SRE0379

 

 

 

Written Evidence submitted by Relate On Behalf Of The Relationships Alliance

             

Executive Summary

About the Relationships Alliance

  1. The Relationships Alliance vision is a future in which strong and stable couple, family and social relationships are the basis of a thriving society.  Our mission is to develop and support strong and stable couple, family and social relationships. Through our work with both adults and children and young people, we recognise the need for, and the benefit of, high quality Relationships and Sex Education in schools.

Whether PSHE ought to be statutory, either as part of the National Curriculum or through some other means of entitlement.

  1. We believe that RSE becoming a compulsory part of the national curriculum and is delivered by experts is a key component of realising high quality RSE.  Since RSE is a part of PSHE, making PSHE statutory would be a key step towards this. We believe PSHE should be part of the National Curriculum, but are aware that this would not cover all schools and so would welcome further consideration for statutory measures to compel academies and free schools to teach RSE as a part of PSHE.
  2. PSHE should be statutory because there is an emerging body of evidence highlighting: (i) the need for RSE; (ii) the benefits of RSE; (iii) and evidence that highlights that the current status quo is not working for many young people.

Evidence that children and young people are facing challenges in relation to relationships and sex

    1. A report from the Office of the Children’s Commissioner found that while young people generally understand what is meant by giving consent, they have a very limited understanding of what getting consent might involve (Coy et al., 2013).
    2. According to a survey by Brook (2011) 1 in 4 young people said they don’t get any SRE in school at all and 26% of those that do say their SRE teacher is not able to teach it well.
    3. Approximately 50,500 children in the UK are known to be at risk of abuse (NPSCC, 2013)
    4. In a random probability sample of over 2,800 young adults (aged 18-24) 25.3% were severely maltreated during childhood (NSPCC, 2013).
    5. Women’s Aid research (2013) shows 50% of 16-18 year olds wouldn’t know where to go to get support if affected by domestic abuse and 18% were unsure or didn’t believe slapping counted as domestic violence.
    6. A YouGov poll conducted on behalf of End Violence Against Women (2010) found almost a third (29%) of 16-18-year-old girls say they have been subjected to unwanted sexual touching at school.
    7. In 2012 in England and Wales there were 26,948 births to mothers under 20.
    8. NSPCC found that a third of girls in relationships aged 13-17 have experienced sexual violence in relationships, while one in 16 of this group reported experiencing rape (Barter et al., 2009).
    9. We believe that RSE could help to address some of the negative outcomes above, helping children and young people protect themselves from abuse and violence, reduce the number of under-age pregnancies.

Arguments in favour of compulsory RSE on the national curriculum

  1. A wide range of arguments have been made in favour of compulsory RSE on the national curriculum, while the evidence varies, we feel that these are some of the areas in which compulsory RSE would be beneficial.
    1. Give young people the opportunity to explore the meaning of consent in context of relationships and sex education (Coy et al., 2013; Berelowitz et al., 2013).
    2. Promote wider child protection, including through content on internet safety and all forms of bullying and harassment (Berelowitz et al., 2013).
    3. Encourage greater use of condoms and contraception. Good quality SRE programmes have been shown to do this in international studies (Kirby, 2007).
    4. Encourage young people to delay the initiation of sex and reduce the number of sexual partners. Good quality SRE programmes have also been shown to do this in international studies (Kirby, 2007).
    5. Mitigate the risk of pornography influencing children and young people’s engagement in ‘risky behaviours’ (Horvath et al., 2013), although the influence of porn on young people’s relationships is far from conclusive.
  2. In addition we believe that compulsory RSE would help:
    1.                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Promote children and young people being able to develop strong and stable couple, family, social and professional relationships that will contribute towards their well-being and happiness throughout their later lives.
    2. Have positive spillovers into academic achievement and save public money. International evidence, largely from the US, suggests that social and emotional learning interventions, which include certain overlaps with RSE such as developing relationship skills, have demonstrated significantly improved social and emotional skills, attitudes, behaviour and academic performance that reflected an 11-percentile-point gain in achievement (Durlak et al., 2011). Such interventions also have been estimated to save the public sector substantial amounts of money through said improvements (Beecham et al., 2011).
  3. Further to this there is an increasing demand for better quality RSE amongst affected groups, namely young people, professionals and parents:
    1. ‘Relationships’ was the most cited element of PSHE that should be made statutory in responses to the Department for Education’s consultation on PSHE education (Department for Education, 2013).  30% (146) respondents to the question felt relationships should be a statutory element of PSHE; sex education was the second most cited element with 24% (120) citing it.  Respondents to the consultation included parents (24% of respondents) voluntary and community sector organisations (16%) teachers (13%) and local authorities (10%).
    2. In a survey carried out on behalf of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT, 2013), 88% of parents said sex education and lessons on adult and peer relationships should be mandatory in school.
    3. A Mumsnet survey (2011) 98% of parents said that they are happy for their children to learn about sex and relationships at school.
    4. In a recent DfE evaluation, qualitative research of couples that had accessed relationship support surveys found that participants felt that              discussion about relationship problems and help with addressing them should begin in schools (Spielhofer et al., 2014).

