Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) is learning about the emotional, social and physical aspects of growing up, relationships, sex, human sexuality and sexual heath. It should equip children with the information, skills and values to have safe, fulfilling relationships, to enjoy their sexuality and to take responsibility for their sexual health and well-being.
Often our focus is on teachers, who play such a pivotal role in planning and teaching RSE lessons at school. Here we consider the role of social workers in supporting cared for young people to access RSE both in school and outside of that setting.
RSE is now a statutory part of the primary and secondary school curriculum in England, covering a range of topics spanning puberty, healthy relationships, safety online and sexual health. High-quality RSE lessons should be provided for cared for children and young people at school, but frequent interruption to education can result in gaps. Parents, carers and trusted adults also have an important role to play in educating young people informally, yet disruption in family life can result in gaps in learning about relationships and sex from home too.
RSE is a key part of safeguarding, helping prevent – and in some cases enabling earlier reporting of – abuse, violence and exploitation by supporting children and young people with essential language, knowledge and key life skills, such as help seeking. It also creates a space for a positive approach by getting familiar with what constitutes a healthy relationship and nurturing the emotional and social skills for enjoyable friendships and intimate relationships later in life. The impact of traumatic childhood experiences should also be factored into RSE provision for cared for children and young people.
Sadly, the health and wellbeing outcomes for cared for children and young people show great disparities: cared for young people are more likely to become mothers before the age of 18, demonstrate lower condom use, have first sex earlier and have higher rates of STIs. (Ahrens et al.2010; Mezey et al. 2015).
Meeting the needs of cared for children and young people
RSE is an evidence-based approach to promoting holistic health and wellbeing. For the reasons outlined above, meeting the RSE needs of cared for children and young people is particularly important. A range of trusted adults can help with this including school staff, foster carers and social workers.
Through our experience supporting foster carers with RSE, we became increasingly aware that social workers had a critical part to play. Social workers can be pivotal in ensuring that all children who come into contact with social care have access to RSE both in school and more informally at home. So we designed a training programme especially for social workers.
Very very insightful! There was a lot to reflect on to ensure that I am confronting my own biases and experiences.
- Social Worker attending a Sex Education Forum training
Cared for young people told us that they want social workers to have training on things that are relevant to their identity, such as being LGBTQ+, various beliefs and religions, and cultural awareness (Coram Voice, 2021). They also raise issues around confidentiality, language used by professionals, not enough focus on positive relationship building and being listened to within the care system. During the training we consider all these issues in relation to RSE and how social workers can make small, simple changes to their practice which can be really impactful on the wellbeing of young people (Sex Education Forum, 2022).
Our training, provides time for social workers to reflect on their own values and how trauma-informed practice applies to RSE. This is in response to Foster Carers’ call for a consistent approach to RSE across professionals supporting cared for young people; that everyone uses correct and inclusive terminology and are trained regarding RSE so that they are comfortable having RSE conversations in a non-judgmental way. (Sex Education Forum, 2022)
Sometimes other professionals working with the child struggle with the behaviour and the word masturbation, and I can see them squirming in meetings which is difficult when you want the best support and advice for the child.
Foster carer giving insights to the Start Talking Guide 2022
As part of our foster carer training, we speak to supervising social workers through informal briefings and 77% say they themselves haven't had any training on RSE.
Our training meets several Social Work Professional Standards, Corporate Parenting Principles and in line with the Children’s Social Care National Framework (2023). It is grounded in real and relevant social care challenges and situations. The training models RSE skills, and highlights what teachable moments can look like, delivered by Sex Education Forum specialists with social care and/or SEND expertise.
For us as RSE specialists, it is a privilege to have the opportunity to engage more closely with social workers. We are finding that RSE conversations are a natural skill-set for social workers to develop, it’s very rewarding to help equip professionals who can provide tailored support to marginalised children and young people.
Find out more about our Caring Conversations: social worker RSE training page here.
If you’d like to talk to a trainer at Sex Education Forum, email: [email protected]
References:
Coram Voice (2021) ‘The Case for Change’ report: https://coramvoice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/What-children-and-young-people-want-to-tell-the-care-review-summary.pdf
Sex Education Forum (2022) ‘Start Talking Guide’ https://www.sexeducationforum.org.uk/resources/advice-guidance/start-talking-rse-guide-foster-carers
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