Some good news

News

The Government has now accepted the reality that due to lockdown schools may need more time to prepare before bringing in the new Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) lessons.

Schools have been given permission to delay teaching the lessons until the beginning of the summer term 2021 if they need to. Previously there were worries they would be required to introduce them in the autumn term, even though they have not been fully open for months. While only a temporary relief for concerned parents, and schools may decide to press ahead anyway, this nonetheless offers them some welcome respite. Crucially it provides schools with more time to fulfil their legal duty to consult parents before writing their policy.

At C4M we continue to be deeply concerned about some of the content we have seen for these lessons. While some are taking a rounded approach, others are failing to prioritise marriage, promoting same-sex relationships to small children, and pushing anti-scientific concepts of gender identity that put children at risk. We are also dismayed by the weakening of the right of parental withdrawal. We continue to press the Government on these points.

The other piece of good news is that the NHS has changed its transgender guidance to be more honest.

It now makes clear that using puberty blockers as a treatment for gender dysphoria is not fully reversible and its long-term effects are not known.

Under the old guidance parents and young people would have been falsely reassured by the unwarranted claim that the effects of blockers were ‘fully reversible’. We welcome the new honesty in this area – albeit introduced without any of the publicity we might hope for to raise awareness – and call for more.