Why are we still ‘defending’ RSE in 2023?

Lisa Hallgarten, Brook’s Head of Policy and Public Affairs, reminds us that the only people we should be listening to when it comes to RSE, are our young people. 

Alongside the Sex Education Forum and experts across education and health, we have lobbied for comprehensive, evidence-based sex education for decades.

In 2017, in response to calls from five select committees. MPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of making RSE mandatory in every school. We all celebrated.

Now we could stop putting our energy into arguing about whether and why it should happen and start putting our energy into how it should be delivered.

The focus could move to content, quality and consistency: ensuring that every child and young person in every school has the opportunity to participate in interesting, relevant, developmentally appropriate RSE lessons.

In good faith, the Department for Education set about convening a number of expert round table events bringing together teachers, school leaders, faith groups, RSE, health and education experts, to inform the statutory RSE guidance.

The guidance was published in 2019. Imperfect and incomplete in many ways, it was trying to achieve some complex compromises: emphasising the need for universal provision while providing caveats and opt outs to please some faith groups and more conservative audiences; encouraging a comprehensive curriculum while being non-prescriptive about the precise when and how of RSE delivery. It was a start. Something that the legislation committed government to reviewing and updating every three years.

The roll out has been shaky.

Most schools have approached it with enthusiasm tempered by real word issues, lack of curriculum time, lack of knowledge and expertise, and insufficient budget to invest in the kind of training and specialist support that teachers want and need. The RSE curriculum goes way beyond the imparting of biological facts. Teachers must deal with complex concepts, difficult conversations and contested ideas. They are constantly mindful of their public sector equality duties and the overarching priority of safeguarding.

Relationships, Sex and Health Education (the broader curriculum) is expected to prevent and mitigate many harms experienced in young people’s lives. From sexual abuse and exploitation to extreme porn, misogyny, different forms of discrimination, coercive relationships, mental health issues & much more.

Historically, support for RSE has increased in the context of a specific public health or social crisis such as HIV in the 80s, teenage pregnancy in the 2000s, sexual bullying and harassment in the 2010s. In 2023, we’re responding to the radicalisation of young men by misogynist influencers and MPs are discussing the inclusion of suicide prevention in the curriculum.

Of course, RSHE alone is not a silver bullet either against the long-standing structural & cultural issues like sexual violence or newer technology-facilitated issues. But it has a vital role in giving young people some of the knowledge, skills & resilience they need to manage risks, manage their own feelings and behaviours, to stay safe and to build positive healthy relationships.

Young people are articulate about what they need.

Their testimony contradicts the idea that they want or expect their parents to be the sole (or for some young people any) source of useful knowledge or support around sex and relationships. We know from developing this RSE manifesto with young people, that they want comprehensive RSE at school, that is taught by qualified teachers and involves them in lessons.

RSE can provide young people (and support their parents) with the information they want and need in a way that is timely, developmentally appropriate and caring: rooted in important values of self and mutual respect, kindness, equality and empathy.

We can teach them the critical thinking skills, self-reflection, vocabulary and confidence that will help them navigate the world they live in.

Last year, Brook supported more than 100,000 young people through its education work. This week, anti-RSE lobbyists have made claims about what is happening in the classroom that we simply don’t recognise. Quotes taken out of context from RSE resources aimed at adults not children, have ignited a moral panic lit by those with an agenda.

Our RSE experts are in classrooms with young people who have endless questions about their relationships, their bodies, and about the types of sex they are seeing and hearing about online or through friends. Young people want honest answers and RSE provides an opportunity to respond in safe, age-appropriate and sensitive ways, emphasising the importance of consent at every turn.

Without a safe space to ask questions, they will turn to the wild west of the internet, which is rife with misinformation and graphic, often dangerous content.

This wave of anti-RSE activity will pass – as all others have – but it is distracting and has halted progress at a time when young people need us the most. We are still failing every young person who leaves school without the knowledge, tools and skills they need as they transition into adulthood.

In 2017 young people told us,

We need RSE that makes sense of the real issues we face, and it needs to be adapted if those needs change.

Those needs are changing rapidly. The DfE review of RSE guidance must be about children not politics. It must centre young people’s voices. They are the experts in the challenges they face and the education they need.