One of our immediate post-election priorities will be to ensure that Ministers in the new Conservative majority Government respond quickly and positively to the Commons Education Committee’s recommendation of statutory status for PSHE education. It has also now been announced that Nicky Morgan will retain her role as Education Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities so we will continue to make the case for statutory PSHE to her and other DfE ministers once these positions are announced.
We will also continue with our broader campaign for statutory status, building on significant momentum achieved before the election. We will remind Ministers that the new Children’s Commissioner, Anne Longfield, has made statutory PSHE a key priority, while the campaign for statutory status has so far been supported by over 100 leading bodies including six education unions, six royal medical colleges, two royal societies and a range of expert organisations including the NSPCC and the Faculty for Public Health.
Surveys also show that our campaign has wide public, professional and business support, with 88% of parents, 88% of teachers and 85% of business leaders supporting statutory status. Most importantly, we know that this is something children and young people want: 470,000 young people were involved in the process of making ‘a curriculum which prepares us for life’ the UK Youth Parliament’s campaign priority for England in 2014, and our campaign for statutory status is supported by a range of children and young people’s organisations including Girl Guiding, the British Youth Council, The Children’s Society, UK Youth and Young Minds.
We hope that these voices and the voices of our 9000 strong community of PSHE professionals will be heard, along with the recommendations of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, the Joint Committee on Human Rights and six recent reports into child sexual exploitation. In particular, we expect the Government to respond to the Commons Education Committee’s recommendation that PSHE should be made statutory over the coming weeks, and will be working hard to ensure that this crucial recommendation from an influential cross-party group is taken on board. In short, the campaign for all pupils to receive an education which helps them to keep healthy and safe, and prepared for life and work in modern Britain, goes on.
We will update members on any further developments, including information about other ministerial appointments. Meanwhile, read more about our #pshepledge campaign here.
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