 

Whether the current accountability system is sufficient to ensure that schools focus on PSHE.

  1. We do not believe that the level of accountability is sufficient, which is evidenced by the inadequate quality of PSHE and RSE as outlined in our response to statement below.

The overall provision of Sex and Relationships Education in schools and the quality of its teaching, including in primary schools and academies.

  1. The Relationships Alliance believes that the overall provision of Sex and Relationships Education in schools and the quality of its teaching is currently not consistently of high enough quality. 
    1. This is supported by Ofsted (2013), whose PSHE review found that PSHE is ‘not yet good enough’, and required improvement in over a third of the 50 schools evaluated and that this is leaving young people vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.
    2. Research by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner found that due to the lack of consistent and required content in SRE in England, young people have limited access to information on how to negotiate sex (Coy et al., 2013).
    3. In a survey by the Sex Education Forum (2008), 1 in 3 young people described their SRE as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’.

Whether recent Government steps to supplement the guidance on teaching about sex and relationships, including consent, abuse between teenagers and cyber-bullying, are adequate.

  1. The Relationships Alliance welcomes the supplementary SRE advice produced by Brook, the Sex Education Forum and the PSHE Association.  While this is undoubtedly a positive step in supporting teachers to improve the delivery of the topic in schools, we believe that these resources will have little impact and RSE will continue to be delivered inconsistently in terms of reach and quality without statutory compulsion to ensure that it is delivered according to guidelines in all schools.  We believe that given the importance of RSE, it should no longer have a less significant statutory status than the vast majority of other subjects. Putting RSE on the national curriculum, whether as part of PSHE or as a part of Citizenship is a key way to ensure that it is taken seriously as a subject and given the weighting it deserves

How the effectiveness of SRE should be measured.

  1. The Relationships Alliance believes that SRE (or RSE) should be measured through a number of indicators:
    1. We recognise the role of Ofsted in providing an evaluative role in the quality of provision. We believe that views of children and young people should be taken into account to help determine whether the content and quality of their RSE is appropriate.
    2. Organisations with expertise in SRE such as the Sex Education Forum should consulted to gather relevant opinions on the effectiveness of SRE.
    3. However, we would expect that metrics around the effectiveness of RSE should include indicators reflecting the knowledge and attitudes of young people in relation to some of the emerging issues in young people’s relationships, around consent and coercion, as well as metrics reflecting behaviour, for example condom use. More objective national indicators may include those around levels of DVA among young people, teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Concluding Statement

  1. The Relationships Alliance strongly believes all children and young people should be entitled to high quality RSE and that more needs to be done to ensure this is the case.  There is evidence that children and young people encounter a range of challenges in relation to relationships and sex, that their current education isn’t doing enough and the a wide variety of people want there to be better RSE in schools.  We believe that putting it on the National Curriculum is a key way to try and address this.  Current efforts have not gone far enough to guarantee consistently high quality RSE in all schools.

