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Education and Skills Bill

moved Amendment No. 198: 198: After Clause 66, insert the following new Clause— ““Personal, social and health education In section 84 of the Education Act 2002 (c. 32) (curriculum requirements for first, second and third key stages), after subsection (3)(g), insert— ““(ga) personal, social and health education, and””.”” The noble Baroness said: I shall also speak to Amendment No. 199, which is in the group. The new clause would add personal, social and health education—PSHE—as statutory subjects within the national curriculum at key stages 3 and 4. This proposal has been raised from these Benches previously, and my noble friend Lady Walmsley has long been an enthusiastic and vocal champion of PSHE as a vital part of a child’s education. The Bill now provides an opportunity for this to be put into effect. For PSHE to become a statutory part of the curriculum, it is estimated that there should be a minimum requirement of an hour a week, incorporating the existing statutory requirements for education in sex and relationships, drugs and alcohol, as well as careers guidance. From Ofsted reports we know that the quality of PSHE education as it currently stands is extremely variable and not universally well taught. Under this amendment, PSHE would become a teaching specialism, with initial teacher training set up to ensure a high-quality teaching workforce. That would raise the profile of the subject and reinforce the Government’s commitment to promote pupil well-being. The National Children’s Bureau reports messages that it has received from young people talking about what they want to learn, and it has come up with five categories of what they want to learn. The first is ““to stay safe””—how to build safe relationships, learning about risk and responsibility. The second is ““to be healthy””, which includes dealing with pressure and stress. It is about healthy minds and healthy bodies. Thirdly, young people want to make a positive contribution and to learn skills for being confident and outgoing and how to make decisions. The fourth category is ““to achieve economic well-being””—how to manage a home and finances and avoid debt. If ever that were necessary, surely this is an occasion, as the country faces tight times, when young people need to know how to manage finances. The last category was ““to enjoy and achieve””. That includes communication, motivation and the confidence to try new things. The school curriculum should enable young people to acquire the skills and the knowledge they need to achieve those aims and to equip them to be successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens—in short, to deliver the outcomes of Every Child Matters. In the course of that they would acquire self-respect and learn to respect others. We read all too frequently—it is almost a daily occurrence—of young people who are caught up in turf wars and violent situations involving knives, alcohol or drugs. Government figures last week highlighted the UK’s unacceptably high rates of teenage pregnancy. Abortion rates for young people under 15 have risen by 12 per cent, from 1,042 to 1,171, and there is a particularly disturbing rise among young girls under 14—from 135 to 163, a rise of 21 per cent. Last week we also had the report from the Teenage Pregnancy Independent Advisory Group, which, along with the FPA, is making clarion calls for PSHE to be a statutory part of the curriculum so that young people can get easy access to appropriate contraception and sexual health services both in the community and in schools and colleges. In tackling the many different forms of irresponsible youthful behaviour we need to address the causes as well as the effects. The Government may well be looking for mechanisms immediately to reduce knife crime—which is currently top of the media statistics—but we should not lose sight of the longer-term solutions. The addition of PSHE as a statutory requirement would send a powerful message that the Government are fully committed to promoting children’s well-being for their own long-term benefit as well as for the benefit of society. I beg to move.