Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will (a) ensure that the implementation guidance on Relationships and Sex Education is clear that the inclusiveness of such education is essential to its high quality and (b) support schools to develop inclusive practice.

The new subjects of relationships education (for primary age pupils), relationships and sex education (for secondary age pupils) and health education (for all pupils in state-funded schools) will become compulsory in September 2020. Many schools are already teaching aspects of these subjects as part of their sex and relationship education provision or personal, social, health and economic education programme. Schools have flexibility to determine how to deliver the new content in the context of a broad and balanced curriculum.

The Department is investing in a central programme of support for the new subjects, which is planned to be available to all teachers from spring 2020. The programme will focus on tools that improve schools’ practice and will offer opportunities for teachers to improve subject knowledge, build confidence and share best practice. The Department’s internal budgets for 2020-21, including supporting the implementation of the new subjects, have not yet been set and this will be confirmed in due course.

This support will be accessed through a new online service and will include an implementation guide, which will accompany the statutory guidance, case studies from early adopter schools, and innovative materials to support staff training.

We will ensure that all of the Department’s materials supporting implementation of the new subjects are inclusive, and recognise fully the need to disseminate the good practice in teaching about LGBT relationships that is seen in large numbers of our schools as well as the importance of reflecting the needs of pupils with a special educational need or disability when planning the curriculum for these subjects.