Relationships and Sex Education

Relationships and Sex Education

Thank you to everyone who responded to the Government's consultation on Relationship and Sex Education. 

The story so far 

In 2017, the Government pledged to make Relationships Education compulsory in all of England’s primary schools, and Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) compulsory in all of England’s secondary schools.  

This will be a crucial step towards ensuring every young person has the information and support they need to have happy and healthy relationships. 

In 2018, the Government consulted on its new draft guidance for teaching these subjects.  

While this guidance specifically mentioned LGBT young people, unlike the previous guidance – which was published in 2000, before the repeal of Section 28 – there were still areas where it risked failing to meet the needs of LGBT young people, LGBT families and teachers.  

That’s why, in our response, we called on the Government to ensure that the guidance is updated to make it fully inclusive.  

Thank you to all the young people, parents and teachers who came out in support of LGBT young people and called for the final guidance to be fully LGBT-inclusive.  

This consultation is now closed, and the Government is likely to publish their final guidance in Spring/Summer 2019. Schools in England will be required to begin teaching the subjects in September 2020.  

Our priorities for the final guidance 

While the Government’s draft guidance referred to LGBT inclusion, unlike its predecessor, it still risked failing to meet the needs of LGBT young people. We are calling for the final guidance to: 

• Require all primary schools to teach about LGBT families as part of teaching on ‘different families’ 
• Make it clear that all teaching of these subjects should be LGBT-inclusive, rather than simply ‘recommending’ that it should be, and make specific reference to schools’ duties under the Equality Act 2010 not to discriminate against LGBT pupils and families