Women and Equalities Committee welcomes new Government advice to schools on sexual harassment between children

The Women and Equalities Committee has today welcomed new advice to schools on sexual harassment, published by the Department for Education, but says that more will need to be done to ensure that future generations of girls are safe and equal at school.

The advice, ‘Sexual violence and sexual harassment between children in schools and colleges’, provides advice for schools on how to tackle the problem, highlighting best practice, statutory guidance and the legal framework.

The Committee’s report in the last Parliament uncovered the scale and impact of sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools in England and called for it to be acted upon urgently. The report found that neither OFSTED nor the Department for Education had a coherent plan to tackle the issue and called for clear national guidance.

Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee, Maria Miller MP, said:

“We are very pleased to see this advice for schools and colleges but the Department needs to promote this widely so that it doesn’t just sit on their website.

“It is well over a year since the Committee called for the Government and schools to make girls’ safety an immediate priority and this is a belated, but critical, step in the right direction. The advice addresses in detail important issues that we highlighted in our report, including the need to get support from specialist services and recognising the forms that sexual harassment in schools can take.

“In the last year, we have continued to hear distressing stories of girls being abused and harassed in schools around the country. We hope that this advice will be a significant step on the road to schools being better equipped to respond when this happens. The Government has also taken up the Committee’s call for a ‘whole-school’ approach which can reduce the chances of abuse and harassment taking place.

“There is more work to do, however. A long-term commitment is needed. The programme of work should include funding specialist sexual violence organisations to support schools and young people, and research on how boys and young men can be part of the solution. Collecting data on incidents is vital in ensuring that the advice is implemented in practice, so that future generations of girls are safe and equal at school.”

ENDS

BACKGROUND

The Committee’s Sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools report, published in September 2016, made recommendations including: 

• Creating a statutory obligation on schools to take action to prevent and respond to sexual harassment and sexual violence, backed up by guidance to achieve this through a ‘whole school approach’; 
• Age-appropriate compulsory Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) for all primary and secondary school children; 
• Creating a fund to support specialist sector organisations to use their expertise to help schools tackle sexual harassment and sexual violence. 

The Government accepted the Committee’s findings of high levels of sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools in England in its response to the report. Since the report, the Children and Social Work Act 2017 has since made Relationships Education for all primary school children and Relationships and Sex Education compulsory for all secondary school children. 

On 11^th October 2017, ministers Nick Gibb and Anne Milton gave evidence to the Committee on the performance and priorities of the Government Equalities Office.

On sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools, ministers committed to:

• Looking at the inclusion of detailed guidance for schools that perpetrators of sexual harassment and sexual violence should not be put back in the same class as the victim, and;
• Providing information to the Committee on numbers of schools put into special measures by Ofsted for failing to protect girls from sexual harassment or sexual violence.

On 6^th December, the Committee took evidence on the issue of sexism and sexual harassment faced by women at universities, the workplace in public spaces and online. This follows the recent emergence of widespread allegations in the UK and US about sexual assault and harassment across a range of sectors. It will inform a possible future inquiry into issues of sexism and sexual harassment.

Committee membership:   

Mrs Maria Miller (Chair) (Cons); Tonia Antoniazzi (Lab); Angela Crawley (SNP); Philip Davies (Con); Rosie Duffield (Lab); Kirstene Hair (Con); Eddie Hughes (Con); Jess Phillips (Lab); Mr Gavin Shuker (Lab); Tulip Siddiq (Lab).