Brook Cymru

In July this year Brook welcomed Kelly Harris, Business Development Lead / Arweinydd Datblygu Busnes, to lead the expansion of our education services in Wales.  Here Kelly shares details of the official launch event.

On 8 October I was so excited to be joined by colleagues and sector partners to celebrate the official launch of Brook Cymru. Since launching in July, the interest has been overwhelming, and the tickets to the launch event sold out within 24 hours! I was delighted to welcome a panel of fantastic key speakers, including:

• Lynne Neagle AM, National Assembly for Wales and Chair of the Children, Young People and Education Committee
• Kirsty Williams AM, Minister for Education at the Welsh Government 
• Professor Emma Renold, Cardiff University and Chair of the Expert SRE Panel for Welsh Government 

All spoke with passion about the importance of factual, informative and engaging relationship sexuality education for young people. Additionally we welcomed attendees from over 40 different organisations across Wales, from the NHS to third sector partners. 

It is a very interesting time in Wales. In 2017/18 the Welsh Government accepted the official change from sex relationship education to relationship sexuality education. Now for the first time in almost thirty years, we are introducing a completely new curriculum for children and young people aged 3-16.

The developments for this have been ongoing since 2013, but in September 2022, every school in Wales will be following the brand new curriculum, which will include mandatory Relationship Sexuality Education (RSE). 

During her brilliant speech, the Minister for Education outlined her determination to have more inclusive and robust RSE, as well as discussing the current Welsh Government consultation, which is looking at the right to withdraw.

This was followed by Brook’s Head of Education, Dougie Boyd, who clearly defined Brooks position on the right to withdraw and our belief that ALL young people have the right to information and education. This film of Dougie, produced by the Welsh Government, has been viewed over 2,500 times already and is featured in their publicity work on the consultation!

Lynne Neagle AM, Chair of the Children, Young People and Education Committee for the National Assembly for Wales, addressed attendees to highlight the importance of well taught RSE – with particular focus on mental health. The key message was that young people need to be properly educated to help them make well-informed decisions and develop healthy relationships.

Overall, it was a very successful launch event and I want to thank everyone for welcoming Brook Cymru! Diolch yn fawr! I’m really excited to see how our education offer continues to develop and how Brook can become the go-to for all things sexual health and wellbeing in Wales. 

For more information about Brook’s work in Wales please contact Kelly Harris Kelly.harris@brook.org.uk and follow Brook Cymru on Twitter