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Find out about your rights around sex and relationships education, healthcare, and sexual healthcare.
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We all have rights, which are the rules about what is allowed or owed to us according to the law and to ethics. Human rights apply to all human beings. They include things like right to life, right to work and education and the right to decent living conditions.
Included in our human rights is the right to: “a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of [them]self and of [their] family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care”
Your rights under the United Nations
As a child (under age of 18), you have rights laid out under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which the UK has signed. These rights include:
Under the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, women also have the right to choose when they want to have children including being able to access information and advice about family planning and the right to make decisions around reproduction free from discrimination, coercion and violence.
Although under human rights you have the right to a certain level of healthcare, you also have more specific rights relevant in your country.
In the UK, healthcare is recognised as a basic right, according to various pieces of legislation including the NHS Constitution in England.
These pieces of legislation set out your main rights to healthcare in the UK, the main ones being:
Doctors and nurses have very strict rules on confidentiality and the law says they have to keep all patient records and information completely private. This means that your doctor or nurse can’t talk to anyone about your medical information (such as what has happened in your appointment) and this includes your parents/carers.
However, in exceptional circumstances, like when a doctor or health worker thinks you or another young person might be at risk of harm, they might feel there is a need to pass information on. If they do, they must talk to you first before they tell anyone else. This applies to everyone, no matter what age you are.
Government guidance for healthcare workers in England means that they are likely to be more worried about people under the age of 13 who are having sex or planning to have sex, and they might think it would be in the young person’s best interest to get some extra help from a social worker.
If you are worried about confidentiality you can always call a healthcare service without telling them who you are and ask them some questions, like:
Read Brook’s privacy and confidentiality policy
Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you have a legal right to see your medical records.
If you want to see your medical records, ask at your GP surgery and you can arrange a time to go in and read them. Sometimes you might be required to ask in writing. The law states that they have up to one month to respond.
Often, sexual health services will hold a separate set of health records for you that are not linked to the medical records held by your GP. If you wish to see these records, the same laws apply – you can make a request and they have up to one month to respond.
More information about seeing your medical records
Youth-Friendly services guidelines
Building upon the rights young people have around healthcare and services, the UK government has written eight standards of practice (or expectations) for health and wellbeing services. The aim of these standards is to improve young people’s experience by placing their voices at the heart of services and care.
Standards include:
You have the same rights regardless of what age you are. However, if you are under 16, your doctor or nurse will need to establish if you are mature enough to fully appreciate what’s involved in your treatment in order to consent to it. This is called ‘Gillick competency’. If they find that you are not Gillick competent then your parent/carer can consent for you if you wish to proceed with the treatment.
In all cases, the doctor or nurse is likely to encourage you to talk to your parents and carers about any treatment you would like.
If you are under 16, your doctor or nurse will need to assess how well you have understood the information, risks and benefits of the treatment and your ability to make and rationalise decisions. This is known as “Gillick competency”. If, by talking to you, the doctor or nurse finds that you are “Gillick competent”, you can receive the treatment without permission from your parents or carers, even if your parents or carers don’t want you to have the treatment.
If they assess that you aren’t “Gillick competent”, you will need permission from your parents if you want to continue with treatment.
Your understanding and ability to make decisions is assessed each time you go for treatment. It could be, then, that you’re able to get one type of treatment, for example, getting an STI test, without parental consent, but for another treatment, for example, starting a contraception method, you may need parental consent.
Whether you want someone to be able to make a decision on your behalf or not, the decision is yours. It is your right to nominate someone to make a decision on your behalf, and to not involve them if you don’t want to.
There may be situations where your doctor or nurse thinks you do not have the capacity to consent to treatment, and will require parental consent on your behalf, however it is your right not to involve your parent/carer if you don’t want to; it just means you won’t be able to access that treatment.
The only time anyone will be involved in decision making without your permission is if your doctor or nurse thinks you are at risk of harm from yourself or someone else.
Find out more about confidentiality.
When you go for a sexual health appointment of any kind, your doctor or nurse will ask you lots of questions. This is always within the scope of knowing what treatment and/or service you need, to understand your general wellbeing, and to make sure you are provided with the best care possible.
