Sex and Relationship Education

(asked on 23rd June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding has been allocated to implementation support for compulsory Relationship, Sex and Health Education in the 2020-21 financial year.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 1st July 2020

The Department is committed to supporting schools to deliver high quality teaching of Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education.

In light of the circumstances caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, and following engagement with the sector, the Department is reassuring schools that although the subjects will still be compulsory from 1 September 2020, schools have flexibility over how they discharge their duty within the first year of compulsory teaching. For further information, I refer the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion to the answer I gave on 5 June to Question 55660.

The Department invested up to £2 million in the financial year 2019-20 and is investing up to £4 million in the current financial year to fund a support programme of work to help schools in their preparations to implement the new curriculum. The support programme will include online training modules to enable subjects leads to train non-specialist teachers in their schools, an implementation guide, and case studies from early adopter schools. This support will cover all of the teaching requirements in the statutory guidance and will be inclusive to all pupils. The first training module for teachers, covering mental wellbeing, is now available on GOV.UK, and additional content will be added in the coming months.

As part of the support programme, the Department has agreed grant funding with 21 Teaching Schools covering all 8 regions to deliver a train the trainer and peer support programme to schools in their regions.

In managing the immediate and long-term impact of COVID-19 on education delivery, Teaching Schools are able to deliver online training between June and August. All Teaching Schools have plans in place to deliver training between September 2020 and March 2021. The number of schools that access this training will be available after each term.

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