Campaigners and teachers' leaders call for mandatory sex education

The education select committee called for evidence in April in response to concerns raised by sexual health experts and Ofsted, deciding it was time to investigate how and where SRE is being taught and what improvements might need to be made.

A report detailing the committee's findings is not expected to be published until later in the year, but key sexual health organisations are calling for SRE to be made an entitlement of statutory personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE) in all schools.

SRE is compulsory in all local authority-run secondary schools, but not primary schools, academies or free schools. Academies and free schools must give "due regard" to the Department for Education's 2000 guidance - the most recent - but whether it is taught is at the discretion of head teachers.

The National Children's Bureau's Sex Education Forum has called for a guarantee of high-quality SRE as part of PSHE for every pupil in every school. This was on the back of research that showed 68 per cent of teachers said they needed more training to be able to teach good quality SRE.

Lucy Emmerson, co-ordinator of the Forum, says it is vital that steps are taken to improve the quality and quantity of SRE.

"There are still problems about schools not providing enough time to teach SRE. We know that the quality of SRE in schools is very variable and we've seen this from lots of sources," she says.

"Ofsted picked up on things like children in some primary schools weren't taught correct names for sexual parts of the body, meaning they didn't have the right language to get help if they needed it for safeguarding."

Emmerson says a lack of government leadership has seen SRE "stagnate" and that this is unlikely to change until there is new legislation.

"We need that change in legislation to make it statutory for all schools – that would enable it to be taught the same way as other subjects, for teachers to be specially trained as you would expect in other subjects and for SRE to be properly timetabled."

Similarly, Brook, which worked with the Sex Education Forum and the PSHE Association to develop supplementary guidance in March to support the DfE's 2000 guidance, is campaigning for greater weight to be given to the subject.

"Campaigning for comprehensive, age appropriate statutory SRE is one of Brook's top priorities," says Jules Hillier, the charity's deputy chief executive.

"At the moment, many young people simply aren't getting the SRE they need and deserve, and are being let down as a result – which can have serious knock-on effects for their sexual health as well as their emotional wellbeing."

She added: "Because it is not compulsory for all schools to deliver a full programme of SRE, it tends to be delivered by teachers for whom it is not a speciality."

Hillier warns that teachers are often intimidated by the sensitive nature of SRE, and says all teachers should be given adequate training to ensure their confidence.

Joe Hayman, chief executive of the PSHE Association, said SRE – as part of PSHE – should be a mandatory entitlement for all pupils and that the Ofsted school inspection framework should place greater emphasis on the pupil outcomes PSHE education seeks to achieve.

"This would have significant knock-on impacts for teacher training and curriculum time afforded to the subject," he says.

Sion Humphreys, policy adviser at the National Association of Head Teachers, says there is a strong argument for making SRE statutory in all schools along with PSHE as it would convey "the notion that this aspect of education is an entitlement and is vital for a successful transition from childhood to adulthood".

But he would prefer the subject to be taught under the name "relationships and sex education" (RSE) due to the "strong implicit message about priorities" conveyed by the current title.

"We prefer RSE rather than SRE, which gives the impression that sex comes first and then the relationship – it might be the case in the real world, but it's not the moral issue we're trying to get across."