I’m writing with an update on our latest campaigning activities and continued calls for statutory PSHE education.
The momentum has continued to build in recent months, including a recommendation in the Women and Equalities Committee report for statutory PSHE – now the fourth Committee to do so. Also a ballot of over 970,000 young people gave top priority to a ‘curriculum that prepares us for life’ as a UK Youth Parliament (UKYP) campaigning issue, including comprehensive PSHE education in all schools. The UKYP will vote on Friday on whether this will be their campaign for the year ahead, and if so we look forward to supporting them with it.
We are also encouraged by recent comments from both the Education Secretary and Minister Edward Timpson. During her session with the Education Committee, Justine Greening recognised that the quality of PSHE (including SRE) needs to improve and Edward Timpson – the Minister with responsibility for PSHE – stated in response to a written question that “the Secretary of State agreed that we need to look again at how schools deliver high quality PSHE” and that they were “considering all the options, including the need for any statutory powers and will come to a view in due course”.
If PSHE education’s status is strengthened we want to ensure the commitment meets our understanding of how statutory status needs to be implemented in order to be effective. Please see our summary of key principles that we feel need to be in place, including:
- An entitlement which applies to all school pupils at key stages 1-4 in all state schools, whether they are academies or maintained schools
- A duty on all state schools which gives PSHE parity of status with existing statutory subjects and which applies to the whole of the subject, not any single component of it
Regarding the latter point, we have just issued a joint statement with the Sex Education Forum, stressing the need for mandatory sex and relationships education (SRE) to form part of a wider statutory PSHE education programme when considering options for improving this area of the curriculum. We highlight that SRE must form a core aspect of a broader PSHE education which develops essential skills and attributes – such as self-esteem, managing risk and resisting peer pressure – which pupils can apply to a range of areas; and which addresses related factors such as alcohol and drugs, media literacy, online safety, gender equality and emotional wellbeing. We add that making SRE statutory without PSHE would be a missed opportunity to help protect children from complex problems such as child sexual exploitation which often involve numerous contributory factors addressed by PSHE education – such as drug and alcohol abuse or emotional wellbeing – but not by SRE alone.
As for next steps, the DfE is aware of the level of support for statutory PSHE from teachers, parents, young people, business leaders and a spectrum of Parliamentarians so we hope that positive noises will turn to action. The DfE is due to respond to the Women and Equalities Report by mid-November, so we hope they will take this as an opportunity to make positive change regarding the subject’s status, or choose another opportunity to do so by the end of the year. Clearly we will be looking to see if any commitment meets the key principles we have set out and will respond accordingly. If there are no such developments we will continue to make the case and be in touch to discuss next steps.
Either way, I will keep you updated and hugely value your continued work supporting children and young people through PSHE education.
Kind regards,
Jono,
Jonathan Baggaley,
PSHE Association Chief Executive