Relationships and Sex Education

Currently, schools across the UK are required to teach relationships and sex education (RSE). In Wales and Northern Ireland the subject is called relationships and sexuality education and in Scotland, it is called relationships, sexual health and parenthood education. The subject is often taught as part of what is known in England as personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE). In Scotland and Wales, this is known as the health and wellbeing area of learning, and in the past as personal and social education. In Northern Ireland, it is known as personal development and mutual understanding (PDMU) at primary schools and learning for life and work (LLW) at post‑primary.

However, PSHE is never compulsory. And where RSE is compulsory, the content of the curriculum generally isn’t – so schools could get away with teaching nothing. And religious schools are permitted to teach RSE in line with their faith ethos. Faith-based exemptions to the subject often distort how certain issues are taught and, in some cases, mean that important information is left out of the curriculum altogether. RSE content that has been affected by faith carve-outs includes LGBT inclusion, contraception, abortion, sexual abuse, and even basic information about puberty and personal hygiene – topics that are all vital to foster an inclusive society and keep children and young people healthy, happy, and safe. Preparing children for life’s challenges, both within and beyond the school gates, is a vital task for all schools.

That is why we unequivocally support making PSHE and RSE, including subject content, a compulsory part of the national curriculum, and believe that the religious character of a school should not deprive children of their entitlement to comprehensive, evidence-based, and age-appropriate teaching in this area. Without these changes, problems like the 2019 protests in Birmingham, during which hardline religious groups disrupted schools by protesting against LGBT inclusivity within lessons, will continue to happen. Schools cannot be adequately supported to deliver good teaching well unless the subject is made fully compulsory with no faith-based carve-outs.

In depth

Good quality, age and developmentally appropriate PSHE and RSE are vital. RSE is known to reduce unwanted pregnancies, to reduce the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and to equip young people with the language and tools to be clear about personal boundaries, as well as understand appropriate and inappropriate behaviour, be able to resist pressure assertively, and know who to talk to and how to ask for help when necessary. It helps older children resist pressure, make safe choices, and be able to challenge and be critical of misleading and inappropriate messages about sex in the media and in easily available internet pornography. National and international research shows that young people who have had good RSE are more likely to delay having sex for the first time. And, when they do have sex, they are more likely to use condoms and contraception.

We believe that all children are entitled to comprehensive RSE, including education about forming and maintaining rewarding relationships and unbiased information on contraception, STIs, abortion, sexual orientation, as well as the many different forms of family relationship conducive to individual fulfilment and the stability of society.

Following extensive lobbying from us and others, in 2020, RSE became compulsory in all English secondary schools and relationships education became compulsory in all primary schools – albeit with almost no specific content being made compulsory. Primary schools are required to teach relationships education, and secondary schools must also teach sex education. However, all decisions about the content of the curriculum are left to individual schools which, in the case of faith schools, are entitled to deliver the subject in line with the tenets of their faith ethos and determine for themselves whether they consider certain topics (same-sex relationships, for example) to be ‘appropriate’. Or they may not deliver much teaching at all.

Further, parents in England are entitled to withdraw their children from all aspects of sex education not found in the national curriculum for science (although the current guidance says that those aged 15 or over are entitled to opt themselves back into these lessons regardless of their parents’ wishes). On top of that, there is no initial teacher education for the subject, nor has any comprehensive teacher training been introduced to help teachers catch up with and understand the new legal provisions.

From 2022, the Welsh Government went further, and introduced RSE (including subject content) as a statutory part of the new curriculum and also removed parents’ right to withdraw their children from these lessons. The new RSE curriculum is only available to pupils in certain years, until it is rolled out in September 2026 for all children aged 3 to 16. Some pupils are still receiving minimal instruction on these issues.

In Northern Ireland, RSE has been compulsory since 2007 and amended in 2023 to require secondary schools to teach ‘age-appropriate, comprehensive and scientifically accurate education on sexual and reproductive health and rights, covering prevention of early pregnancy and access to abortion.’ In 2024, MLAs passed a motion agreeing with this change and asking the Education Minister to bring forward a more expansive plan. However, there is a mandatory requirement to teach RSE in primary schools, although parents still have a right to withdraw their children. There are also no provisions preventing schools from teaching moral issues about sex and relationships from a single religious perspective. As in England, faith-based carve-outs and the parental right to withdraw (which here lasts right up until school leaving age) continue to restrict pupil access to a broad and balanced RSE curriculum.

In Scotland, Relationships, Sexual Health, and Parenthood (RSHP) is a non-statutory part of the curriculum and teachers, school leaders, and other education professionals can decide how best to deliver the curriculum, based on local needs. Parents and carers can withdraw a child from sexual health education. Humanist Society Scotland leads the campaign for balanced, impartial, and consistent RSHP in Scotland.

As a consequence, even though progress has been made in recent years, the quality of RSE provision is likely to remain variable, with the standards and scope differing widely between the four nations as well as individual schools.

Our firm belief is that all children should be entitled to essential basic information about human reproduction and physiology in science and to broader and comprehensive RSE and PSHE elsewhere in the curriculum. That means that we want it taught as a compulsory subject in all schools from primary age, with no parental opt out.

What we’re doing

  • We are a longstanding member of the Sex Education Forum (SEF) and of the PSHE Association, and we recommend both organisations’ work to teachers, school managers, and governors. In recent years we have frequently had a staff member sit on SEF’s advisory group.

