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Children, Schools and Families Bill

My Lords, I do not believe that this time of night is the moment at which to have a profound debate on this subject. However, I want to take the opportunity to congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, on a brilliant exposition of what PSHE should mean. Good PSHE is absolutely desirable and should probably be compulsory. The trouble is that we do not have any guarantee that the PSHE to be taught under the Bill would be of appropriate quality. There is certainly circumstantial evidence to suggest that in some schools today, PSHE is not being taught by suitably qualified, trained and experienced teachers. The extension of PSHE on a compulsory basis to all schools would leave an enormous gap in the availability of teachers and teacher training. When a new Government are elected, we should try to resurrect the issue and press whatever Government are in power to give proper training to PSHE teachers and to make public the curriculum, what PSHE is about, and to explain it and sell it to the public so that they are not so suspicious of it and do not feel so threatened by it. That is why I introduced some modest amendments to try to improve the Bill. I am delighted that the Government have withdrawn the clauses, because I believe that that gives us the opportunity to look at the matter in a more holistic way after the election.