The Department for Education issued new draft RHSE guidelines in May. You may have seen the media reports about it or heard people with an interest and expertise in sex education and health talking about this on their social media.
Let’s be clear – RHSE (sex education as most people call it and remember it from their days at school) – is a safeguarding tool. Vital for healthy relationships with your own body and with others, and packed with vital knowledge about keeping yourself safe, protected and healthy. High-quality sex education improves safeguarding, helps children understand their bodies as they grow and makes sense of the multitude of issues that surround ‘sex’ – from consent, through to FGM, sexual violence and abuse and so much more.
The current guidance that schools are using was issued in 2019, and time (as well as TikTok and Pornhub) have moved on in the last 5 years. A review of the current evidence-based guidance was needed to identify the gaps and misinformation that have grown since 2019.
Misinformation around reproductive health has exploded online, and we know that children are exposed to it from a young age. Without similar bans on all online access to reproductive health education – it’s really hard to understand how children will be better protected to look after their gynaecological health. We know that even adults are confused by the information they find online. As a charity focusing on gynaecological health, we know that this proposed new guidance raises questions at best and could potentially embed harmful shame, stigma and misinformation at worst.
Unfortunately, the draft guidance published last month doesn’t move body and reproductive health knowledge forward for children and young people in four key areas where Eve have expertise and experience. Lucy Emmerson from the Sex Education Forum has described the guidance as failing to acknowledge the views and experiences of children and young people, and even more worryingly: ‘It is not underpinned by research evidence and, should the proposals go ahead, would create a culture of fear and stigma around the teaching of, and discussion about key topics that are intrinsic to comprehensive relationships, health and sex education.’
What’s important is that sex and health education is ‘timely’ – which means children learning about something before they experience it (for example the onset of periods or their HPV vaccination) so they better understand it and feel less scared when it happens. Worrying data from The Sex Education Forum estimates that around a fifth of young people are currently relying on the internet and social media as their main source of sex education – which was one of the many reasons why compulsory RSE came into being in the first place.
Banning topics and upping age bands is not the answer. Developing guidance that supports schools, training teachers and taking an evidence-based approach is what’s needed to empower and protect children and young people – and, in the long term, keep them healthy.
Our concern at Eve is to focus on explaining the implications of the new guidance and what this might be for the future generation around gynaecological health.
Anatomy – we all need to know our bodies:
The national curriculum for science includes anatomy and external body parts. The recommendation is that this remains at Year 5 or 6 (and no younger than 9). At Eve, we know how vital it is that young people feel confident naming their anatomy. It’s a question they ask from a very early age and if proper anatomical terms are not taught, unhelpful euphemisms are often used which remain into adult life and stigma and shame build up. We believe that there is strong evidence to reinforce teaching anatomy – including reproductive anatomy – from age 7.
Menstrual health – making talking about periods normal is a must:
A ban on teaching about puberty until Year 4 means girls will not be learning about periods in a timely way. The majority start their periods between age 9 – 13, with some starting even younger. The new guidance would be out of line with the age range of menstruation, but it also signals that periods are somehow ‘inappropriate’ for under 10s. When 1 in 4 girls currently report that they started their periods before they learnt about them and with adults reporting that they don’t understand enough about menstrual conditions, this really isn’t providing the foundations for good gynaecological health.
It’s great that PCOS, endometriosis and other menstrual conditions have been included in the curriculum from Year 9, but we know at Eve that the most important thing for looking after your menstrual health throughout life is understanding what a ‘normal’ period is and getting rid of the stigma and taboo around talking about menstruation. This guidance will not help banish the shame around menstrual health or achieve menstrual dignity or equity.
HPV – 80% of us will come into contact with this virus, we need to know it can cause cancer:
We have a fantastic HPV vaccination programme in the UK – which sits alongside a terrible knowledge gap and lack of understanding when it comes to HPV as a virus and what it can do. Currently all children in Year 8 (aged 12 – 13) are offered the vaccine as part of the schools’ vaccination programme. Under the new guidance, children would not learn about HPV until Year 9. Basic good practice tells us that you need to learn about something BEFORE you experience it. We are concerned that this lack of knowledge will not support further uptake of the HPV vaccination which is proving so effective, with the HPV vaccine reducing the cases of cervical cancer by 90%.
Calls to Ask Eve, our nurse led information line are filled with questions, misunderstandings and fear about HPV (a very commonly occurring virus that causes several different types of cancer including cervical). The earlier that young people understand HPV the more cancers we can prevent.
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) – screening and gynaecological checks are not easy for everyone and this means addressing issues at the earliest stage:
There are many groups who find accessing cervical screening and other gynaecological checks and healthcare very difficult. Women affected by FGM are one of these groups. We developed a learning module with the National FGM Centre around FGM for young people in key stage 1, 2 and 3. Children aged 5-9 years old are at the greatest risk of FGM in England. The revised guidance would mean that FGM wouldn’t be mentioned in schools until well after the key risk age, and children would not have the detail to recognise what it is and the risks. Eve knows that in terms of long-term gynaecological health and wellbeing, FGM teaching is essential. It can be taught sensitively as a safeguarding matter in primary school. Banning teaching about FGM until Year 9 will not provide either the awareness or safeguarding that children deserve.
As a charity, our ambition is to prevent every single case of cancer that we can. This focus on prevention needs to start with high quality, evidence-based health and sex education. We would like to see the guidance revised to reflect the evidence that we have about long term investment in looking after gynaecological health. We know from the Women’s Health Strategy consultation that gynae health education was a priority for many.
We would love to hear what Eve supporters think and will be submitting a response to the consultation (closing date 11th July 2024) where we include your views. You can also respond to the consultation – it’s a structured questionnaire – here: https://consult.education.gov.uk/rshe-team/review-of-the-rshe-statutory-guidance/
Please reference The Eve Appeal as a source of information if you are providing feedback in the areas that we have highlighted around gynaecological health.