Talking SRE. A guide to meeting your MP about SRE

Transcription

1 Talking SRE A guide to meeting your MP about SRE

2 Introduction Young people, parents and teachers have been calling for sex and relationships education (SRE) to become compulsory in all schools for many years. SRE It s my right is a campaign run by the Sex Education Forum to push Government to make this much needed change. There are 650 MPs in the UK and we know that lots of them do want SRE to become compulsory. Some MPs have spoken out about their support, and others are less sure about the benefits of SRE and the need for change. The SRE It s my right campaign calls for changes to legislation in England, but it will help to have UK-wide support from MPs. Meeting your local MP is the most effective way to help them understand the benefits of SRE. You are one of their constituents, they win elections because you vote and they have an obligation to listen to you. The campaign for SRE has gained strength year after year. Every new MP that expresses their support for statutory SRE brings us closer to our campaign goal, and we are now getting close to a majority of MPs supporting SRE. We are asking as many people as possible to talk to their MP about SRE. We need your help, and this guide is designed to explain what you can do. What can I do to help? Whether you re a young person, a parent or carer, a teacher, a healthcare professional, or just someone who wants to make sure that children and young people get the information they need to help them stay safe and healthy, you can make sure your voice is heard. You can write to your MP, or set up a meeting with her/him (see section below). You could also write a letter or article for your local newspaper, giving your views on the topic of SRE and why the Government needs to act to make sure it is on the timetable in all schools. A letter template is available from our web-site that you can use to get you started: policy-campaigns/ -your-mp.aspx Meeting constituents is one of the most valuable aspects of my job. They help to feed into my work whether in Parliament or in my local constituency. The meetings provide me with the evidence that I need to push locally and with national government to highlight what needs to change for the benefit of my constituents. Simon Kirby MP 2

3 How to arrange a meeting with your MP There are two main ways of arranging a meeting with your MP: > > Phoning or ing your MP s office and booking an appointment at one of their constituency surgeries. If you are under 16 we recommend that you talk to your parent or carer about your plans. > > If you are involved in a local school, organisation or group, inviting your MP to meet with your group or attend an event. You could also start following your MP on twitter. To find out who your MP is and how you can contact them, go to the Parliament website: Contacting your MP about SRE could be part of a citizenship, school council or local democracy project. When will the meeting be? Most MPs spend Monday to Thursday in Westminster, and are in their constituencies on Fridays, when they often run surgeries (drop-in sessions) where constituents can meet them. MPs are also more likely to be available on Fridays to come to see your group or attend an event. You should get in touch with your MP s office to organise when you can attend their surgery or to invite them to your group or event. What if I don t get a reply? If you haven t heard back you should call their office. MPs get hundreds and hundreds of s and letters and sometimes they get stuck in spam filters, so it is a good idea to call to make a follow up as well. Sending a letter by post (as opposed to an ) to invite them to an event can be more effective. In the same way, posting a letter about your support for a topic instead of an can be more persuasive, as MPs often get hundreds of s. 3

4 Preparing for the meeting Once you have a meeting booked with your MP or they are coming to visit your group, you need to decide what you want to say to them. If you are under 16 tell your parent or carer about the meeting. Here are three things to think about to prepare for the meeting: 1. Tell them your story You could start by telling them about the SRE that you have (or haven t had at school), for example: > > How much or little SRE did you have? > > Was the teacher trained and knowledgeable in the subject? > > Did it cover the topics you feel are important? > > Has good quality SRE helped you in your life? Or has lack of SRE been damaging? Remember that you don t have to go into details about your personal life. Your experience of education about sex and relationships is the key thing to share. Or by explaining your role in SRE and your local knowledge, for example: > > Do all schools in the area provide good quality SRE? > > What quality of SRE teaching do you expect as a parent or carer? > > What more is needed to make sure every child in the area has good quality SRE? > > How could good quality SRE help tackle local issues, for example child sexual exploitation and sexual health? Your MP may be surprised that some schools are not providing any SRE or providing so little, and that teachers often have no training in the subject. 2. Give them some hard facts about SRE MPs often want to know more about the facts and figures on a subject. You can print page 5 below and give it to your MP. If your MP asks questions about research and evidence and you are not sure about the answers you can offer to send them the Sex Education Forum briefing SRE the evidence. media/28306/sre-the-evidence-march-2015.pdf 4

