Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood (RSHP) education is an integral part of the health and wellbeing area of the school curriculum in Scotland. This aspect of the curriculum is intended to enable children and young people to build positive relationships as they grow older and should be presented in an objective, balanced and sensitive manner within a framework of sound values and an awareness of the law. Learning about RSHP education begins early on in primary school and continues right up to S4-S6.
In 2023, the Scottish Government carried out a review of RSHPE teaching guidance. To ensure young people’s views were included in this review, we worked in partnership with Young Scot and the Scottish Government to consult young people, aged 11-18, to explore their views on how RSHP should be delivered in education settings.
We delivered this in two ways:
- Delivery of a consultation survey, aligned to the wider Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood (RSHP) Education Teaching Guidance Consultation, focused on broad information gathering. This activity was led by Young Scot, supported by the Scottish Youth Parliament.
- Facilitated in-person focus groups. This work engaged smaller groups of young people and provided opportunities for gathering more in-depth input and exploring some of the questions and emerging themes in more detail. This activity was led by Scottish Youth Parliament, supported by Young Scot.
Given the sensitive nature of some of the subject matter, we ensured an age-appropriate approach to the design and delivery of all activity including the themes discussed, how the survey and sessions will be run and the mixing of age-ranges as part of participation activity. In total, we engaged with 321 young people through online survey activities and 49 young people at in-person focus groups.
A report outlining our findings will be published here soon!
