High quality, inclusive RSE will benefit the mental health of all children

HEALTHY relationships are the foundation of good mental health; they promote emotional regulation and protect us from mental ill health.

Our friends support us through difficult times and a healthy relationship is associated with good mental health.

However, strong relationships require skills that often do not come naturally, particularly for people who have had difficult relationships with their own parents.

There have been calls for mental health in the educational curriculum, and education about relationships is an important element of this.

It is therefore positive that Monday’s motion calling for standardised, inclusive Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in all schools was supported. A key purpose of

RSE is to give young people the information and skills to have healthy relationships.

In primary school, it is about how to make friends, how to be a good friend, and how to communicate our needs in a respectful way.

It also covers how we respond when things go wrong and coping with rejection. This is particularly relevant in adolescence.

The evidence shows that by the age of 16, 58% of males and 55% of females had dated, and in our 2023 survey of young people, problems or arguments with friends were a source of stress and worry for 39.8% of 16-year-olds.

Many of our most vulnerable young people have not had role models for healthy relationships.

As a result, they can have difficulty navigating consent, and recognising and responding to abuse and intimate partner violence.

Education and open discussion around these issues is beneficial to mental health. A recent study from University College London showed the elimination of sexual harassment would lead to a reduction of 16.8% in the rates of serious mental health problems in girls.

RSE is also an important way in which we can reduce the rates of violence against females.

In an interview with the BBC, following his review of serious sexual offences here, Sir John Gillen said: “I’m a firm believer that children as young as five and six should be introduced, at a child-friendly level, to the concepts of consent, to the concepts of responsibility in relations with the opposite or same sex, as the case may be.”

Unfortunately, it seems that the current teaching of RSE is woefully inadequate. The Secondary Students Union of Northern Ireland’s survey found that 77% had not heard of RSE and only 22.8% had been adequately taught about consent.

In research conducted by the Belfast Youth Forum, young people described the RSE they received in school to be “basic”, “unhelpful”, “useless” and “biased”.

Several studies show that pupils would like to know more about LGBT+ identities, and that these subjects were delivered poorly or not at all.

It is vital that essential elements of RSE, consent and boundaries; and in adolescence, information about reproduction, sexuality and gender, are delivered in a consistent manner across all schools.

Last year the Secretary of State made age-appropriate, comprehensive and scientifically accurate education on sexual and reproductive health and rights, covering prevention of early pregnancy and access to abortion, a compulsory component of curriculum for adolescents.

This is a positive development which should result in all our children and young people accessing information.

However, misinformation regarding the content of RSE abounds, and many subscribe to the myth that RSE will result in an increase in sexual activity.

Of course, the opposite is true. Most young people already have access to online information including pornography, and by equipping young people with communication skills and accurate information, good quality RSE reduces early sexual activity and unplanned pregnancy.

The reality is that high proportions of young people are engaging in risky sexual activity, and a strong consistent RSE programme is necessary to reduce the associated health risks and protect young people’s wellbeing.

To promote wellbeing (and in fact to promote peace-building) schools should also be places that celebrate diversity.

In RSE and elsewhere, schools should proactively promote inclusion, particularly for LGBT+ young people, many of whom are bullied and report feeling marginalised and unsafe.

The messages that young people receive at school about issues such as sexuality and family structures contribute to this.

It is therefore also a cause for concern that the current guidelines state that schools may continue to provide a commentary regarding the topics discussed in RSE.

It is vital that parents are fully involved in RSE, they need to be made aware of what is discussed so that important conversations can continue at home.

However, it is again worrying that there are proposals to allow parents to exclude a young person from accessing information about abortion and the prevention of early pregnancy.

All our young people have a right to this information and to a high quality inclusive RSE curriculum.

By delivering this well across all our school, we promote mental health and positive social relationships.