Schools have been left in the dark over when training grants will be made available to help them implement new relationship and sex education (RSHE) guidance from September.
The Department for Education (DfE) unveiled its proposed changes to the RSHE guidance in July. Ministers ditched the previous government’s plan for age limits on certain topics and a section forbidding teaching about gender identity.
Primary schools will be encouraged to teach about same-sex parents, and there will be a new emphasis on misogyny and sexual violence, deepfakes and sextortion.
The DfE promised that teaching grants would be made available to some schools “from early 2026” to help “staff tackle these challenges with confidence”.
But the wider government violence against women and girls strategy published in December said that schools would be selected for funds from next year, along with the launch of a £5 million healthy relationships pilot delivered by external partners in September.
School leaders’ union NAHT and the Sex Education Forum have called on ministers to clarify when support will be made available for schools.
‘Still no details’
Lucy Emmerson, chief executive of the Sex Education Forum, said: “Government has promised much-needed support for schools through RSHE training grants, yet there are still no details about when these start or how many schools will benefit.”
Emmerson said the quality of lessons “leans heavily on teachers having the confidence to broach the new mandatory topics”.
She added: “We call on ministers to explain what support schools will get before the September 2026 implementation deadline, and to commit with stakeholders on the long-term strategy for properly trained and supported RSHE workforce.”
‘Teachers need to be confident’
Sarah Hannafin, head of policy at NAHT, added that “no funding or training has been provided to schools to prepare them for delivery” of the new content.
“For learning to be effective, teachers need to be confident in their knowledge and have access to high quality resources,” she added.
It comes after the government issued updated draft guidance on how schools should support pupils questioning their gender.
The document states that schools should take a “very careful approach in relation to social transition”.
It also states that parents should be involved in the “vast majority” of cases in which a child questions their gender.
A DfE spokesperson said they were funding training pilots from September as part of government’s wider Violence against Women and Girls strategy, but did not confirm the fate of previously promised training grants.
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