Published: 30 October 2018
This briefing has been developed to support with your submission to the RSE draft guidance consultation. It is a summary of Brook’s full response. You may choose to comment in more detail on those issues most pertinent to your organisation or of most concern to you personally.
You can view the draft statutory guidance here and you can submit your response here.
The deadline is 7 November.
We feel the overall tone of the guidance should be more forward thinking, positive and ambitious – supporting a culture in which we can make a positive difference to the sexual and reproductive health and relationships of people in this country.
Additionally:
- Children’s right to good RSE should be promoted. Currently the guidance repeatedly reinforces the rights of parents to withdraw and schools to teach in the way they want to, but not about the rights of children
- There should be an emphasis on the need for RSE topics to be ‘timely’ as RSE has often been criticised for being ‘too little and too late’
- The LGBT inclusiveness we hoped to see is compromised by caveats that position LGBT inclusive education as problematic, which is not in line with the spirit or letter of equalities legislation
- Gender and power and the role sexism plays in creating the conditions for sexual violence is missing from the guidance
- Sexual pleasure and a sex positive approach are missing from the secondary guidance
- The primary school guidance needs to clarify what constitutes sex education
- The primary school guidance is lacking in scientific knowledge of human bodies including genitalia, human life-cycle, human reproduction
- More emphasis needs to be placed on the early teaching of puberty in primary
- More emphasis should be placed on the requirement for the knowledge aspect of the curriculum to be evidence-based, for resources to be evidence-based and for teachers and young people to know reliable sources of information and support about relationships, sex, health and mental health
- More emphasis needs to be placed on critical thinking, and how to equip young people to recognise some of the harmful messages about bodies, gender roles, sex, sexuality and relationships they are exposed to in everyday life and in the media and online
You can access our full briefing document here.
For media enquiries please contact Brook's press office on 07789 682831 or email press@brook.org.uk
Notes to editors
Brook believes that young people should have access to great sexual health services and wellbeing support.
Brook provides free and confidential sexual health information, contraception, pregnancy testing, advice and counselling, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections and education programmes, reaching nearly 235,000 young people nationwide every year.
Read our Strategic Plan 2017-2020 and learn more about the difference we make in our latest Success Report.
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