Children and Social Work Act 2017: Sex and relationships education

WHAT IS HAPPENING?

Following months of pressure from opposition MPs and campaigners, the government announced in March that it would amend the Children and Social Work Bill to make sex and relationships education (SRE) compulsory in all secondary schools. In addition, healthy relationships education will be taught in all primary schools.

In a ministerial statement, Education Secretary Justine Greening said the changes were needed to ensure children were educated about cyberbullying, sexting and staying safe online.

Parents will continue to have a right to withdraw pupils from sex education, and the Department for Education will lead a programme of engagement to set out age-appropriate subject content and identify the support schools need to deliver high-quality teaching.

Regulations and statutory guidance will be subject to full public consultation.

The requirement will be introduced from September 2019.

The government also committed to making personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education compulsory in future. Provisions in the act enable the government to make regulations requiring academies and maintained schools to teach PSHE education.

WHO WILL IT AFFECT?

PSHE education's current lack of statutory status means that in some schools, it has been squeezed from the academic timetable or poorly planned and delivered.

School leaders will need to consider how already congested academic timetables need to be adapted to accommodate regular SRE lessons in secondary schools and relationships education in primary schools. Meanwhile, primary and secondary school teachers will require training to deliver good quality SRE and relationships education.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

The PSHE Association believes PSHE education should be taught by teachers trained in it and, as a whole subject, that it covers SRE, mental and physical health, online safety and job skills.

The association says it should be taught regularly and incorporated into the school timetable. This will require major planning by school leaders, who will need to decide whether to enable their own teachers to deliver the education or to contract external organisations with expertise in the field.

Sexual health charity Brook, which delivers SRE in 12 per cent of secondary schools in England, says schools need to start preparing for the changes now by ensuring staff have the resources, training and skills required to deliver high-quality lessons.

"Training boosts confidence and helps professionals to support young people in developing critical thinking and building resilience - which are essential in all areas of life, not just in our relationships," says Helen Marshall, Brook chief executive. "Schools need to develop robust policies that fit within a whole-school approach, where life skills are embedded and integrated within a broader PSHE curriculum."

With provision patchy across the country, schools doing a good job teaching PSHE and SRE should be treated as examples others can learn from rather than expected to substantially change what they are doing, the PSHE Association says.

UNRESOLVED ISSUES

Regulations and guidance on how the requirements will work will be shaped by the DfE consultation. Plans will then be subject to debate and a vote in parliament.

The PSHE Association says the sector must ensure that measures "meet their significant potential to support children and young people while being implemented in a way that works for schools".

A key issue to be resolved is the relationship between PSHE and SRE. "It is clear that SRE is a component of broader PSHE education in a similar way that numeracy skills are a component of mathematics," says association chief executive Jonathan Baggaley.

"In teaching SRE separately, there is a danger that schools focus on intimate or sexual relationships only, but we have many different types of relationships - friends, neighbours, classmates and colleagues.

"Mental health, drugs and alcohol, and social media can also influence our relationships and only PSHE can address these issues. It doesn't make sense to teach individual components of PSHE education separately."

Brook's Marshall is concerned that children could still miss out on SRE if parents withdraw them due to worries over the suitability of lessons. The best way to overcome this is by communicating regularly with parents, she says.