Call for RSHE reforms to be abandoned

Dozens of organisations – working across education, safeguarding, mental health, child sexual abuse, online safety, violence against women and girls and LGBT+ inclusion  - have called on the new government to abandon the draft relationships and sex education (RSHE) guidance it has inherited from the previous administration. The then Conservative government launched a consultation in May on planned updates to the statutory guidance – the consultation ran until 11 July. The updates included age limits on ‘sensitive’ topics, as well as directing schools not to teach about ‘gender identity’. Parents and guardians would also have the right to see the RSHE resources being used to teach their children. However, in a joint position statement the more than 100 organisations say the updated guidance ‘falls short of what is required to help keep children safe, healthy and prepared for modern life’.

Signatories include the NSPCC, Barnardo’s, and Girlguiding UK, as well as the ASCL, NAHT and NEU education unions. Stonewall, Mencap and the Internet Watch Foundation have also signed. They say that the age restrictions and topic bans proposed in the draft guidance ‘pose a threat to the preventative role of RSHE, limiting the prevention of harm in relation to issues including sexual health, violence against women and girls, mental health, safeguarding from sexual abuse, inclusion and tackling current and emerging threats like online misogyny’. They also note that the consultation period, which lasted just eight weeks, coincided with the general election campaign. One consequence of this was that planned stakeholder engagement by the DfE was not able to go ahead due to ‘purdah’ rules in the pre-election period.

The signatories are calling for the draft guidance to be discarded and the process begun again, ‘focusing on the needs of children and young people and supporting teachers to deliver a high-quality, inclusive curriculum.’ They want future updates to RSHE to be ‘evidence-based’, ‘transparent’ and ‘representative’.

Lynn Perry, chief executive of Barnardo’s commented: ‘We strongly urge the new government to discard the draft RSHE guidance. Children have the right to high quality, inclusive and age appropriate RSHE and the draft guidance would not deliver this. Introducing age limits to RSHE topics risks children missing out on crucial teaching about abuse and exploitation.’

Andrea Simon, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, another signatory to the statement, said ‘Quality RSHE, based on consent and equality, is absolutely critical for preventing violence against women and girls (VAWG). If our new government seeks to deliver on their mission to halve VAWG, it is essential that they scrap the existing draft RSHE guidance which would put children and young people at greater risk.’ 

The joint position statement and a full list of signatories is available here: https://rshe.uk/