Supporting schools to improve the health and wellbeing of children and young people
Young People's RSE Poll 2021 from the Sex Education Forum
Thursday 10th February 2022
During the last month the Sex Education Forum launched the findings of their recent poll (October 2021) which asked young people about their experiences of RSE at school and at home. Key findings include:
- Compared to a survey run by SEF in 2019, there has been no overall improvement in school RSE
- For around 1:4 young people there has been no RSE from parents or carers
- Only 1:6 had regular discussions with parents or carers about RSE
- During Covid, almost half of young people received no RSE at school or at home during Covid lockdowns
Asked about the topics covered in RSE:
- Close to 3 in 10 (28%) of young people had not learnt about ‘how to tell if a relationship is healthy, including online’, with a further 31% feeling they had not learnt enough about this topic.
- Almost 3 in 10 (29%) had learnt nothing about ‘How to recognise when someone is being groomed for sexual exploitation’.
- More than a quarter (26%) had learnt nothing about the ‘attitudes and behaviour of men and boys towards women and girls’
- Thirty-seven percent reported learning nothing about ‘Power imbalances in relationships.
- One in three (33%) didn’t learn ‘how to access local sexual health services’, despite this is a basic, mandatory part of statutory RSE.
There is a rich set of data which you can read in the full report. The report also has a foreword by two parliamentarians who championed the fight for statutory RSE and remain committed to effective implementation, the Rt. Hon Maria Miller MP and Sarah Champion MP.