5 Current provision of SRE the facts > > Currently, primary schools can choose whether or not to teach SRE. Maintained secondary schools must cover some aspects of SRE, but current Government guidance on what to include dates back to > > Academies and free schools have no obligation to teach SRE and do not have to cover the sex education included in National Curriculum science. > > 50% of the young people surveyed by the Sex Education Forum (2016) had not learnt from their primary school about how to get help if you experience unwanted touching / sexual abuse. 16% had not learnt the correct names for genitalia and 17% had not learnt that the genitals are private to you. > > Young people were more likely to have learnt about the difference between safe and unwanted touch from discussions at home than at school, but even so, less than half of young people (45%) said they had learnt about this with a parent or carer. SRE is protective the evidence > > A Cochrane review (2015) has concluded that Children who are taught about preventing sexual abuse at school are more likely than others to tell an adult if they had, or were actually experiencing sexual abuse. > > Data from the Children s Commissioner Inquiry into child sexual abuse has found that only one in eight victims of sexual abuse come to the attention of statutory authorities (2015). > > The UK Natsal-3 study found that people whose main source of information about sex was lessons at school were less likely to have an unplanned pregnancy later in life and first sex was less likely to be against their will (2013, 2015) > > National and international research shows that good quality SRE has a protective function as young people who have had good SRE are more likely to choose to have sex for the first time later. > > The Education Select Committee has recognised that age-appropriate information will protect children and has recommended that PSHE including SRE becomes statutory in all primary and secondary schools. > > The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has recommended, in its Concluding Observations on the fifth periodic report of the UK, that the government ensure that meaningful sexual and reproductive health education is part of the mandatory school curriculum for all schools. 5

6 3. Tell them what you want them to do Now you have made your case to your MP you need to get them to do something! > > Ask your MP to write to the Secretary of State for Education, Justine Greening, and the Prime Minister to tell them that they are concerned about the gaps in SRE provision and the need for action to guarantee that ALL children and young people get good quality SRE. > > Ask your MP if they will express their support for SRE publicly by providing a supportive quote. If they agree ask them to write down or you the quote. > > Ask your MP if they know how many schools in their area are providing SRE and how many are not. Suggest they contact their local safeguarding children s board or Director of Public Health to find out. If they agree that SRE is important can they demonstrate that it is happening in their constituency? > > Ask your MP if they will confirm in a letter, or tweet that they support all children and young people having access to SRE in school. Please contact the Sex Education Forum sexedforum@ncb.org.uk to let us know what they said, and tell your MP that there is a growing list of supportive MPs which is being gathered. Don t be discouraged if you have a meeting but don t see an immediate change it takes time to bring people round to an alternative point of view. However, sometimes you will get a clear result, for example your MP may ask a Parliamentary Question about SRE! Do you support the recommendation from the Education Select Committee that every child and young person should have access to comprehensive and age-appropriate sex and relationships education (SRE) as part of an entitlement to personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education at their school? 6

7 Now you can add your action to our campaign time-line! 2009 Under the Labour Government plans were made to make PSHE including SRE statutory, but these plans were scrapped when the Coalition government came to power in Hundreds of people ed their MP explaining that SRE is every child s right In February, the Education Select Committee recommended that SRE and PSHE become statutory in all primary and secondary schools In July, MPs voted in favour of the Caroline Lucas PSHE Bill In January the Chairs of four Select Committees wrote to Nicky Morgan calling for action on statutory SRE and PSHE I spoke to my MP about SRE In February, the Secretary of State for Education, Nicky Morgan rejects calls for SRE and PSHE to become statutory and an article in the Telegraph suggests that statutory SRE was directly blocked by the Prime Minister In June, UN recommends that SRE is mandatory in all UK schools. And finally. tell us what you ve done We would really like to hear how you get on with your MP. It s important for us to know which MPs have had meetings with campaigners, and what they said, so we know what their reservations about statutory SRE might be and so we can count the number of MPs who are supporting statutory SRE. Tell us about your meeting by ing sexedforum@ncb.org.uk. You can also share contact details for the Sex Education Forum (Lucy Emmerson, Coordinator, lemmerson@ ncb.org.uk) with your MP if they want more information. 7

