6. Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Education: Relationships and Sexuality Education

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:05 pm on 22 May 2018.

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Photo of Kirsty Williams Kirsty Williams Liberal Democrat 5:05, 22 May 2018

Thank you very much, Llyr, for your welcome of the statement. Just to provide clarity, I am accepting all the recommendations of the report in principle, and I want to make progress on all of them, the most important of which is to ensure that, as we move to our new curriculum, RSE will be a statutory part of that curriculum, which is new policy. It wasn't the intention initially to make it a statutory part of the curriculum. The review has made that recommendation, and I'm accepting that review, and, when we come to legislate for the curriculum, then Members across the Chamber will see that reflected in the legislation that we will bring forward that will enact the new curriculum. So, that is a significant change.

The second recommendation was around—this is why it's accepted in principle—changing the name. Because the report says we should call it sexuality and relationship education. Actually, I'm going to call it relationship and sexuality education. I'm doing that because I want to focus on the issue of relationships, of whatever kind, because I think it is relationships that are the backbone of all of our lives. As I said in my statement, whether that's a relationship with a sexual partner or a relationship with our friends, it is the ability to develop and maintain healthy, fulfilling relationships that is a building block of our happiness and our well-being, and I really want relationships to be at the forefront of what we're talking about to our children. So, it's a slight change from what the panel recommended.

You'll also be aware, in the report, that there was a strong, strong emphasis on the need to develop our staff, because we need our teachers to be confident about addressing these issues with children and young people. I'm accepting that. The money that we're talking about today is to begin that process of identifying immediate professional learning needs that we have in the current system. Alongside that, as we work forward with our professional learning pioneers as part of our curriculum reform, there are other opportunities to think about the professional learning needs we will need to have for the successful delivery of the new curriculum. We also need to take up the opportunity of our reforms of our ITE provision also to ensure that these issues are addressed, because we need to have good-quality teachers who are confident, as I said, to be able to address these issues.

The curriculum is of a statutory nature, so that will apply to all schools that have statutory age children. So, that's five to 16, and all schools will be required to deliver that part of the curriculum. For schools of a religious nature, we will continue to have ongoing discussions with that particular sector about how this new curriculum will affect their delivery, but I have to say we've had engagement with schools of a religious character in the development of the policy. I myself had a discussion with the Archbishop of Wales about it recently, and there is an understanding across all schools of the necessity of equipping our children with the knowledge that they need, because they recognise, just like Darren Millar did, the very real dangers that sometimes our children and young people are facing. And they understand that they want to ensure that their children have good mental health, good physical health, can equip themselves to develop those good relationships that we all want to see for our children, and, crucially, keep them safe.