Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2014-06-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the adequacy of sex education in schools for life in the 21st century.

Lord Nash

Sex and relationship education (SRE) is compulsory in maintained secondary schools, and academies are expected to provide SRE as part of a broad and balanced curriculum. When teaching SRE, all schools must have regard to the Secretary of State’s statutory guidance.

Schools are encouraged to develop their SRE practice with the support of specialist organisations and expert professionals who are best placed to provide schools with up-to-date materials and advice on changing technologies that fit within the framework of our sex and relationship education guidance. ‘Sex and relationships education (SRE) for the 21st century’, recently published by the PSHE Association, the Sex Education Forum, and Brook addresses changes in technology and legislation since 2000.

We believe that headteachers and their staff are best-placed to decide what resources, including help from outside organisations, are needed to support excellent teaching of SRE. We have recently extended the grant funding to the PSHE Association until 2015 and we have commissioned them to develop a set of exemplar case studies of high quality teaching on key issues in PSHE and SRE.