Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to support the training of educators to ensure they are confident in teaching Relationships and Sex Education within primary and secondary schools (a) nationally and (b) in Leicestershire.

Since September 2020, Relationships Education (for primary school pupils), Relationships and Sex Education (for secondary school pupils) and Health Education (for all pupils in state-funded schools) has been compulsory for all pupils in England.

To support teachers to deliver the new curriculum safely and with confidence the department produced a one-stop page for schools, including teacher training modules and implementation guidance. This information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/teaching-about-relationships-sex-and-health.

The department also funded the delivery of a train the trainer and peer support programme to a total of 4,800 schools between April 2020 and July 2021, delivered regionally by teaching schools and covering all areas including Leicestershire schools. This was a cascade model of training, whereby those trained are expected to share the training with other teachers in their school and wider school networks.

Following the publication of Ofsted’s review into sexual abuse in schools and colleges, the department has committed to provide additional support to help teachers deliver RSHE effectively and confidently to support young people to develop healthy relationships and to prevent sexual violence and sexual harassment. The department has also delivered three webinars on teaching about domestic abuse, pornography, and sexual exploitation, reaching over 1,000 teachers nationally. The department has started work on user research to inform non-statutory guidance on teaching relationships education to prevent sexual harassment and violence and formed an expert teacher group to inform this work.

The department has plans in place to monitor national implementation over time, including through new quantitative and qualitative research, which will seek to understand the quality of implementation, including teacher confidence in teaching the statutory requirements. The findings from this research will inform a review of the statutory guidance in due course.