Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to help educate school children on access to sexual health services.

The department made relationships education (for primary school pupils), relationships and sex education (for secondary school pupils) and health education (for all pupils in state-funded schools) compulsory subjects from September 2020.

The relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) statutory guidance is intended to help teachers deliver these subjects consistently to a high quality and with confidence, and is available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education. Pupils should learn about how all aspects of health can be affected by choices they make in sex and relationships, positively or negatively, for example physical, emotional, mental, sexual and reproductive health and wellbeing. The statutory content is explicit about reproductive health, including fertility and sexually transmitted infections. It is clear that pupils should know how and where to access confidential sexual and reproductive health advice and treatment.

We have also produced RSHE teacher training modules to support teachers to deliver these topics safely, available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/teaching-about-relationships-sex-and-health. The topic of ‘intimate and sexual relationships, including sexual health’ includes content on sexually transmitted infections and sexual health advice which emphasises that everyone, regardless of age, has the right to free, confidential sexual health advice and services.