  • We have repeatedly raised our concerns about faith-based exemptions with Governments across the UK. For example, the 2025 curriculum review in England, and the 2025 Ofsted consultation on school inspection and accountability.

  • In 2024, the Conservative government proposed changes to the RSE guidance in England that would have made it difficult for teachers to deliver certain topics in a timely fashion and safeguard children from abuse. We strongly opposed these plans and were pleased when they were dropped by the Labour government in 2025. However, the revised subject guidance, published in 2025, retains religious opt-outs to content.

  • In 2025 we also supported a campaign to make RSE compulsory for young people up to the age of 18 in further education. An amendment was put forward during the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill in June but was withdrawn after the debate.

  • We have a good working relationship with officials in the UK and Welsh Departments for Education (DfE) and regularly respond to relevant Government consultations, provide briefings, and sit on working groups related to the subject.

  • We’re working alongside other groups in Northern Ireland to advocate for an inclusive RSE curriculum with no parental right to withdraw.

  • We support parents who are experiencing problems securing high-quality RSE in their children’s schools, both through our parents’ guides for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland and by giving bespoke advice where this is necessary.

Appendix: Past work on this issue

England

  • In 2017, we published a report entitled Happy, Healthy, Safe? in which we demonstrated that Ofsted had not been inspecting the subject in sufficient detail to ensure that schools were delivering it adequately. This was significant because the DfE was justifying the then lack of statutory RSE on the basis that Ofsted would pick up on any problems where they arise.
  • We also mapped MP positions on whether or not RSE should become compulsory, and in so doing were able to show that it was something that had majority support in the Commons. Subsequent to these two things, the Government decided to make RSE compulsory.
  • In 2018, we responded to a consultation on what should be taught as part of PSHE and RSE and later to a second consultation on the new regulations and guidance the DfE had produced. Subsequently, MPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of compulsory RSE. There was similar support in the House of Lords. However, we expressed disappointment at the final guidance, which was a missed opportunity to fully back LGBT inclusive teaching. When the final guidance was published, we were disappointed to learn that it allows schools to opt out of teaching this content if they deem that it was not ‘age-appropriate’. We continue to work to challenge this decision so that every child receives the inclusive RSE provision they deserve irrespective of their faith background or the type of school they attend.
  • In early 2019, protests erupted in Birmingham from largely Muslim parents. This dominated national media. In response we briefed MPs for a Westminster Hall Debate on the parental right to withdraw children from RSE, and raised concerns that faith-based carve-outs could mean that children from religious backgrounds failed to receive an LGBT-inclusive education.
  • We also organised an open letter to the Secretary of State for Education urging him not to dilute guidance stipulating that independent schools must teach acceptance for LGBT people at both primary and secondary level. The letter, which featured in the Guardian, was signed by more than 50 religious leaders, humanists, educationalists, and other experts.
  • In 2019, we were successful in getting crowdfunding site GoFundMe to remove a hateful anti-LGBT page which was raising funds to cover the court costs of anti-RSE Birmingham protestors. GoFundMe said the page violated its terms of service after we exposed the story in the national media.
  • In 2020 we exposed Catholic RSE resources saying contraception is wrong, that gay and lesbian people cannot marry and must entirely abstain from sex, and that men were ‘created to initiate sexual relationships’ and women to be ‘receiver-responders’ being used in schools across the UK. The story also received coverage in the i newspaper. Our exposure of this resource and its use in schools prompted an inspection of St Mary’s Roman Catholic High School by Ofsted, who ruled that the resource had to change its language. Although the UK and Welsh Governments originally failed to condemn the resources, the UK Government later backtracked on this after extensive lobbying led by us.
  • Between 2020 and 2022, we provided evidence to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, highlighting the problem of faith-based carve-outs in schools in England. The Committee’s final report on the UK (also known as the Concluding Observations) recommended that all four nations of the UK should ‘integrate comprehensive, age-appropriate and evidence-based education on sexual and reproductive health into mandatory school curricula at all levels of education’ and that there should be no possibility for faith-based schools or parents to opt out of such education.’

Our work on this issue before 2017

Wales

  • In 2022, we called out anti-RSE campaign groups for promoting misinformation about the new Welsh curriculum and were delighted when one such group had a legal case claiming that inclusive RSE in Wales was indoctrinatory dismissed on the grounds that teaching was to be conveyed in an objective, critical, and pluralistic manner and ‘there is nothing in the Code or the Guidance that authorises or positively approves teaching that advocates or promotes any particular identity or sexual lifestyle over another, or that encourages children to self-identify in a particular way.’
  • In Wales, after welcoming the move to stop parents from withdrawing their children from objective RSE lessons, we worked closely with Welsh Government officials and other stakeholder groups to help inform the new RSE Code and guidance. This was approved by the Senedd in 2021. A legal challenge to the removal of the right to withdraw from RSE was also defeated in the High Court in 2022.
  • Between 2020 and 2022, we provided evidence to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, highlighting the problem of faith-based carve-outs in schools in Wales. The Committee’s final report on the UK (also known as the Concluding Observations) recommended that all four nations of the UK should ‘integrate comprehensive, age-appropriate and evidence-based education on sexual and reproductive health into mandatory school curricula at all levels of education’ and that there should be no possibility for faith-based schools or parents to opt out of such education.’

Northern Ireland

Page last reviewed: 10 February 2026