Reference List

Barter, C., McCarry, M., Berridge, D., & Evans, K. (2009). Partner exploitation and violence in teenage intimate relationships. London: NSPCC.

 

Beecham, J., Bonin, E. M., Byford, S., McDaid, D., Mullally, G., & Parsonage, M. (2011). School-based social and emotional learning programmes to prevent conduct problems in childhood.

Berelowitz, S. (2013). If only someone had listened: Office of the Children's Commissioner's inquiry into child sexual exploitation in gangs and groups. London: Office of the Children’s Commissioner.

 

Brook (2011) Sex and Relationships Education fit for the 21st Century. Retrieved 16 January 2014, from http://62.233.77.80/~devbrook/images/brook/professionals/documents/press_releases/sreforthe21stcenturyreportfinal.pdf

 

Coy, M., Kelly, L., Elvines, F., Garner, M., & Kanyeredzi. A. (2013) “Sex without consent, I suppose that is rape”: How young people in England understand sexual consent. London: Office of the Children’s Commissioner.

 

Department for Education (2013). Consultation on PSHE education – summary report. Retrieved 27 February, from http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/p/pshe%20cons%20report.pdf

 

Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D., & Schellinger, K. B. (2011). The impact of enhancing students’ social and emotional learning: A meta‐analysis of school‐based universal interventions. Child development,82(1), 405-432.

 

End Violence Against Women (2010). 2010 poll on sexual harassment in schools. Retrieved 16 January 2014, from http://www.endviolenceagainstwomen.org.uk/2010-poll-on-sexual-harassment-in-schools

 

Horvath, M. A., Alys, L., Massey, K., Pina, A., Scally, M., & Adler, J. R. (2013). "Basically... porn is everywhere": a rapid evidence assessment on the effects that access and exposure to pornography has on children and young people. London: Office of the Children’s Commissioner.

 

Kirby, D. (2007). Emerging answers 2007: Research findings on programs to reduce teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

 

Mumsnet (2011). Mumsnet sex education survey. Retrieved 17 February 2014, from http://www.mumsnet.com/campaigns/mumsnet-sex-education-survey#Results

 

National Association of Head Teachers (2013). Parents want schools to manage dangers of pornography, says NAHT survey. Retrieved 17 February 2014, from http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/news-and-media/key-topics/parents-and-pupils/parents-want-schools-to-manage-dangers-of-pornography-says-survey/

 

NSPCC (2013). Incidence and prevalence of child abuse and neglect. Retrieved 16 January 2014, from http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/research/statistics/prevalence_and_incidence_of_child_abuse_and_neglect_wda48740.html

 

Ofsted (2013). Good practice resource - Effective integration of pupils with disabilities and complex needs into mainstream school: St John Bosco Roman Catholic Voluntary Aided Primary School. Retrieved 17 February 2014, from http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/good-practice-resource-effective-integration-of-pupils-disabilities-and-complex-needs-mainstream-sch.

 

Sex Education Forum (2008) Forum Briefing: young people’s survey on sex and relationships education, NCB.

Women’s Aid (2013) A third of women don’t know where to get support for domestic violence. Retrieved 16 January 2014, from http://www.womensaid.org.uk/domestic-violence-press-information.asp?itemid=3054&section=0001000100150001

 

 

 

 

  1.                                                           [1] In keeping with the findings of a report by the Office of The Children’s commissioner, we believe that ‘Sex and Relationships Education’ (SRE) should be renamed to ‘Relationships and Sex Education’ (RSE) ‘to place emphasis on the importance of developing healthy, positive, respectful relationships’ (Horvath et al., 2013, p.11).  In our response we will largely use RSE and SRE interchangeably.