By Sheona Goodyear, PhD student, University of Birmingham.
My Granny became ill with cancer and died when I was eight.
I resisted being left alone with my Grandfather before her death and have been perceived as ‘difficult’ ever since. On one occasion, I screamed “f**k off!” at my Dad, in desperation to be allowed to stay behind at a friend’s house. This was not typical behaviour in my family.
I tell you this because it happened when I was young: younger than year 4.
The government has issued a new Draft Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education: Statutory guidance for governing bodies, proprietors, head teachers, principals, senior leadership teams, teachers (DfE, 2024). In addition, the government has launched a consultation which ends 11th July 2024.
The guidance states its aim is to ‘keep children safe and informed about growing up and the challenges this may present’ (DfE, 2024, p.7). It emphasises a need for appropriate teaching which should be delivered by ‘a trusted adult’ and a wish to ‘help’ and ‘support’ ‘prevention of harm and early intervention’. At the outset this nonspecific language leaves the guidance open to interpretation which is at best a concern. The inclusion of age limits for when topics deemed sensitive should be taught in schools could compound the lack of clarity or be a dangerous backwards step in practice to safeguard young children.
The Secretary of State for Education insists parents hold the main responsibility for teaching Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE). In an ideal world, perhaps parents could deliver outstanding RSHE, but how many children live in an ideal world? Not all children even live with parents. And with experiences of home education fresh in parents’ minds, how many would wish to take on the complexity of the RSHE curriculum?
Another consideration would be whether parents are invested in preventing harm. While most parents undoubtedly nurture their children and promote their best interests, in some home environments this is not the case. While the guidance asserts it has been grounded in advice from an independent expert panel, it seems that evidence commissioned by the government has not been considered. In areas the guidance upholds inaccurate stereotypes, for example, that risks of sexual harm are likely to occur from strangers. The Home Office funded Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse repeatedly confirms child sexual abuse is most likely to be carried out by someone known to the child (Karsna and Kelly, 2021). Furthermore, 53% of victims and survivors of child sexual abuse who contributed testimony to the government’s Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) reported that the abuser was a member of their family, foster family or a residential carer (Jay, et al., 2022).
The guidance for the primary stage does direct schools to deliver relationships education to ‘equip pupils to recognise and report abuse’ (DfE, 2024, p.17). This is crucial: 79% of victims and survivors reporting to IICSA were aged 11 or younger when sexual abuse started (Jay, et al., 2022). The Centre for Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse found 55% of victims and survivors were age 11 or younger when abuse began (Karsna and Kelly, 2021). Another consideration is the finding from DfE that more than half of children on child protection plans with significant risk of sexual harm were age 9 or younger (for the year ending 31 March 2021) (Jay, et al., 2022).
Meanwhile, IICSA and other sources agree the prevalence of child sexual abuse is impossible to determine. Only 33% of the IICSA Truth Project participants reported the abuse when it was happening. The Government’s Tackling Child Sexual Abuse Strategy (2021) states:‘it is difficult to truly understand … how many victims and survivors remain unidentified because of under-reporting, under-identification of victims and survivors by agencies, and a lack of robust survey data’(p.138).
Appropriately delivered RSHE is an important tool giving children knowledge to identify harm, whether intra or extrafamilial, and in whatever form. It provides alternative opportunity for a child to consider telling someone if they have experienced sexual abuse. This is particularly significant if adults in the family environment cannot be trusted to act when a child discloses abuse. High quality RSHE might also give a child the vocabulary to be able to tell, so the significance of what the child is experiencing comes across clearly.
IICSA reported that ‘relationships and sex education in schools did not reflect the current challenges facing children and was mostly inconsistent and inadequate’ (Jay, et al., 2022, p.127). If interpreted openly, in the spirit of reducing stigma and enabling children to talk about the challenges their relationships may involve, this guidance could secure better advice for children and young people and support development of healthy, positive relationships in their futures. However, ambiguity in the guidance leaves opportunity for it to be misinterpreted and to undermine the sensitive approaches required which were encouraged in previous documentation. In addition to this, observing rigid age limitations for sharing of information may leave children unprepared for their own development, ill-equipped to identify dangers in their worlds and as unable as I was to explain if something harmful happens to them.
References:
Department for Education (DfE) (2024) Draft Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education: Statutory guidance for governing bodies, proprietors, head teachers, principals, senior leadership teams, teachers. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1090195/Relationships_Education_RSE_and_Health_Education.pdf (Accessed: 22 May 2024).
His Majesty’s Government (HMG) (2021) Tackling child sexual abuse strategy 2021. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/605c82328fa8f545dca2c643/Tackling_Child_Sexual_Abuse_Strategy_2021.pdf (Accessed: 22 May 2024).
Jay, A., Evans, M., Frank, I. and Sharpling, D. (2022) The report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. Available at: https://www.iicsa.org.uk/reports-recommendations/publications/inquiry/final-report.html (Accessed: 22 May 2024).
Karsna, K. and Kelly, L. (2021) The scale and nature of child sexual abuse: Review of evidence. 2nd edn. Available at: https://www.csacentre.org.uk/documents/scale-nature-review-evidence-0621/ (Accessed: 22 May 2024).