Children need more and better sex and relationship education in England’s schools, to help them navigate the issues they are likely to face as they get older, experts have told MPs.
The Commons women and equalities committee heard that too few teachers in England have received training in how to deliver lessons in relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) since it became a compulsory topic in 2019.
Lucy Emmerson, chief executive of the Sex Education Forum, told MPs that young people reported that important issues such as power imbalances in relationships between boys and girls were often not being tackled in RSHE lessons.
“This isn’t something that you can just reel off some facts about. It relies on the confidence of a teacher to open up discussion to a diverse group and to manage some of those complexities,” Emmerson said.
“And not to just put a video on and think that’s going to do the job. Because, unfortunately, that’s what young people are complaining about, that sometimes that’s all the lessons are.”