8 Extra information for MPs 1. What is sex and relationships education? Sex and relationships education (SRE) is learning about the emotional, social and physical aspects of growing up, relationships, sex, human sexuality and sexual health. It should equip children and young people with the information, skills and values to have safe, fulfilling and enjoyable relationships and to take responsibility for their sexual health and well-being. 2. Isn t SRE compulsory already? No. The legislation is confusing, but it allows primary schools and academies to choose not to teach a programme of sex and relationship education (SRE). There is some basic sex education such as puberty and reproduction in primary science and the menstrual cycle and reproductive system in secondary science. This is part of the National Curriculum and academies and free schools don t have to follow it. State secondary schools (other than academies and free schools) have to provide sex education but the only topic they must cover is HIV, AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections. The Sex Education Forum believes that SRE is every child s right a view that is backed by the UNCRC and UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women* and put forward by the Education Select Committee in their report Life Lessons (2015), which recommended that SRE be made statutory in all state-funded primary and secondary schools. The independent reports into child sexual exploitation in Greater Manchester, Birmingham and Rotherham recommended that all schools provide SRE by trained educators. Legislation needs to require all state-funded schools to provide sex and relationships education this would include academies, free schools and primary schools. 3. But haven t the government recently updated their SRE guidance? Legally, all state funded schools must pay due to regard to the Secretary of State s SRE guidance. The latest guidance was issued in What is taught to five year olds? SRE begins with teaching children about appropriate behaviour, safety and basic understanding of their bodies and how families care for them. Five year olds are not taught about how people have sex. The kind of questions that are covered with children aged 5 include: > > What parts of my body are private? > > Who should I tell if someone wants to touch my private parts? > > What does my family do for me? > > How much have I changed since I was a baby? At secondary school young people need to add to their learning so that they can recognise when a relationship is healthy or abusive, when behaviour may constitute grooming and vital information about sexual health. 8

9 5. How often should SRE be taught? There needs to be an element of SRE included in the PSHE programme for every academic year in primary and secondary school. We recommend that PSHE has a regular place in the timetable and should not be taught purely through special drop-down / off-timetable days. Schools have been warned against the solely drop-down day approach by Ofsted. This approach still leaves flexibility for schools in designing their curriculum. The Sex Education Forum curriculum design tool provides a flexible and developmental framework to structure SRE. 6. What sort of training is needed? Should this be initial teacher training? All teachers need basic training in SRE and PSHE as part of initial teacher training. There should also be the option to train as a SRE/PSHE specialist teacher. In primary and special schools all teachers need to be able to teach SRE and PSHE. In secondary school SRE needs to be taught by a subject specialist as other subjects are and so there needs to be an option to train as a SRE / PSHE specialist teacher. If SRE and PSHE are treated the same as other subjects the need for properly trained educators would be recognised too. 7. Shouldn t it be left to parents to educate their children about sex and relationships? Children say they want their parents to be their primary educators about sex but in reality many parents fail to play this part. A national survey (Natsal-3) showed that fathers are the main source of information about sex for only 3% of boys. Yet 23% of boys would have preferred that their father was their main source of information. Many parents want to take more of a role in educating their children but say they need support to do so. When schools are providing good quality SRE they involve parents and this helps parents understand how they can play a part at home too. 8. What does the evidence say? National and international research shows that good quality SRE has a protective function as young people who have had good SRE are more likely to choose to have sex for the first time later and are more likely to use condoms and contraception when they first have sex. In a large US study, young people who had received comprehensive SRE were less likely to describe first sex as unwanted. See SRE the evidence for a summary of the research evidence. The Education Select Committee has recognised that age-appropriate information will protect children. Failure to guarantee SRE in all schools leaves many children unable to speak out about unwanted touch, ill-equipped to recognise abusive behaviour and at risk of unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. 9

10 Notes *The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has recommended, in its Concluding Observations on the fifth periodic report of the UK, that the government ensure that meaningful sexual and reproductive health education is part of the mandatory school curriculum for all schools (UNCRC, 2016), and was previously raised by the UNCRC as an urgent issue in The UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women at the end of her visit to the UK, asserted that in order to play a truly transformative role in the longer term, this [This is Abuse] campaign, as well as similar initiatives, need to be part of the curriculum and be institutionalized in the education system (UN 2014, p2). The UK country report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women recommends that the UK government Ensure a holistic approach to prevention of violence against women and girls by including appropriate and comprehensive sex and relationship education in schools as a compulsory subject; providing adequate training to teachers and other school staff; and developing gender-specific prevention policies (UN 2015). Make sure to like the Sex Education Forum on Facebook (facebook.com/sex-education-forum) and follow them on Twitter (@sex_ed_forum) to keep up with campaign updates and ways to get involved. National Children s Bureau, 2016 Published by National Children s Bureau for the Sex Education Forum. The Sex Education Forum is a unique national collaboration of organisations and individuals committed to improving sex and relationships education for children and young people. sexedforum@ncb.org.uk Website: The Sex Education Forum is hosted by National Children s Bureau. Registered Charity No Registered in England and Wales No Registered Office: 8 Wakley Street, London, EC1V 7QE. A Company Limited by Guarantee 10