Practice sharing notice-board

The Sex Education Forum is always interested in finding new examples of how sex and relationships education is happening in practice. Having an understanding of current practice helps us to inform our practice development and policy work and to share local good practice more widely.

New examples of practice will be published in the Practice section of this web-site and may be shared through our professional networks and publications.

We are currently looking for a range of new practice examples relating to the themes outlined below.

 

1. Do you work with a school with a sixth form which is providing SRE for sixth form students?

The Sex Education Forum is carrying out research about SRE for post-16 students. The research will involve a 30 minute telephone interview with the relevant staff member. Do please get in touch if you can take part or recommend a school that may be interested. Please contact Lucy Emmerson, Principal Officer at the Sex Education Forum if you have an example to share. Email: lemmerson@ncb.org.uk
 

2. Sexual health services in further education – meeting the needs of vulnerable young people.

Do you work with young people aged 16- 25 who are:

 - Young people with learning disabilities
 - Unaccompanied minors/ESOL students
 - Looked After Young People and Care Leavers or
 - LGBT young people
                                  ....in a further education setting?

The Sex Education Forum is undertaking research into college-based sexual health services and vulnerable young people. We are seeking to create a document for FE-based sexual health services that highlights the needs of specific groups of young people, as identified by them, to ensure that services are inclusive. 

We will be running focus groups with young people in January and February 2010 to ascertain what they think sexual health services must know about their needs.

If you would like to find out more information about this work and think that you may know young people who would be interested in taking part in this research, please email Charlotte Levene, Senior Development Officer at clevene@ncb.org.uk



3. Faith, values and SRE

The Sex Education Forum is researching and writing new and up-to-date case-studies which demonstrate how schools and local areas are addressing faith, values and SRE. As a collection we hope the case-studies will include:

 - A broad geographical spread (not all from London)
 - A case-study focusing on culture and values – not specifically faith-related
 - At least one should look at curriculum content
 - Primary and secondary schools
 - Out of school SRE for young people e.g. community group, youth group
 - Illustrate an approach involving single sex work and how this has been followed up to facilitate communication between boys and girls
 - Illustrate inclusive SRE that meets the needs of young LGBT people
 - Include faith-based and non-faith based schools – and multi-faith context
 - Show how SRE can be consistent with the school values/ethos

Aspects of good practice that the case-studies should illustrate:

 - Involving young people
 - Providing ongoing training for those delivering
 - Regular opportunities for parents to be informed about programmes and discuss any concerns
 - Acknowledge that it is a long-term process of building trust and relationships – thus focus on processes as well as outputs
 - Some will be ‘work in progress’ and identify ‘what we could have done better’ 
 - Acknowledge the complexity of young people’s lives, the reality of their experience and potential value conflicts

Please contact Lucy Emmerson, Principal Officer at the Sex Education Forum if you have an example to share. Email: lemmerson@ncb.org.uk 



4. Work-based learning , SRE and sexual health

The Sex Education Forum is currently undertaking a two-year project, funded by the DCSF Children, Young People and Families Grants Programme, to improve young people's access to sexual health services and sex and relationships education (SRE) in Work-Based Learning (WBL) providers. 

The project aims to demonstrate the role that WBL can play in addressing inequality in access to sexual health services and the benefits of including SRE as part of WBL programmes.  By sharing good practice and enabling networking the project aims to foster new partnerships across the PCT and local authority demonstrating how to work effectively with this neglected section of the FE sector.

Work-Based Learning providers offer training courses linked to work placements for young people who tend to have low attainment at age 16 and have not engaged with mainstream further education. These courses include Entry to Employment (E2E) and apprenticeship programmes. The WBL setting presents an opportunity to engage with young people and promote their access to services.

The Sex Education Forum is currently looking for examples where work-based learning providers are offering SRE and access to sexual health services for young people. This may be in partnership with the local primary care trust, local authority or voluntary sector agencies. If work you are involved in suggests a possible case-study please get in touch so that a telephone interview can be arranged.

Please contact Lucy Emmerson, Principal Officer at the Sex Education Forum if you have an example to share. Email: lemmerson@ncb.org.uk