PSHE Association responds to appointment of new Education Secretary

The PSHE Association welcomes Damian Hinds to his new role as Education Secretary, and calls for a continuation of progress made under Justine Greening towards statutory PSHE education that includes, but isn’t limited to, relationships and sex education (RSE).  Mr Hinds has previously been a member of the Education Select Committee and Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Social Mobility.

PSHE Association Chief Executive Jonathan Baggaley said:
“We look forward to working with Damian Hinds as Education Secretary and hope that he will continue the progress made under Justine Greening towards improving the status and quality of PSHE education. Government amendments to the Children and Social Work Act have paved the way for statutory PSHE education including improvements to relationships and sex education, and Ms Greening must be commended for her work on this.

With a call-for-evidence on PSHE education and relationships and sex education now open, it’s vital not to lose momentum towards ensuring all children and young people, in all schools, benefit from statutory PSHE that enables regular high-quality lessons taught by trained teachers.  The evidence is clear that this could have a huge impact on young people’s life chances, wellbeing, safety and ability to achieve”

The DfE call-to-evidence on PSHE and RSE is open until 12 February and they are particularly interested in young people’s input. To assist this, the PSHE Association has created a free lesson plan to allow teachers to facilitate feedback sessions in schools.