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Conservative conference: Specialist charities 'should teach sex education' in schools

1 min read Education Health
Sex education in schools could be taught by advisors from specialist charities such as Brook, shadow children's minister Tim Loughton has said.

Loughton told delegates at a fringe meeting at the Conservative party conference it was important that personal, social and health education (PSHE) became part of the national curriculum as current teaching was a "postcode lottery".

"Clearly what needs to be done is to have a trained pool of specialists, probably not teachers, maybe outside organisations such as Brook, to give more sensitive and sensible messages to young people," he said.

Through specially trained doctors, nurses, counsellors and outreach and information workers, Brook currently provides information to around 200,000 young people each year.

Loughton added that other organisations outside education needed to take responsibility on the issue, highlighting a lack of advice in the media, particularly for boys and young men.

"I spent half a day at a girls' magazine and saw the hugely challenging problems children are writing in with to the problem page and the big role that form of media plays," Loughton said. "There is not an equivalent for teenage boys. Zoo and Nuts are about fast cars and fast women rather than sensible advice. We need to think about how to get the right message across to teenage boys."

Sex education is set to become part of the National Curriculum from September 2011.

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