Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support he is providing to enable schools to allocate sufficient time in their timetables to teach high-quality Relationships and Sex Education.

The Department is investing in a central programme of support to help teachers introduce the new subjects of relationships education (for primary aged pupils), relationships and sex education (for secondary aged pupils) and health education.

The new subjects are part of the basic school curriculum which allows maintained schools flexibility to determine how to deliver the new content, in the context of a broad and balanced curriculum. Many schools already teach the subjects using a whole school-approach, integrating the subjects across the curriculum, whilst others add dedicated curriculum time in order to teach the subjects.

The Department continues to work with subject experts to ensure schools are well supported to improve their practice, focusing on an implementation guide, support for training needs, and materials. This will also include sharing effective practice so schools can learn lessons from each other and decide how best to deliver the new subjects.

The introduction of these new subjects demonstrates the Government’s intent to support schools in order to deliver high quality teaching of the new subjects confidently, when they become mandatory from September 2020.