Introduction
Relationships, health and sex education covers all aspects of child development, welfare and safety. As such, it is an important part of safeguarding practice within any setting.
The Department for Education (DfE) published revised Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education (RSHE) statutory guidance in July 2025 to replace the 2019 framework. Education settings have until 1 September 2026 to implement the changes, although early adoption is encouraged. The updated RSHE guidance brings several important implications for education settings across England. These changes are designed to enhance safeguarding, improve transparency, and ensure age-appropriate delivery of sensitive content.
“Effective teaching [of relationships, sex and health education] will support young people to cultivate positive characteristics including resilience, self-worth, self respect, honesty, integrity, courage, kindness, and trustworthiness. Effective teaching will support prevention of harms by helping young people understand and identify when things are not right.”
Department for Education 2025 pg 2
Parents have the right to request that their child be withdrawn from some or all of sex education, but students can choose themselves to opt back in from three terms before they turn 16.
Guiding principles
The RSHE guidance directs education settings to develop and implement a curriculum with these key principles in mind:
- Engagement with pupils
- Engagement and transparency with parents
- Positivity
- Careful sequencing
- Relevant and Responsive
- Skilled delivery of participative education
- Whole school approach
Key content updates for introduction 1 September 2026
Primary Education
- Correct terminology for body parts, including genitalia, is now explicitly included to support safeguarding and abuse identification.
- Personal safety now covers fire safety, water safety, road and rail safety as well as respectful relationships, boundaries and the risks of sharing information and images online.
- Mental health education includes grief, loss, and bereavement.
- Primary settings can also choose to discuss the sharing of naked images or online sexual content if it is affecting their students.
Secondary Education
- AI literacy and deepfake awareness are introduced to address emerging digital risks.
- Menstrual and gynaecological health now includes endometriosis and menopause.
- Knife crime and conflict resolution are added to the curriculum.
- Suicide prevention is now a required topic, with schools expected to have a safe delivery plan and trained staff.
Safeguarding and Inclusion
- Stronger emphasis on tackling misogyny, incel ideology, and the harmful nature of pornography.
- Financial exploitation is addressed, including scams, fraud, extortion, and sexually motivated extortion (commonly referred to as ‘sextortion’.
- Schools must teach facts and law around LGBT+ topics without endorsing specific views.
- References to SEND students are integrated throughout, though the dedicated section is less detailed than in 2019.
Implications for safeguarding practice
It has been five years since the statutory RSHE guidance was last updated and it does seem like an update was overdue. This new guidance pays attention to a broad range of risks outside of the home, as well as those harms which are mainly being facilitated online. There is also consideration given to a broader range of physical/mental health and safety issues.
It is a positive that the new RSHE guidance covers so many of the safeguarding issues that we work with every day and it is vital that the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) and any other lead (such as mental health/wellbeing lead) has input into the curriculum and the implications of its delivery. A good RSHE curriculum should lead to more requests for support from students and it is important that a whole-setting approach is taken, with people working together to ensure students get support when they need it.
Staff and leaders at the setting need to ensure that their knowledge and understanding of (what might be perceived to be) newer and emerging safeguarding and wellbeing concerns keeps pace with the knowledge-level of their students. Helping relationships are founded on shared understandings. Therefore, it is also important that settings consider their staff safeguarding training offer and whether all staff are being kept up to date appropriately. Where staff are being given information regularly, how does the setting know if staff have understood and can apply their knowledge in the best interests of students?
Actions for education settings to take away
- Are the DSL, the safeguarding team and the mental health/wellbeing lead aware of the curriculum to be delivered, when and by whom – including external speakers?
- What arrangements are in place for the safeguarding team and the other relevant staff (for example mental health/wellbeing lead, Heads of Year, pastoral teams, school nurse (where present) to give time, resources and input regarding the new curriculum and its potential impact on safeguarding arrangements in the school?
- Is your whole-staff safeguarding training offer up to date and able to keep pace with the level of knowledge and understanding students will be gaining through their RSHE curriculum?
- Are your instructions to external visitors clear in how they will deal with a safeguarding report? Are ground rules for confidentiality and the application of your safeguarding policy clear to them?
- Is your safeguarding governor / Trustee aware of this curriculum change and the link to Keeping Children Safe in Education?
- Are you confident of the communication links in respect of the potential need for some students to receive additional levels of staff awareness or support?
- Is everyone in the setting aware of the role of parents and carers in respect of the RSHE curriculum? Parent and carer role needs to be supported by transparency, openness and timely information sharing.