CYP Now - No relationships and sex education training in four out of five schools, minister admits

Staff in four out of five schools have not received mandatory training to deliver relationship, sex and health education (RSHE), the government has revealed.

Schools in deprived areas receive less funding per pupil, research shows. Picture: Adobe Stock - Monkey Business/Adobe Stock

School standards minister Robin Walker has admitted that only 4,800 schools have received training from the government’s ‘teach the teacher’ and peer support programme around the delivery of RSHE.

This is a fifth of all the UK’s 24,000 primary and secondary state schools.

Walker was responding to a written question from Labour MP for Rotherham Sarah Champion, who asked what assessment had been made by the government of the adequacy of training for teachers to deliver RSHE, which has been mandatory in schools since September 2020.

Walker said that training had reached 3,800 schools in the 2020/21 academic year and a further 1,000 schools have been supported during a final wave of training that ended in July.

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