PSHE law could have been passed

The government needlessly dropped legislation to make personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE) statutory, after neglecting to consult the Liberal Democrats, a senior politician has claimed.

Baroness Walmsley, Liberal Democrat spokeswoman for children and families in the House of Lords, told CYP Now that her party would have supported Labour's attempts to make PSHE statutory.

Together, the two parties could have overruled the Conservatives' objections to the legislation, which formed part of the Children, Schools and Families Bill.

But, in a rush to push the bill through before Parliament dissolved last week, government caved in to pressure to drop the plans.

"The sad thing is that the government was committed to it," Walmsley explained. "But the Conservatives got them to drop it."

Walmsley warned that children will suffer without access to PSHE: "This is life-saving and life-enhancing information."

Lucie Russell, director of campaigns at mental health charity YoungMinds, said young people would be at risk of mental health problems without statutory PSHE: "Some schools will do it well, some won't."

Simon Blake, national director at sexual health charity Brook, said the removal of the PSHE clause leaves young people with no guarantee of support on sex and relationship issues. "Another generation of children will experience the shame, fear and embarrassment that we see at Brook clinics every day," he said.

Julie Bentley, chief executive of sexual health charity FPA, added: "Young people are allowed to be sexually active at 16, they need to learn about how to keep safe in advance of that."

Dr Jenny McWhirter, risk education adviser at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said injury prevention is key to PSHE. Accidents lead to the deaths of a third of young people who die in the UK annually.

Children's Secretary Ed Balls pledged to make PSHE statutory in the first session of the next Parliament if Labour is re-elected. He told shadow children's secretary Michael Gove: "This is a very significant setback."

THE CHILDREN, SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES BILL

What got washed up...

• Pupil and parent guarantees and parental satisfaction surveys
• One-to-one tuition for pupils who fall behind
• The school report card
• Home-school agreements
• Primary curriculum reforms
• Statutory personal, social, health and economic education
• Licence to practise for teachers
• Registration scheme for home educators
• Enhanced role for school improvement partners
• Further powers for the Secretary of State to intervene in failing schools or youth offending teams

And what got through...

• Media access to the family courts
• Strengthened local safeguarding children boards and serious case reviews
• Duty on Ofsted to inspect schools on special educational needs (SEN) provision
• Right for parents to appeal if their child's SEN statement is not amended annually and strengthened role for the Local Government Ombudsman
• Duty on councils to provide full-time alternative education for pupils not in mainstream school
• Powers for school governing bodies to determine how they use budgets and to set up new schools and academies