Brook services are safe, non-judgemental spaces. It’s a good idea to answer these questions as honestly as you can because this will help your doctor/nurse work out the best care for you. Your answers will always be kept completely confidential, except if you or another person are at risk of harm.
Some common questions include:
When it comes to your rights when accessing sexual healthcare, the above core rights underpin everything. You also have certain rights that are specific to sexual health.
You have the right to speak confidentially with a doctor, nurse or medical professional about contraception as well as to be provided with it.
All contraception is free on the NHS in the UK, so you don’t need to pay anything for it. You have the right to choose what type of contraception you would like to use. You also have the right to not use the contraception you are offered or recommended.
Your right to contraception is the same regardless of your age, however government guidance for health workers in England means that they are likely to be more worried about young people under 13 who are having sex or planning to have sex, and they might think it would be in the young person’s best interest to get some extra help from a social worker.
There are lots of methods of contraception to choose from and different methods suit different people.
Use our Contraception Tool to find the method best for you
If you’re in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, you are entitled to an abortion paid for by the NHS and there are a number of ways you can get one. UK citizens travelling from Northern Ireland to England for abortion can also have the procedure paid for by the NHS.
Brook doesn’t provide abortions, but we can refer you to a service which does. As with all our services and referrals, we guarantee complete confidentiality, as do all of our partners. This means that we do not talk about your visit to anyone outside Brook without your permission unless you or another person are in serious danger.
Read our privacy and confidentiality statement
you need to see a healthcare professional about a sexual health issue, but don’t want to or can’t go to your GP, you have the right to consult another doctor or nurse.
There could be a number of reasons why you might want to go to a different doctor.
Whatever your reason, you always have the right to consult another doctor.
You could opt to see another doctor at your GP surgery and you can ask your new doctor not to tell your regular GP that you have been prescribed contraception if you wish. However, if you’d prefer to go elsewhere entirely, there are lots of options. You can go to your nearest Brook service, young person’s service, family planning clinic or sexual health clinic and get free and confidential medical advice, contraception and treatment.
Some sexual health procedures offer pain relief as standard, such as local anaesthetic when having an implant inserted or removed. Additionally, all Brook clinics offer pain relief for the insertion and removal of the IUD and IUS, however some clinics don’t.
If pain relief isn’t offered automatically, you have the right to request it. If you are booked in for a procedure that you would like pain relief for, whether at Brook or elsewhere, you can always ask in advance of the appointment if they offer anaesthesia.
You have the right to be addressed with your name and pronouns of choice, even if these are different from what is on your medical record.
However, there may be some situations where you will be asked about your sex assigned at birth or what genitals you have. This is so your doctor or nurse can give you the most suitable treatment or present appropriate healthcare options, such as providing the right STI sampling kit for you or presenting relevant contraception options.
Additionally, at Brook and a lot of other healthcare services, there are often systems which can only record information about your sex in a certain way; they will need to record what your biological sex is, and often the only options on these systems are ‘female’ or ‘male’. However, while your doctor or nurse will probably need to ask about this, they should still respect your right to be referred to according to your gender identity.
Find out more about gender identity
Your doctor or nurse may ask how much you weigh, or weigh you at your appointment, and/or work out your BMI. This is sometimes required to determine what type of contraception is suitable for you; with some types of contraception there can be a higher chance of complications, or it being less effective, if you have a high BMI.
However, if you don’t want to know your weight or BMI, you have the right to ask not to be told and to not see the weighing scales as they weigh you. You also always have the right to ask your doctor/nurse why they need to find out your BMI.
In England, all schools must deliver:
Although the school must provide these, if you live in England your parent or carer does have the right to take you out of sex education lessons that forms part of RSE. This applies to primary school (in schools where sex education is delivered) and to secondary school (where sex education must be delivered by all schools).
However, your parent or carer cannot withdraw you from:
You can opt back into sex education lessons three school terms before you turn 16, essentially from when you turn 15. If you want to opt back in, talk to your tutor or teacher who will make arrangements for you to join the lessons.