How many more young people need to tell ministers and key policymakers that the sex and relationships education (SRE) provided in schools across the UK is simply not good enough?
More than 21,000 young people responded to a recent UK Youth Parliament (UKYP) survey about the quality of SRE in their school (YPN, 4-10 July, p4). The findings make depressing reading but the UKYP has come up with a clear set of recommendations. These include making SRE part of statutory personal, social and health education; delivery of SRE by trained teachers; more about relationships and teenage pregnancy; and better access to confidential sexual health services.
So why are we still holding back? All young people need to leave school knowing how to stay sexually healthy and safe. If we want less unwanted pregnancies, fewer sexually transmitted infections, more informed choice, raised aspirations and improved wellbeing, we should all be doing everything in our power to ensure that SRE is one of the most compelling, dynamic, effective and vital aspects of young people's learning in and out of school. We can't afford to watch another generation slip past us ill-prepared for the challenges they face on a daily basis. Young people are telling us what they need and want - it's time for the Government to listen and act.
- Gill Mullinar, national co-ordinator, Sex Education Forum
CAMPAIGN FOR ROAD SAFETY
In 2006, almost 17,000 12- to 16-year-olds were killed or injured on the roads in Britain - a frightening statistic that highlights how important it is for us to make young people more aware of road safety.
But how do you go about reaching a group who are notoriously difficult to engage?
MTV's Ad Star Search is a government campaign that seeks to raise awareness of this issue by enlisting Britain's teenagers themselves to design the next national TV road safety advert aimed at their peers.
A collaboration between the Department for Transport's THINK! road safety campaign and MTV, Ad Star Search invited teens from across the country to come up with a unique and striking idea for a road-safety advert.
Three teams of teens made it through to the final and over the past few weeks they have been working with top advertising executives and MTV producers to create their adverts.The adverts will be screened on the MTV channels from 16 to 22 July and during that time teens across Britain will be encouraged to log on to the dedicated web site and vote for their favourite.
So we are now asking for your help to encourage as many teens as possible to log on to the site and choose the advert they think is the most effective.
The adverts will be available to view at www.mtv.co.uk/think.
- Glyn Robinson, spokesperson, Department for Transport's THINK! campaign
MOTHERHOOD OR ABORTION?
The Department of Health has announced that teenagers show the fastest rise and highest figure for an increase in abortions (YPN, 27 June-3 July, p3).
Other European countries with lower rates of teenage parenthood, such as Sweden and Denmark, have higher adolescent abortion rates. In other words, we need to decide what we want - fewer abortions or fewer teenage mums?
The reporting of the latest abortion figures is indicative of the very confused attitude towards young people and sex in the UK. On the one hand, priority is apparently given to preventing teenage parenthood, but on the other, we lament the rise in abortion rates that might facilitate this. Abortion is a procedure evidently accepted by many women as a welcome way of controlling their fertility as the last resort and yet in public discussion it is treated as a social and moral problem. This ambivalence makes it more difficult for some young women to make a rapid and confident decision to terminate the pregnancy and get their lives back on track.
For young women in particular, there is a need for continuity and an ongoing problem-solving relationship between sexual health practitioners and young people, so that the right form of contraception can be found.
- Jan Macvarish, research associate, Centre for Health Services Studies, University of Kent.
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