My Lords, I again thank all contributors to this debate. As the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, said, we will return to some of the issues in different guises during the passage of the Bill. That is partly what Committee stage is for: to look at these issues and see where we can clean up the Bill.
Since 1998, all schools have been required to provide a balanced and broadly based curriculum which prepares pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. This includes academy schools by virtue of Section 1A of the Academies Act 2010, which is reflected in their funding agreements.
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The underlying sentiment of much of this new clause is one that the Government would support. In 2012, we amended the School Information Regulations and Schedule 4 contains a list of the minimum information a school is required to publish. In addition to a statement of the school’s ethos and values, a school must publish, among other things, the content of the curriculum followed for each subject in relation to each school year and details of how additional information relating to the curriculum may be obtained.
Sex and relationship education forms part of the statutory school curriculum of secondary schools. On this basis, all secondary schools must publish information about their sex and relationship provision by academic year, as well as about any other subjects they teach that are not national curriculum subjects.
The new regulations came into force in September 2012 and so we need to give them time to bed in. However, if parents want more information on any subject to be published, including on SRE, they can complain to the school through the school’s complaints process. When teaching SRE, it is a statutory requirement for schools, including academies through their funding agreements, to have regard to the Secretary of State’s Sex and Relationship Guidance. It is worth reminding the Committee what that guidance sets out. It states:
“Secondary schools should: teach about relationships, love and care and the responsibilities of parenthood as well as sex; focus on boys as much as girls; build self-esteem; teach the taking on of responsibility and the consequences of one’s actions in relation to sexual activity and parenthood; provide young people with information about different types of contraception, safe sex and how they can access local sources of further advice and treatment; use young people as peer educators, e.g. teenage mothers and fathers; give young people a clear understanding of the arguments for delaying sexual activity and resisting pressure; link sex and relationship education with issues of peer pressure and other risk-taking behaviour, such as drugs, smoking and alcohol; and ensure young people understand how the law applies to sexual relationships”.
In many ways, that guidance issued in 2000 was very specific and very detailed. It makes clear that—