Parents and Carers supporting Parents and Carers: An RSE resource to empower and build confidence 

In 2024, Brook’s first ever Parent and Carer Participation Advisory Group formed and they instantly found their mission: to help other parents and carers feel confident in talking to their own children about changing bodies, feelings and puberty. Here they share how they did it.

When you become a parent you receive endless advice from family, friends, the media, even politicians, about how you should be a parent. That is until it comes to talking to kids about sex. At this point you’re left to figure it out alone and are met with silence when you seek support. It leaves you drawing a blank and looking back to what you were taught as a child as a place to start. 

But many of us don’t want to repeat the cycles of advice from our youth where we received limited sex education at school (if any) to gendered stereotypes and shame or cringe inducing talks. Which is why our aim for the Parents and Carers Participation Advisory Group (PAG) at Brook was to help create a starting point for parents. 

As the very first parents and carers group, our passion was always going to focus on supporting other parents and carers, especially with the topic of Relationships and Sex Education (RSE). When we first met, we realised we were a mixed group with a variety of backgrounds and some of us also had experience of working with young people which was going to be a real bonus for our project! During our discussions we bonded over our awareness of the barriers parents and carers can face when talking to their children about body parts, puberty, relationships, sexual health and wellbeing. 

Most of us had personal experience of these barriers but we had also all had conversations with other parents and carers who felt the same way.  

Through our group discussions it became apparent that we really wanted to help reduce any shame and embarrassment for parents, carers and children when having conversations about sex and relationships. We wanted to help make these conversations positive and empowering for children and young people. Studies have shown that this type of conversation not only leads to more informed sexual health choices, but that young people really want to have these helpful conversations too! 

Talking to children about their changing bodies and feelings 

There were many routes we could have gone down when identifying how we could support other parents and carers but some of us had seen Brook’s live lessons like the Big RSE lesson which inspired us to think about producing a live webinar for parents and carers.  

Over a few sessions, we chose our core audience which was parents and carers of primary school aged children, focusing on how they could talk to their own children about body parts, puberty and sex in a positive and age-appropriate way.  

We wanted to encourage parents and carers to start these discussions early (and not blame or shame them if they hadn’t!)  

So we landed on 4 – 11 years olds. The hope was that if parents and carers feel confident and can set the right tone from early on, this will make it easier to tackle some of the more complicated conversations about sex and relationships as their children grow up. 

‘Talking to children about their changing bodies and feelings’ is a webinar that explores how to talk to children in a positive way about body parts, and how to approach some of those potentially awkward questions about bodies and sex that often pop up when least expected. It was initially delivered as a live interactive webinar using polls and quizzes to engage the audience and included some scenarios which explore how parents and carers can manage their own feelings in these potentially challenging moments. What we wanted to highlight throughout was the importance of really listening to your child, checking in with their understanding and giving them honest and age-appropriate answers so they feel supported and able to ask more if they want to in that moment, or any time long after.  

The webinar went live in March 2026 with over 60 parents and carers switching on to watch nationwide! Now the webinar sits proudly on the parent and carers section of the Brook website for any parent or carer to watch and revisit. 

Impact and legacy 

For many children, home is the first point of information, but their safe adult may not feel equipped to deal with these conversations. Many of us in the group didn’t have them with our own parents but felt it would have been helpful if we had. Our webinar helps them to know how to talk, what to say and when to say it. It opens the door to conversations between parents and children but also empowers parents and carers to talk about relationships and sex themselves.  

We hope that the webinar acts as a key to that door that needs unlocking, to allow themselves to start building confidence in talking about sex and relationships without shame and without judgement. 

“[It was great to] contribute to something that is meaningful and needed ‘ongoing moment’ where somewhere, even if it’s two years down the line, can help change someone’s direction or be important information to help someone make a safe decision.” Ella, Parent and Carer PAG member 

“The highlight was seeing all that work come together – it is a tangible legacy that can be viewed in the future and involved lots of lovely people!” Julia, Parent and Carer PAG member 

“Being part of a PAG has been an incredible experience. Working collaboratively with a group, each one of us different but united by the hopes for the end project. It is so difficult as parents to find time for all the additionals but this one has been so rewarding! Brook enriches my life as a woman, Mum, friend, partner and educator. Additionally, now as a PAG member – I count myself as very lucky.” Debbie, Parent and Carer PAG member 

Whilst the webinar took up a lot of our focus it’s been great to be part of a group of amazing parents and carers with the common motivation to talk about sexual health and relationships. Ella added “With busy lives, the whole process could have weighed a lot heavier on the PAG members, but Brook was true to its word, managed expectations and did what they said they would do without making members feel bad if they couldn’t contribute at certain points”.