Sex and relationships education
Sex and relationships education (SRE) should be taken forward as part of a whole school approach to health following guidelines on Sex Education in Scottish Schools. Schools should have a clear SRE policy that takes account of national and local guidance, as well as respecting cultural, ethnic and religious influences within the home, school and community.
Schools must inform parents and carers about SRE programmes and resources, allowing them to see what is used to teach their children. If new SRE programmes and resources are being developed, parents and carers must also be consulted. Parents and carers have an important role to play in supporting and reinforcing the positive messages given at school.
SRE should demonstrate annual progression appropriate to pupils' age and stage of development. The best approach to delivery is a multi-agency approach, which uses a range of expertise, such as the school nurse, local voluntary organisations and the health service.
Respect and Responsibility
‘Respect and Responsibility’, the national strategy and action plan for improving sexual health in Scotland, was launched in January 2005. The strategy contains a number of actions for councils which have an impact on the provision of SRE in schools.
These actions are to:
- work through the local authority director with responsibility for education services to ensure the delivery of consistent and appropriate sex and relationships education in all school settings and for those excluded from school
- support consistently high quality education about sex and relationships throughout Scotland. Consistent with circular 2/2001 and the McCabe recommendations, sex education should be defined as sex and relationships education, based on health guidelines and built upon throughout primary school as part of 5-14 health guidelines and developed through to school-leaving age
- ensure providers of sex and relationships education training provide this on a multi-agency basis, where appropriate, and that training takes account of issues relating to different cultural and religious practices and beliefs
- ensure schools demonstrate mechanisms to involve parents and carers in sex and relationships education programmes consistent with the McCabe Report recommendations
- ensure that a member of each secondary school’s management team is responsible for ensuring that school-based education about sex and relationships subscribes to current guidance and delivers key learning objectives to all pupils
- ensure that for education in early school levels the emphasis will continue to be on stable family relationships, on friendship and on developing an understanding of how we care for one another
- ensure that all schools are able to demonstrate that they provide pupils with equitable information about sexual health services and how to access them.
Every NHS board in Scotland has produced an inter-agency local sexual health strategy, which is usually available on the relevant NHS board website. The first annual report on the implementation of ‘Respect and Responsibility’ was published in November 2006. It outlines some examples of good practice and highlights areas that still require further development.
Learning and Teaching Scotland has appointed a Development Officer, Carrie Lindsay, to assist in the implementation of the recommendations in ‘Respect and Responsibility’. Carrie will help to support councils and schools to take forward the actions within the strategy.
