Interview: Sexual health champion - Julie Bentley, chief executive, FPA

Julie Bentley, who took over as chief executive of FPA at the beginning of this year, is "delighted" the government has decided to make SRE compulsory for all five- to 16-year-olds in English state schools.

"Up till now we have not been good enough at talking about it in schools or at home. We have generations who have grown up and are still growing up not knowing enough about their bodies. When SRE becomes compulsory, I hope that the approach to teaching will be more consistent and we will see a real improvement in the sexual health of our young people. It will give them a good start in taking their relationships forward," she says.

Bentley predicts there will be some opposition from faith schools but says: "They need to deliver an SRE programme, which has their faith values reflected in it. I know there are some faith schools who are very supportive of the proposals and believe that SRE is important."

She hopes that if you include the parents and make it clear to them what is going to be taught, then the issue of parents wanting to opt out won't even arise.

Commitment to sexual health

Bentley's commitment to sexual health began when she worked as a young people's sexual health adviser in the 1990s. "It is a critical issue and it is something we really struggle with as a society. We find it hard to have honest discussions about sex and relationships yet it should be quite a joyful subject," she says.

Bentley believes that it is something the UK in particular seems to struggle with. "We have such a sexualised society in terms of the media and consumerism. Young people are marketed to in a very adult way. I think SRE has a big part to play in this," she says.

Bentley admits there is still a lot to be done to ensure the government achieves its pledge. The proposals are expected to come into force in September 2010 and she believes one of the challenges will be introducing it to primary age children.

Her worry is that sensational headlines in the media have led parents to think that it is all about "telling five-year-olds how to use condoms". The "media can cause real worry and there is so much confusion around SRE. When we launched Nisha and Joe, a booklet on growing up for six- to seven-year-olds, a lot of people thought we were telling children how to have sex," she explains.

"Parents say it is our job but they often find it difficult to talk about and they need support," she adds.

A partnership approach

She wants to see school nurses and youth workers playing more of a role in SRE. "Youth workers are trusted by young people so they are ideal. That's why training youth workers is very important," says Bentley.

She believes SRE should be a partnership approach between parents and schools. Another challenge will be training the workforce to deliver SRE. Bentley would like to see SRE becoming part of teacher training, even becoming a separate subject in teaching training.

Bentley was recently selected to join the Teenage Pregnancy Advisory Group to advise the government on ways to reduce the rates of teenage pregnancy.

As well as her work on the advisory group, she has been busy developing a five-year strategic plan for the FPA. "One of our challenges is that people don't understand what we do anymore. We used to primarily be a contraception clinic and people still seem to think we are just about contraception. But we are about all aspects of sexual health and we need people to be more aware of that," she concludes.

BACKGROUND - FPA CAMPAIGNS

• FPA will be campaigning for the rights of people with learning disabilities to have a sexual life
• It will be continuing its campaign next year for women in Northern Ireland to have the right to have an abortion. At the moment abortion is illegal unless the mother is in danger if her pregnancy continues
• The charity wants to raise awareness of long lasting, reversible methods of contraception such as patches or implants so young people will start to opt for these instead of the pill
• Another message the FPA wants to publicise is the danger of excessive alcohol consumption, which is often linked to sexual risk taking.