Claire Perry MP, the adviser on children to Prime Minister David Cameron, has called for the official guidance on Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) to be updated for the digital age. The Government’s current SRE guidance is more than 13 years old, and has attracted widespread criticism for being out of date. The British Humanist Association (BHA) welcomes Claire Perry’s comments, and has also given its support to a letter which calls on the Government to work with professionals to produce up to date SRE guidance.
Claire Perry has raised the issue of how the existing SRE guidance fails to deal with the changes in young people’s behaviour brought by new developments in technology. The existing guidance does not take account of the ease of accessibility to online pornography, the growth of ‘sexting’, online bullying and the willingness of many young people to document their lives on the web. She argues that these developments are distorting young people’s perception of sex and relationships, and that updated SRE guidance is necessary to rectify this.
The letter on SRE signed by more than 60 experts also notes that the current SRE guidance ‘pre-dates the Sexual Offences Act 2003, the repeal of Section 28 of the Local Government Act and the 2010 Equalities legislation which requires schools to take account of gender equality when teaching young people about non-violent, respectful relationships.’ The BHA recently identified 46 schools which were still including Section 28 (or stating that it was still in force) as part of their Sex Education policies, despite the fact that the legislation was repealed a decade ago. This led to both the UK and Welsh Governments launching investigations, and a large number of these schools have now removed the relevant statements from their policy documents, or have announced that they are reviewing their policies.
Pavan Dhaliwal commented ‘We believe that all children are entitled to accurate and age-appropriate SRE, including education about forming and maintaining rewarding relationships and unbiased information on contraception, STIs, abortion and sexual orientation. We welcome Claire Perry’s call for the Government’s SRE guidance to be updated, as the current guidance is inadequate in many respects, failing to take account of new technology and changes in legislation such as equality law. The recent scandal of a number of schools which were still enforcing Section 28 in their SRE policies (which we helped to expose) is just one example which shows how urgent it is to bring the official SRE guidance up to date.’
Notes
For further comment or information contact Pavan Dhaliwal, Head of Public Affairs at pavan@humanists.uk or on 0773 843 5059.
Claire Perry MP: ‘It’s time to teach children the difference between porn and healthy relationships’:
The letter in full: ‘David Cameron must update sex and relationships guidance’:
Schools remove section 28-like policies:
https://humanists.uk/2013/08/21/schools-remove-section-28-like-policies/
Read more about the BHA’s work on PSHE and Sex and Relationships Education:
The British Humanist Association is the national charity working on behalf of non-religious people who seek to live ethical and fulfilling lives on the basis of reason and humanity. It promotes a secular state and equal treatment in law and policy of everyone, regardless of religion or belief.