Help schools tackle violence against women and girls - report
One in eight secondary school teachers report that a child in their school committed sexual assault against another pupil in the past term, according to new research from a youth charity. The Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) is calling for every secondary school, college and secondary alternative provision setting in England and Wales to have a dedicated lead to prevent violence against women and girls (VAWG).
That recommendation is from the YEF’s new Education Policy, Children and Violence report. The YEF, which was established with an endowment from the Home Office, commissioned a TeacherTapp survey of 4,717 secondary school teachers in England for the report. They found that, as well as 13 per cent reporting that a child sexually assaulted another child in the past term, teachers said they lack training and support to tackle relationship violence. Over half (55 per cent) of secondary teachers cite a lack of confidence or expertise as the main barrier to delivering PSHE (personal, social health and economic education) and RSHE (relationships, sex and health education) lessons, while 31 per cent of secondary teachers who teach RSHE and PSHE have never received training to teach these subjects. Meanwhile 27 per cent don’t feel confident teaching students how to leave unhealthy relationships, and nearly half (45 per cent) lack confidence in teaching pupils how to intervene if they witness a sexual assault.
Lucy Emmerson, chief executive of the Sex Education Forum, a charity that works to ensure that all young people can get high-quality RSHE said its own separate research found that only 50 per cent of young people said their RSHE lessons were good or very good, despite recent improvements in the curriculum. Ms Emmerson explained: ‘We’re finding that some topics like puberty are covered really well, young people say it’s done really well, and to some extent topics like consent. But topics like pornography and power imbalances in relationships, these are the kind of topics that young people very often say are inadequately covered or not covered at all.’
To improve RSHE and help schools prevent relationship violence, YEF is calling for the government to invest £1 million to pilot a VAWG Lead training grant across 50 schools, colleges and alternative provision settings. Modelled on existing grants for school Mental Health Leads, this initiative would fund the appointment and training of VAWG Leads to develop school-wide strategies, improve RSHE lessons, bring in specialist external providers and train other staff members. They would then be looking for the government to invest £35million in England and £2m in Wales to scale up the initiative if shown to be successful. A scaled up programme could reach all secondary schools and colleges, and 500 AP settings in England, in addition to all secondary schools, colleges and pupil referral units in Wales, the YEF says.
Jon Yates, CEO of the YEF commented: ‘Over the past decade, schools have led the charge in breaking down the stigma around mental health and providing crucial support for young people. With the right resources, training and leadership, they can have a similar transformative impact in tackling violence against women and girls.’
The previous Conservative government produced draft sex education guidance last year. The Department for Education is currently reviewing that guidance, which recommended that pupils should not be taught about sexual violence, sexual acts, domestic violence or intimate sexual relationships in ‘any sexually explicit way’ until Year 9.
A government spokesperson said: ‘All sexual abuse is abhorrent, and this Government is determined to root it out as part of our mission to halve violence against women and girls through our Plan for Change. We have robust statutory safeguarding guidance in place that schools must follow to keep children safe from abuse and harassment, and our behaviour guidance is clear sexually abusive language or behaviour are never acceptable. Through our review of the relationships, sex and health curriculum we will ensure children are learning the skills they need to build positive, healthy relationships.’
Full report: https://tinyurl.com/hbyveu43