The draft of this RSE code is a vast improvement on the one sent out with the consultation. However, as it stands today we can't support it. We do still have some huge concerns, which I hope the Minister can address, and bring back a revised code that all in this Chamber can support. 

The guiding principle of the relationships and sexuality education code, at least according to the Act, is that RSE lessons must be developmentally appropriate for learners. I am concerned that this code fails to adequately demonstrate how this can and will be achieved. The fact that schools and early years settings will have to decide what is developmentally appropriate for each child places undue burdens on those settings. How are schools and early years settings equipped to make those decisions? Teachers are not experts in child development, yet they are being asked to analyse each child and make a determination of their stage of development. This code has been developed with broad-stroke phases, which, according to the document itself,

'have been designed to give practitioners an understanding of what is likely to be developmentally appropriate.'

And this is not good enough. 

It is also concerning that, within classes or year groups, children could be taught differently, as they are at different stages of development, but it is not clear that there will be safeguards in place to prevent children accessing material that is not developmentally appropriate for them. The lack of safeguards makes this whole code unsuitable. That, together with the fact that we are being asked to improve the code without ever seeing the accompanying guidance—