Commenting on today’s announcements about new relationships and health
education in schools, Geoff Barton, General Secretary of
the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said:
“ASCL welcomes the government’s proposals on relationships and
health education as these are critical issues for young people in
navigating an increasingly complex world. In practice, schools
already teach children about these topics, but the new guidance
on relationships and sex education will be enormously helpful
given that it was last updated 18 years ago. The proposals on
mental health education are of great importance in a society in
which young people face multiple pressures. But we do need to
examine these carefully as this is a specialist area and we must
ensure that this duty is matched by any training and resources
which may be necessary. It is vital that we get this right.
“We also think that the government needs to do more to tackle
these issues beyond the classroom. Mental health support for
young people is in crisis. Schools have had to cut back
counselling services because of a real-terms decline in school
funding and often cannot access under-funded local NHS services
to get specialist care for vulnerable students. More investment
is urgently needed. More also needs to be done to address the
pressures and problems caused by social media. In a recent
ASCL survey of
headteachers, 93% said that new laws and regulation should be
introduced to ensure social media sites keep children safe.”
