Review of Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education

Thursday 21st March 2013 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Elizabeth Truss)]

Today I am publishing outcomes of the Department’s internal review of personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education.

PSHE remains an important and necessary part of all pupils’ education. We believe that all schools should teach PSHE, drawing on good practice, and have outlined this expectation in the introduction to the new national curriculum.

PSHE overall will remain a non-statutory subject. To allow teachers the flexibility to deliver high-quality PSHE we consider it unnecessary to provide new standardised frameworks or programmes of study. Teachers are best placed to understand the needs of their pupils and do not need additional central prescription.

However, while we believe that it is for schools to tailor their local PSHE programme to reflect the needs of their pupils, we expect schools to use their PSHE education programme to equip pupils with a sound understanding of risk and with the knowledge and skills necessary to make safe and informed decisions.

Schools should seek to use PSHE education to build, where appropriate, on the statutory content already outlined in the national curriculum, the basic school curriculum and in statutory guidance on: drug education, financial education, sex and relationship education (SRE) and the importance of physical activity and diet for a healthy lifestyle.

We will provide grant funding to the PSHE Association to work with schools to support them in developing their own PSHE curricula and improve the quality of teaching. The association will focus on signposting schools to high quality resources, and on expanding their chartered teacher of PSHE programme. We have also asked the association to promote the teaching of consent as part of SRE, in line with the statutory guidance for that subject.

For drug and alcohol education, we are launching a new evidence-based information service in April 2013 for those working with young people, including schools and teachers. The new service will provide practical advice and tools based on the best international evidence.

In addition, we are asking Ofsted to publish a guide for schools covering effective practice in PSHE, to provide teachers with a range of examples to inform their teaching.

I have placed copies of the summary report of the results of the public consultation in the Libraries of both Houses.