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Launch of the Brook 100 Club
On Thursday Brook launched the Brook 100 Club, a major donor fundraising programme in the run up to our 50th Anniversary. The Brook 100 Club is for individuals who commit to donating or fundraising £1000 for Brook and we aim to have 100 members each year. The funds raised will be used to achieve three promises;to provide sexual health and relationship information in innovative and creative ways
to identify excellent projects being carried out in local areas such as the sexual bullying project and training up staff across Brook to replicate them quickly across the country
to campaign fearlessly for improved sexual health with young people at the heart of all campaigns
The event was great fun and was hosted by Sam Roddick, creator and owner at Coco De Mer (www.coco-de-mer.com). In the introductory speeches Sam told guests of how she has been inspired from the Brook v talent volunteers - by their energy, insightfulness and passion. She reminded guests of the importance of listening to and learning from young people and supporting Brook's work because it reduces pain and increases confidence and pleasure.
Alaina one of Brook's full time young volunteers told guests that we must do more to provide information and education to young people at a younger age, at the time that is right and in ways that meet their needs. In my remarks I asked people to join Brook in changing our ridiculous culture towards sex and sexuality and that we need to brave and bold in saying enough is enough - we cannot allow another generation of young people to grow up without accurate information and a positive culture which says sex must always be consensual, based on respect and communication and between people who are able to both enjoy and take responsibility for it. The time for change is now. If you want to help us in achieving long term cultural change do find out more about or become a member of the Brook 100 Club.
If you want to become a member of the Brook 100 Club please email emily.haynes@brook.org.uk to find out more - you can also go onto our just giving site www.justgiving.com/Brook-100-Club to donate to Brook. You can also fundraise to help achieve our goal of enabling young people to enjoy their sexuality without harm. Contact Emily if you want to find out more (emily.haynes@brook.org.uk).
Brook Awards
Last night we held our third annual awards dinner to celebrate the outstanding work young people and professionals are doing to improve the lives of young people all over the UK. This took place after our conference which focused on gender.All the shortlisted nominees deserve the recognition, congratulation, applause and cheers they received last night, and special congratulations to the winners. The award winners are:
•UK sexual health professional of the year – Gail McVicar, Swindon Borough Council
•UK sexual health project of the year – In Touch, Leonard Cheshire Disability
•Young person of the year – James Langley, Terrence Higgins Trust Young Leaders programme
•Brook employee of the year – Arlene McLaren, Brook Northern Ireland
•Brook innovation of the year – Brook Blackburn with Darwen, Engage Project. This award was voted for on the night.
Thank you to Carrie Quinlan for hosting the evening, Tracey Cox, Jasmine Lowson, Zoe Margolis and Matt Rawle, our Brook ambassadors for presenting the awards and contributing so brilliantly to the evening. Also thank you to Lizzie Emeh who performed tracks from her fantastic new album, Loud and Proud.
I was delighted to see such a high standard of nominations showing the fantastic work that people are doing for young people all over the country every day.
The judging panel also included many key figures working in sexual health as well as young people and I would like to thank all those involved.
And thank you to my team and the conference organisers, NSA, who made the event run smoothly - you were brilliant. Final thank you to our sponsors and supporters.
Statutory PSHE Education
Children and young people want it, most parents want it and in October 2008 at long last this government showed leadership on it by announcing the intention to make Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education statutory. For many of us campaigning with and for children and young people this signalled the end of an era. The door was open. It was going to happen. Albeit slightly slower than expected. And as we gallop towards a general election with a short parliamentary session, I believe the door is still open.Has the amendment laid down by Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, that provides school with right to teach PSHE Education in line with their religious character really provided an opt out for faith schools?
Was the amendment necessary? Not in my view. Is the amendment devastating? Probably not as long as schools know what they must deliver. Will it reassure some? Probably.
It is always important to know what you are arguing about. It seems to me that PSHE Education is becoming a battleground for age old arguments about state aided 'faith based schools'. Regardless of the school, PSHE Education has to be as good as it can be, and that is what this legislation must seek to ensure.
Legislating for Statutory PSHE Education is morally and socially right. It should have happened at least five years ago and must get through now. If it gets through, it will bring about systemic change and real, lasting benefit to children and young people in line with the Every Child Matters agenda. Let's keep our eyes and our minds on the big prize, statutory PSHE that will help drive standards up. This legislation, with all its limitations is worth our support.
