Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish the (a) membership and (b) terms of reference of the working group on sex and relationships education.

The Department is committed to supporting schools to deliver high quality teaching of relationships education for all primary aged pupils, relationships and sex education for all secondary aged pupils, and health education for all pupils in state-funded schools.

From spring 2020, all teachers will have access to a central programme of support that will focus on tools to enhance practice and teacher confidence, including an implementation guide, access to high-quality resources, and training that can be delivered online and face to face.

The Department has been working with schools, teachers and sector experts to develop support materials that are suited to the sector’s needs and that will enable the delivery of the entire statutory guidance including areas such as consent, HIV, sexual health and mental health. The Department will continue to engage with the wide range of stakeholders that have helped informed key decisions on these subjects.

To support this work, the Department has convened a new working group, who will provide insight into how the new guidance is working in practice. This group, with representatives from teaching unions, sector experts, faith and minority groups, parents and young people, provides us with evidence and feedback to improve the delivery of these subjects. The working group met for the first time in September and the Department intends to publish the membership and terms of reference on GOV.UK in due course.