Schools are especially well placed to be pro-active in prevention. So it is encouraging that the government is proposing to strengthen the statutory guidance Keeping Children Safe in Education to place more emphasis on teaching pupils to stay safe.
The guidance covers a range of issues where schools’ role is vital – not least in the recruitment and vetting of staff who work with children – but also in a host of areas where children and young people need to be equipped to deal with risks such as abuse, child sexual exploitation and female genital mutilation (FGM).
The foundations to keep children safe can and must be laid early, through good-quality sex and relationships education (SRE).
This work should begin at primary school, but findings from the Sex Education Forum’s survey of more than 2,000 young people show that 50 per cent had not learnt from their primary school about how to get help if they experience unwanted touching or sexual abuse, 16 per cent had not learnt the correct names for genitalia, and 17 per cent had not leant that the genitals are private to you – all key to recognising and reporting abuse.
So it cannot be taken for granted that pupils arrive in secondary school with the basic language and awareness for recognising abusive behaviour and seeking help.
When asked about their school SRE as a whole, over half of young people had not been taught to spot the signs of when someone is being groomed for sexual exploitation, and well over four in 10 had not learnt how to tell when a relationship is healthy or when it is abusive.
Only 24 per cent of young people said they learnt about FGM, but the figure increased to 40 per cent among 11 to 13-year-olds. This higher figure gives cause for hope that SRE is improving in secondary schools, albeit slowly.
Safeguarding is central to the new Ofsted inspection framework, which came into use in September 2015, to the extent that a school where safeguarding is judged to be inadequate will now be judged to be inadequate overall. In an outstanding school, pupils should have “an age-appropriate understanding of healthy relationships” and be “confident in staying safe from abuse and exploitation”.
Making SRE as part of PSHE education a top priority for 2016 in your school will pay dividends. Not only will it score points with Ofsted but, when given adequate time and resources, it can address so many troubling issues at an early stage. The key is to invest in subject leadership and training and to embed a curriculum that explores core themes such as consent, gender and equality. The Sex Education Forum has produced a free curriculum design tool which provides structure to the subject with enough flexibility to shape it to your context.
The strengthening of safeguarding guidance is a move in the right direction, but there is overwhelming support for SRE and PSHE to become statutory in all schools.
The Education Select Committee last year recommended this action to government. Almost one year on we are still awaiting a decision; the government can no longer justify its resistance to making SRE and PSHE mandatory in all schools.
- Anna Feuchtwang is chief executive of the National Children’s Bureau. Visit www.ncb.org.uk
Further information
- Proposed changes to Keeping Children Safe in Education are out for consultation until February 16. Visit http://bit.ly/1ZekyAC
- The Sex Education Forum survey findings are reported in Heads or Tails: What young people are telling us about SRE. Visit www.sexeducationforum.org.uk