MPs have today debated a bill calling for Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE), including Sex and Relationships Education (SRE), to be compulsory in all English state schools. The Bill, which is being reintroduced by Green Party MP Caroline Lucas after it failed to make it to second reading during the last Parliament, received overwhelming support among MPs, who voted 183-44 in favour of its progression. The British Humanist Association (BHA), which has long campaigned for such change and is a member of both the Sex Education Forum and the PSHE Association, has welcomed the news.
Introducing the Bill, Caroline Lucas stated that ‘young people are growing up with negative and conflicting images of sexual relationships and gender roles’, and emphasised that statutory PSHE and SRE in schools was the most effective way of ensuring that children go on to ‘thrive as individuals and as members of a modern and complex society’.
The campaign to make PSHE and SRE compulsory in schools has been gathering pace in recent months, and the debate comes as the Government is expected to respond to a report published earlier this year by the House of Commons Education Select Committee calling not only for the introduction of a statutory PSHE curriculum, but for Ofsted to resume subject-specific PSHE inspections too – something it recently stopped doing.
The report, which included evidence submitted to the committee by the BHA, received substantial support outside of Parliament and in February the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Royal College of Nursing, Faculty of Public Health, Association of Directors of Public Health and British Association for Sexual Health and HIV signed a letter in The Times making the same call. Further, as recently as the beginning of this month, a major coalition of charities and NGOs submitted a report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child demanding that PSHE and SRE be made compulsory in England, including stipulating that there should be no opt outs for ‘faith’ schools.
BHA Education Campaigner Jay Harman commented, ‘We were incredibly disappointed during the last Parliament that this Bill didn’t get the time and attention it deserved, so we’re delighted that it’s being given another chance now. Anyone who has taken the time to look at the evidence knows that comprehensive and inclusive PSHE and SRE leads to the best outcomes in a range of areas, from homophobic bullying and gender stereotyping, to teenage pregnancies and sexual health, which is why it’s so important that this Bill gets passed. We congratulate Caroline Lucas on her continued efforts in this area.’
The Sex Education Forum is calling on people to write to their MPs ahead of the Government’s response to the Education Select Committee’s recommendation that PSHE and SRE be made statutory: http://www.sexeducationforum.org.uk/policy-campaigns/email-your-mp.aspx
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Read the Education Select Committee’s report: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmselect/cmeduc/145/145.pdf
Read the BHA’s submission to the Education Select Committee’s inquiry: https://humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/Commons-Education-Select-Committee-PSHE-and-SRE-inquiry-Written-submission-from-the-British-Humanist-Association.pdf – the BHA’s submission was cited in the final report
Read more about the BHA’s work on PSHE and SRE: https://humanists.uk/campaigns/schools-and-education/school-curriculum/pshe-and-sex-and-relationships-education/
The British Humanist Association is the national charity working on behalf of non-religious people who seek to live ethical and fulfilling lives on the basis of reason and humanity. It promotes a secular state and equal treatment in law and policy of everyone, regardless of religion or belief.
The BHA is a member of both the Sex Education Forum and the PSHE Association.