MPs wary of ‘power shift’ in sex education reforms

EDUCATION SECRETARY Damian Hinds has defended changes to sex education after MPs accused him of “a fundamental shift of power to the state”.

Tory backbenchers challenged him on the potential for headteachers to overrule parents who want to remove their children from such lessons, as the Minister unveiled his plans in the Commons.

Sir Edward Leigh said: “All previous Conservative Governments have given an untrammelled right to parents to remove their children from sex education. But here in certain circumstances that right has been transferred to the headteacher. A fundamental shift of power to the state.”

The new guidelines state that if a parent wishes to withdraw their child from sex education they can do so, only if the child is under 15, and in “exceptional circumstances” that request can be denied.

Mr Hinds said he expects schools would “respect the parents’ request”.

Tory grandee Dr Julian Lewis, chairman of the defence select committee, took issue with the phrase “exceptional circumstances”, asking on what grounds would a headteacher overrule a parent, and suggesting that if that were to happen more parents would take their children out of school.

Mr Hinds replied saying that the “long-standing right to withdraw children from sex education” will remain, but added it was “a right to request”, and that children should be able to “have some sex education for at least a term before they reach the age of consent” if they choose to.

Steve Double, Tory MP for St Austell and Newquay, asked for a reassurance that there was no intention to usurp or undermine the right and responsibility of parents to educate their children in sex education matters.

The Education Secretary said he could indeed confirm that, adding schools were there to “complement what parents do”.

Kettering MP Philip Hollobone wanted the right to withdraw pupils extended to new lessons on relationships but Mr Hinds said “it is important that every child has the right to learn about and to discuss the different types of relationships there are in the world”.

The new curriculum “does not refer to intimate relationships”, he added.