statutory relationships and sex education". Schools are advised to keep a record of communication with parents who make withdrawal requests.
Withdrawing a child from sex education
Parents will have the right to request that their child is withdrawn from "some or all" of their sex education at secondary school under the new guidance, but the final decision will lie with head teachers. Head teachers are encouraged to grant such requests "except in exceptional circumstances", and should discuss parents' wishes with them before making a decision. However, once a child is three terms away from their 16th birthday, they can choose to opt back in to sex education, so they can be taught the subject before they reach the age of consent. Primary schools that choose to teach sex education must comply with a parent's wish to withdraw their child from sex education beyond the national curriculum for science.
Relationships and health education
There is no right for parents to withdraw their pupils or for pupils to withdraw themselves from any part of the relationships or health education curriculum. Coram Life Education's (CLE) research found that an overwhelming majority of parents believe that relationships education should start as early as possible in a child's life and CLE already delivers a relationships education programme in one in nine UK primary schools. It is vital that compulsory, age-appropriate relationships education is taught as part of the curriculum from an early age to given children a solid grounding in the emotional, social and physical aspects of growing up so that they can make the right decisions and stay safe.
The guidance will come into effect in September 2020, but Education Secretary Damian Hinds has recommended that schools implement it from September 2019.
