Sex Education Forum is thrilled to announce a substantial new programme of work dedicated to embedding the involvement of young people throughout our organisation, thanks to three-year funding from the National Lottery Community Fund.
Our partners and supporters will know that youth voice is of central importance to us. We believe that children and young people should regularly be asked for their views on relationships and sex education (RSE) and that their needs should be met. The new funding means that we can build on the success of our annual Young People’s RSE poll, which serves as a barometer of progress in delivering high quality RSE lessons to pupils across schools in England.
Establishing partnerships with youth-led organisations is an important strand within the new programme, with Sex Education Forum developing their partnership with grass-roots organisation Make it Mandatory, who are campaigning for RSE to be extended up to the age of 18.
Lucy Emmerson, Chief Executive of the Sex Education Forum said:
“Working side-by-side with youth-led organisations means that we can open-up access to professional and informal networks, gain insights from our different expertise and support each other more equitably towards achieving our shared goals. Funding has been set aside for the use of youth partners, and Sex Education Forum will actively search for new partners to join us”.
Our learning over the last few years has been that young people want to have a voice in a range of different ways and to be offered choices about how to get involved. We will give young people a platform to speak at our events and give the necessary support to feel well prepared, as well as following up by co-designing communications that carry young people’s messages about RSE to wider audiences.
Crucially, we will focus on hearing from young people whose voices are often marginalised. In the first weeks of the programme, we were delighted to support a young person, age 19, who has complex needs, to share her experiences around consent and personal care by speaking at our members event: ‘the future of RSE for learners with SEND’. The young person was supported by staff at her school to plan and communicate the messages she wanted to share. In the months ahead, Sex Education Forum will develop tools to help ensure that every member of the staff team is involved in facilitating similar opportunities.
Throughout the programme, young people’s views will be sought to ensure that the training Sex Education Forum provides for educators and trusted adults is informed by young people. Through insight groups, we will invite boys and young men to explore and explain what helps them engage best in RSE. Through our wide range of partnerships and networks we will cascade learning to hundreds of educators who are able to put young people’s recommendations into practice.
Alison Hadley OBE, Chair of the Sex Education Forum said:
“This funding comes at a crucial time - with Adolescence prompting an increased urgency to tune into the reality of young people’s experiences growing up in the smartphone era. It is more important than ever that young people’s voices and experiences are heard and that trusted adults respond. Thanks to the National Lottery Community Fund, Sex Education Forum can now invest properly in our partnerships, skills and communications to help ensure that young people’s voices are at the forefront of the drive for better RSE”
Faustine Petron, founder of Make it Mandatory said:
"This feels like a pivotal moment in our shared journey to secure comprehensive, high-quality RSE that starts earlier and extends through to KS5. We are deeply grateful to the National Lottery for their generosity, and to Sex Education Forum for their unwavering belief in and commitment to our cause. With this support, Make It Mandatory can reach an even wider audience, and we look forward to the impact our partnership with Sex Education Forum will have!"
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