Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of the £6 million in funding allocated to implementation support for compulsory Relationship, Sex and Health Education in financial year 2019-20 has been spent on SEND accessibility.

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

In light of the circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, 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 to the answer I gave on 5 June to Question 55660.

The Department does not collect data on the numbers of pupils who are withdrawn from sex education. Schools will be required to have in place a written policy for Relationships Education and Relationships and Sex Education, which should provide an explanation of the right to withdraw from sex education. Before granting a request for a pupil to be withdrawn, headteachers will be expected to discuss the request with parents and to document the decision-making process.

Schools must ensure the subject content of RSHE is an age and developmentally appropriate and the subjects must be taught sensitively and inclusively to meet the needs and backgrounds of their pupils. The statutory guidance states that all pupils should receive teaching on LGBT relationships during their school years and when LGBT content is taught, the guidance recommends it is integrated fully into a school’s programme of study for this area of the curriculum.

RSHE must be accessible for all pupils. This is particularly important when planning teaching for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities. As with all curriculum subjects, lessons should be planned to address potential areas of difficulty and to remove barriers to pupil achievement, enabling pupils with SEND to engage with the RSHE curriculum.

The Department’s central programme of support will help all schools in their preparation to deliver these subjects. It will cover all the teaching requirements in the statutory guidance and is inclusive of all pupils.

The Department is working with SEND experts to support the development of teacher training materials. Consideration of the needs of pupils with SEND is integrated into the RSHE implementation programme and it is therefore not possible to specify the amount spent in financial year 2019-20 on SEND accessibility.

Regarding the monitoring of the implementation of RSHE, Ofsted will consider the provision for these subjects and how a school is meeting its obligations when judging the effectiveness of the school’s support for pupils’ personal development.