'Mis-selling sex': calling for collaboration between broadcasters, producers and organisations like Brook
Soap operas have long been the stimulus for family conversations about sex and sexuality and bringing socially taboo issues onto our screens and into our homes. If you just think about Eastenders over the years, I can remember Michelle's teenage pregnancy, Tony and Simon's teenage kiss and more recently Peter and Lauren in EastEnders talking about sex responsibly, getting condoms and then deciding to wait.Brook has been working with DH and DCSF following some research called Mis selling sex which analysed the sexual content of TV programmes, and showed that of all the sexual content on the programmes audited, only 7% had safer sex messages.
First and foremost of course TV is about entertainment it is also the place that over 40% of young people say they get information about sex and relationships. At Brook we have direct contact with over 1500 young people every day. We know the power of TV in generating discussion amongst peers, and we believe more can be done to include 'reference to contraception and condoms to build on the excellent 'sex' story lines that already exist.
This is absolutely not about wanting regulation or guidance. It is about voluntary collaboration between TV broadcasters and producers and organisations like Brook who can provide information, advice and support so the stories are realistic and factually accurate - we know when it works it can be incredibly powerful and I am looking forward to the discussions with broadcasters and producers in the coming weeks.
Wow!
Over the last fifteen years or so I have seen some pretty grim use of statistics and reporting about sex and relationships education, the age of consent, youth sexuality and sexual health services. But over the past couple of days even I have said Wow this reporting of teenage pregnancy and the blatant use of shock tactics to overstate the problem of teenage pregnancy in this country is grim.The government released, to The Sun, following an Freedom Of Information request, figures about the rates of pregnancy amongst 10-15 year olds between 2000 and 2007. The resulting headline focussed on the youngest children about whom data was released. Leaving aside for a minute the fact that the figures were mangled and presented an extremely inaccurate picture, I ask you to consider what anyone could hope to gain from a story about pregnant 10 year olds.
Of course it is not acceptable that even a single 10 year old has ever become pregnant. No sensible child, young person or adult wants that. It is particularly terrible because we are not talking about teenage pregnancy, ‘over sexualised’ children, or any other ‘Broken Britain’ indicator. We are talking about children who have been abused.
The abuse of children has been used to score a cheap point about teenage pregnancy rates and the government policy on teenage pregnancy. And be in no doubt that some journalists want to track down some of these children. Brook’s press office received calls yesterday asking our help in providing ‘case studies’ of pregnant 10 year olds.
This deliberate misrepresentation of facts, the sensationalising of the impact of sex and relationships education and misreporting of the truth about teenage pregnancy creates fear and misunderstanding that permeates throughout society and fails to protect children and young people. Brook carried out some research last year which showed that 95% of us seriously overestimate the numbers of young people who become pregnant. Small wonder, when some part of the media continue to insist on inaccurate scaremongering fronted as public interest journalism.
And for the record, most young people under the age of 16 do not have sex and our teenage conception rates have, overall, decreased by 10.5% since 1998. Higher numbers of young people having an abortion if they get pregnant, which means that overall we have about a 24% reduction in teenage births in England.
We need to build on this success and ensure that young people are only having sex when they are able to consent, enjoy and take responsibility for it, and we need to ensure that young people are able to use contraceptive services and contraception effectively when they do have sex.
Brook's conference on March 4th
See the trailer for Brook's conference Boygirlmanwoman by clicking here http://www.youtube.com/user/BrookYP1964
Brook in Milton Keynes is 20 years old
Today was a very proud day for Brook. The Brook service in Milton Keynes was 20 years old and today they opened new premises. As I arrived for the launch, my first thought was wow - it was a bright entrance and Brook's logo proudly across the entrance. The building is not on the high street, and it is not down a back alley either. It seemed to be just the right balance - absolutely clear to young people that we respect their desire for somewhere discreet AND that sex is not something dirty and round the back, and sexual health services are there as an important part of the community.I was asked to speak at the launch and as I was preparing to do so, I was remembering my early experiences of Brook at Milton Keynes over the last ten or fifteen years. My first was meeting one of Milton Keynes' earliest staff Sue on a training course when I had just started working with young people in sexual health. I had never heard anyone talk so passionately, fondly and warmly about young people before. I remember it now so clearly. It made a real impact. And it is what i have learnt over the past three years makes Brook people special in my eyes, and more importantly in the eyes of the hundreds of young people who trust Brook staff day in day out to help them, advise them and support them. The magic ingredient is genuine care.
