Schools should be providing all young people with a curriculum that equips them for success in adult life. Part of that responsibility is to ensure they have access to relevant, factually accurate and age-appropriate PSHE and RSE.
The Secretary of State is personally committed to ensuring that progress in improving the availability and quality of PSHE and RSE is made a priority. The Government has introduced new clauses to the Children and Social Work Bill at Committee Stage which would require regulations to be made to require all secondary schools in England to teach relationships and sex education (RSE) and would introduce a new subject, ‘relationships education’ to be taught in all primary schools. Renaming the secondary school subject ‘relationships and sex education’ places emphasis on the intrinsic importance of healthy relationships and would deliver sex education within this context. The focus of relationships education in primary schools will be on building healthy relationships and staying safe.