Health Education: Coronavirus

(asked on 16th March 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what financial support his Department is providing schools to compensate for lost teaching time for Relationships and sex education and health education lessons as a result of covid-19 restrictions; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 24th March 2021

We want to support all young people to be happy, healthy and safe and to equip them for adult life and to make a positive contribution to society.

Given the circumstances faced by schools during the COVID-19 outbreak, the Department clarified that the statutory requirement for relationships, sex and health education allows schools flexibility over when to discharge their duty in teaching the new curriculum within the first year of compulsory teaching.

Schools are required to provide some relationships, sex and health education to all secondary age pupils in the academic year 2020-21, and to provide some relationships and health education to all primary age pupils. We expect schools to adjust the curriculum to prioritise topics which support pupils to re-engage with their peers in school. These might include mental wellbeing, physical health and fitness, respectful relationships and being safe.

The Department invested up to £2 million in the financial year 2019-20 and is investing up to £2.4 million in the current financial year to fund a support programme of work to help schools in their preparations. The support programme includes online training modules to train non-specialist teachers, an implementation guide published in September 2020, and grant funding to 21 lead Teaching Schools covering all eight regions to deliver a train the trainer and peer support programme to primary and secondary schools in their region. This programme has supported over 2,000 schools since May 2020, and we expect around a further 1500 schools to be helped by spring 2021. Additionally, we have made lessons available on the Oak National Academy for pupils to access at online.

Given that some schools may have only just begun teaching the new statutory curriculum, we do not believe now is the right time to ask Ofsted to undertake a review of relationships, sex and health education. The subjects are covered in the Ofsted framework and when routine inspections resume, Ofsted will monitor the quality of education, including the quality of teaching and how assessment is used to embed knowledge. Specific content on consent and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender+ (LGBT+) rights and relationships are embedded in the curriculum and the teacher training modules available on GOV.UK.

The Department is monitoring the confidence of teachers to deliver the new curriculum through school surveys.

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