Then as assessor for Milton Keynes Healthy Schools Programme I saw tremendous partnership working between Brook, Relate and Healthy Schools to get sex and relationships education on the agenda in schools. Respectful partnership working using the skills of the different partners to best effect. And then between appointment and start date I met my Chair for champagne (and lunch). He told me I needed to talk to Jackie because she was running an excellent service, and i needed to visit Brook in Milton Keynes because they had a model that was replicable and needed replicating. Lots. And over the last three and a half years I have seen excellent replicable work being done with boys, in c card scheme, in schools and healthy schools, in colleges, with the chlamydia screening programme and much much more within Milton Keynes. And as evidence of that brilliance, there were so many people from MK at the launch today, partners, stakeholders and supporters from both the statutory and voluntary sector. And over the last two years Brook in Milton Keynes has become Brook East of England as they have won contracts and set up services in Luton and Bedfordshire.
Back to the building, one of the things that really bothers me about many health service buildings is they are a bit dank and dingy, and in need of a bit of health promotion themselves. And in an increasingly consumerist society where you go to shops and get an experience rather than just a clothes rail, we need to make sure that health levels up to fashion or the best computer game store, otherwise we send a message, that four stripes on your shoe, or getting the new X box is more valuable than health, and that to me is a wrong message to give. And it is a message that this building, 624 South Fifth Street certainly isn't going to give young people.
As I said in my speech at the launch, I have no idea exactly who the people were involved in making this building happen, but it was a 7 year journey to get to there, and on behalf of all the young people who have used and will continue to use Brook's services in Milton Keynes thank you to each and every one of them.
Sexual violence, trafficking and rape
I have just watched some of Stag Weekends: the Dirty Secrets and if you didn't catch it I recommend watching it on BBC iPlayer. I thought Simon Boazman, the journalist investigating did a really good job - he remained calm, compassionate and clear, as well as fantastically human - as he interviewed a range of people including a woman who had been trafficked and forced into the sex trade, and a pimp. Uncomfortable viewing, but not something any of us can afford to stick our heads in the sand about.
The challenge for many of us is recognising this goes on, and not thinking about exploitation and trafficking as something that happens to others. Sexual exploitation is real in the UK. Each year far too many girls and boys are sexually exploited and forced into prostitution. Today Brook ran a training course for professionals called TEASE - telling everyone about sexual exploitation - based on the brilliant work done by Brook in Blackburn to address sexual exploitation.
Several years ago, Barnardos produced a pack for working with young people about sexual exploitation called 'things we don't talk about'. Today on the tube I noticed a new campaign from the NHS The Havens about rape. The advert pictures a young woman wearing a t-shirt saying wake up to rape and then the text - Michelle tells her friends everything, but explaining to them that she was raped isn't something she feels comfortable about.
For far too long, we have stuck our collective head in the sand about sexual violence. Thankfully programmes like this, done well, start the conversations.
Rhiannon Holder gets MBE
Rhiannon Holder got a well deserved MBE in the Queens New Years Honours list. Rhiannon is a young woman aged 22 who works for Brook in Bristol, and until recently worked with me as a member of the Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy.Her MBE was awarded for services to young people's healthcare. I am delighted that her work has been recognised for a number of reasons;
1) because Rhiannon really deserved it - she is talented, inspired and inspiring and shows exceptional compassion, wisdom and tells it as it is, nicely.
2) because it is great that the issue of young people's healthcare is recognised as important in this way
3) because it is absolutely right that young people should be honoured. Too often honours are awarded when many many years of service have been accumulated. And whilst this is right to a point, rewarding young people who have shown exceptional talent and motivation relatively early in their career can inspire them and others around them to become even more brilliant, and become the next generation of innovators, leaders and changemakers.
Well done Rhiannon. It is January, so detox for me at the moment, but I will raise my fizzy water for you tonight.
Festive fun
With Christmas and New Year approaching it is a time for parties and celebrating, and a time when many of us will be drinking more than usual.Many adults and young people will be celebrating and as professionals we have a job to make sure that young people are prepared and safe. Each year in December and January there is a peak in the teenage conception rates and research has shown that young people are more likely to regret having sex and less likely to use contraception if they have been drinking.
People drink for many different reasons but alcohol reduces our ability to think clearly so when people drink too much, they are more likely to take risks. We can do well to learn from Australian colleagues who really emphasise safety and the important role of helping to keep friends safe by thinking ahead about contraception, knowing limits when it comes to alcohol, not leaving drinks unattended, looking after friends, making decisions and talking to partners about boundaries before drinking, knowing how you will get home and who to call for help if things go wrong.
