Recommendation 12

HM Government · verbatim extract Deferred

Response Partially Accept The government partially accepts this recommendation. DfE published teacher training modules in 2020 to support teachers to deliver the statutory curriculum, which are freely available on GOV.UK. DfE is also currently reviewing the RSHE statutory guidance. It will analyse responses to the public consultation and engage with key stakeholders to look at the content on sexual relationships and sexual health. DfE will publish the analysis of the public consultation and the government’s response to it in 2025. Oak National Academy provides adaptable, optional, and free support for schools, reducing teacher workload and enabling pupils to access a high–quality curriculum. The free support for schools includes lesson plans and resources across the full curriculum, including history, geography and citizenship. Some resources also include RSHE and the resources are available online at Free, time-saving teacher resources | Oak National Academy . Oak National Academy is collaborating with Life Lessons Education, an independent body that supports schools to deliver RSHE, to develop the new primary relationships and health education and secondary relationships, sex and health curriculum. The materials will be available in full by Autumn 2025. The quality of education provision in individual schools is looked at by Ofsted. RSHE provision is considered in context of the personal development judgement, which focuses on the development of pupils’ character, confidence, resilience, independence, and knowledge. Inspectors make a professional judgement on whether the school is providing appropriate and effective teaching in RSHE, including whether they adhere to the statutory guidance. RSHE is currently taught to pupils registered in secondary education, including school 6th forms. It encourages post–16 settings to offer RSHE subjects, as appropriate, without a national curriculum. Instead, all 16–19 year olds in post–16 institutions follow study programmes that combine qualifications with other activities to help prepare them for adult life. RSHE is usually delivered by colleges as part of their personal development teaching; this is supported by non-qualification hours funding that covers a range of employment, enrichment and pastoral activities and is inspected by Ofsted. The 16 to 19 study programmes guidance: 2024 to 2025 academic year - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) encourages post–16 providers to support pupils to understand what healthy relationships look like, including sexual and reproductive health. In early 2024, DfE looked into the Women and Equalities Select Committee’s recommendation that compulsory RSHE is extended to young people across all post–16 educational settings. After talking to colleges and training providers they gained a good understanding of what is already being delivered and what making Relationships and Sex Education classes mandatory would involve for Further Education (FE) providers. Officials are working with the department’s FE Student Support Champion, Polly Harrow, to develop effective practice tools that will enable every college to make a lasting impact with 16–18 year olds in RSHE sessions. Recommendations 10