Compulsory PSHE, maybe?

Schools Minister announces statutory PSHE


DCSF has published the report by the group that was established
to review the delivery of Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) in
schools; and the Government response to the group's report.

The review was announced in the Children's Plan, in December 2007. The
steering group that undertook the review comprised practitioners
involved in the planning and delivery of SRE; experts in young people's
sexual health; representatives of faith groups; and young people. The
review was co-chaired by Schools Minister Jim Knight, Jackie Fisher,
Principal of Newcastle College and Josh McTaggart, a member of the UK
Youth Parliament. The group's independent report includes a number of
recommendations to Government, designed to improve the quality and
consistency of SRE in schools, to which the Government has responded.

The steering group's headline recommendation is that PSHE should be made statutory and be supported by a statutory programme of study (PoS) - in order to give it increased status/priority in schools.

The Government has accepted the arguments for statutory PSHE and agreed to undertake a
review headed by Sir Alasdair MacDonald to consider how to turn the decision that PSHE should have statutory status into a practicable way forward.

In addition, the Government will accept, or agree to consider further, all
of the steering group's other recommendations, designed to improve the
delivery of SRE. Recommendations broadly fall into 6 headings:

Those designed to improve the skills and confidence of those who deliver SRE - the key delivery challenge;

Those designed to encourage greater use of external professionals and agencies to support schools' delivery of SRE;

Those that address the need for more guidance and support on how best to deliver SRE;

Those designed to increase young people's opportunities to influence the design of their SRE programmes;

Those aimed at maximising the impact of wider Government programmes on the quality and consistency of SRE; and

Those designed to improve leadership on SRE, in terms of both school leadership teams and strategic oversight by Local Authorities and PCTs.

The report also considered how best to ensure that schools and parents could work in partnership to educate children and young people about sex and relationships.