Brook's Have fun. Be careful campaign reminds young people that if they are going to have sex to always make sure they use a condom to protect against boths STIs and unplanned pregnancy.
As well as a mistletoe and 2010 version of the Have fun. Be careful poster, Brook has also produced and alcohol themed poster, alcohol themed fortune teller and 'Christmas cracker' postcard. We have also just launched a new booklet as part of our 'Ask Brook' range, Ask Brook about sex and alcohol. All of these are available to order by contacting 0870 750 3082 or by emailing publications@brook.org.uk.
It is also imporatant to remember over the festive season that sexual health centres and clinics may not be open at their usual times yet many young people phone us surpirsed that the service is closed - do what you can to alert young people to any changes in service provision over Christmas and New Year.
HIV and stigma
Last week was World AIDS Day, and you could be forgiven for missing it if you blinked. Discussing this with colleagues and friends, there were a range of views on this from ‘well it is not such a threat anymore and so of course it will be lower profile’ to ‘this is seriously worrying – the press don’t report it as they did, people don’t wear red ribbons and it is an opportunity missed’.For many of course, the day will not have gone by unnoticed, as they remember the long list of friends, lovers and family members who have died from AIDS related illnesses over the last twenty years. And for some, diagnosed with HIV in a different era when diagnosis equalled imminent death the day is a reminder of how advances in treatment have changed their future and life expectancy radically.
So whatever our views on the importance of a high profile World AIDS Day, the stark and unpleasant fact remains, stigma towards people living with and affected by HIV is a significant reality. According to new research funded by the Department for International Development and the Internal Planned Parenthood Federation stigma in Britain is worse now than it was a decade ago. Shocking findings if you expect more from the people of this country.
So as official figures showed the number of people living with HIV in the UK has reached 83,000, an 8% increase on the previous year, with approximately a quarter of those people unaware they have HIV, this is not the time for complacency.
I support calls for a cross government action plan to tackle discrimination, and I completely agree with David Borrow MP, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on AIDS, that the ‘public sector has a special responsibility to treat everyone it serves with respect’. We must continue to raise awareness of HIV in schools and communities and whilst we wait for government’s action plan, and even when we get it, we must all take personal responsibility for educating against ignorance and challenging robustly the unacceptable stigma towards people living with HIV.
New campaign to promote open conversation about sex
Today the Department of Health and Department for Children, Schools and Families has launched the first phase of their Sex: worth talking about campaign in England.The first phase focuses on contraception and is called contraception: worth talking about.
I am pleased that this campaign has been launched. We know that many many young people still do not know everything they need to about contraception, and time and again they tell us that adults do not talk openly and confidently about sex.
High profile campaigns can help change the way we understand things. The fact this campaign has been launched marks a shift in our attitudes towards young people, sex and contraception. The fact that it starts from a positive position of encouraging open communication marks it out from sexual health campaigns that have gone before it which have generally focused on some of the negative consequences of having sex such as sexually transmitted infections.
Lets hope its positive and slightly different approach will resonate with young people and get them talking.
To find out more about the campaign visit www.nhs.uk/sexualhealthprofessional
Brook has a new website
The Brook team has worked fantastically hard to update, extend and develop our website (www.brook.org.uk).
Young people have helped with both the design and content of the site and we are confident that it will really meet the needs of both young people and professionals - feedback from young people and professionals so far tells us we have got it right.
Take a look - there is a section on the website for feedback - please let us know what you think.
Publications
Our new range of Ask Brook publications
Most Recent
Abortion
This section provides information on the abortion laws in England, Wales and Scotland, Northern...
Emergency contraception
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Confidentiality - other professionals
The revised version of Working Together to Safeguard Children from Harm (DfES 2006) provides...
Confidentiality - health professionals
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Consent to medical treatment
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Editors Picks
Facts and figures
In our facts and figures section you will find all the latest stats on young people and sexual...
Campaigns
Brook has a history of creative, innovative campaigns about sexual health for young people. You can...
Have Fun Be Careful
Have fun be careful is our latest campaign for young people. The next burst of activity will be in...
Conference & Awards
More information here about this year's conference - with the theme of gender - and the Brook...
Confidentiality - health professionals
The professional codes of practice of doctors, nurses and other health professionals place a duty...