Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the appropriateness of learning materials provided by LGBTQ campaign groups for use in primary schools.

As part of compulsory relationships, sex and health education (RSHE), all pupils should be taught LGBT content at a timely point during their education. Schools can use externally produced materials to support their lessons and are responsible for ensuring that what they use is factual, age appropriate and suitable for their pupils. Schools are also required to consult parents on the content of their RSHE curriculum and to provide examples of the content and resources that they plan to use.

The department is not planning to assess the materials schools use to teach about LGBT matters, but we have published non-statutory implementation guidance, which includes advice on choosing resources. This guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/plan-your-relationships-sex-and-health-curriculum. Further guidance on working with external bodies and using their resources is included in the ‘Political impartiality in schools’ guidance, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/political-impartiality-in-schools/political-impartiality-in-schools. We are also working with the Equality and Human Rights Commission to develop new guidance to support schools specifically on transgender matters.