Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government why the sex and relationships education portion of the national curriculum focuses on sexual relationships and does not equally focus on relationships such as that between a mother and her young child, or relationships in the workplace.

Personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education is a non-statutory subject that can encompass many areas of study, including the importance of healthy relationships and how to identify those relationships which are unhealthy. This applies to all the relationships that young people have with their friends, peers and families. We expect all schools to provide PSHE.

All maintained secondary schools are also required to provide sex and relationships education as part of the basic curriculum and must have regard to the Secretary of State’s guidance, published in 2000. The guidance recognises that there are strong and mutually supportive relationships outside marriage and that pupils should learn the significance of different relationships as key building blocks of the wider society in order to prepare them for life in modern Britain.