The annual Young People’s RSE Poll finds that the quality of provision in schools has improved but many young people are still not learning about key issues.
Published by the Sex Education Forum, the report is based on survey responses from more than 1,000 students in England aged 16 and 17 and asks them about their experience of RSE during their schooling.
The results show that 50% of the respondents said that their RSE at school was “good” or “very good” – the highest proportion yet in this research.
Broken down by issue, a majority of the respondents reported good coverage of topics including puberty (79%), sexual consent (71%), sexual harassment (64%), STIs (62%), and sexual orientation (57%).
However, many report not being taught enough about key issues including pornography (49%), power imbalances in relationships (49%), how to access local sexual health services (46%), healthy and unhealthy/abusive relationships (40%), STIs (35%), sexual harassment (33%), sexual orientation (38%).
Within this, 23% of the students said they were taught nothing at all about pornography at school.
The report raises concerns that this inconsistent provision is driving young people online in their search for information.
While “school” still ranks as the main source of information across all topics, 16% of young people said they learnt about pornography while watching it, while 22% said their main source of information about pornography was social media and other websites. When it comes to consent, 14% said they turned to social media or other websites for information.
Indeed, social media and websites were the main source of information on a number of topics for a significant minority of the respondents including for healthy and unhealthy relationships (18% and 21%), sexual health (18%), and LGBT+ issues (34%).
The government published statutory guidance on the teaching of relationships and sex education (RSE) almost five years ago (DfE, 2019) and has said that it intends to update this document later this year.
When asked during the research about this, young people said the priority must be training to ensure teachers can deliver RSE with confidence (57%) as well as more flexibility for schools to cover topics at the age their students need the information (52%).
Nearly four out of 10 of the respondents (39%) said that it would have been better if RSE had started earlier in their life with the introduction of key topics at primary school including consent (81%), the harms of pornography (73%), questioning and challenging stereotypical ideas about how girls and boys should behave (69%), and examples of same-sex relationships (56%).
Lucy Emmerson, chief executive of the Sex Education Forum, said: “A year after announcing a review into RSE, the government has yet to publish its efforts. In the meantime, government has failed to address the gaps even as young people cry out for support with significant issues like harms linked to pornography, rising rates of STIs, lack of LGBTQ+ representation, and power imbalances in relationships.
“We urge government to put pupils’ needs at the heart of its updated guidance. This means prioritising flexible ‘age and stage’ relevant content and providing teachers more training to confidently deliver lessons. Neglecting young people’s views does the next generation a disservice by leaving them dependent on potentially untrustworthy online sources for information and ill-equipped for healthy relationships.”
- DfE: Statutory guidance: Relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education, 2019: www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education
- SEF: Young people’s RSE poll, 2024: www.sexeducationforum.org.uk/resources/evidence/young-peoples-rse-poll-2024