Hansard

It is a great pleasure to speak in this joint debate on behalf of the Education and Skills Committee. I start by thanking my fellow committee members and the clerks for all the good work that they have done over the course of the inquiry.

Listening to Alex Cole-Hamilton’s speech, we can see that there is a clear link between the inquiry of the Equalities and Human Rights Committee on prejudice-based bullying and my committee’s work on personal and social education. Both committees found that there is a need to focus on the health and wellbeing aspects of our schools and on creating nurturing and safe environments in which all our children and young people can learn.

On that basis, we welcomed the invitation from the Equalities and Human Rights Committee to hold a debate on this cross-cutting issue. I very much hope that this collaboration and the clear cross-committee support for progress to be made in this area can have a real impact.

I will briefly work through the approach that my committee took, the evidence that we heard, and the broad conclusions that we came to. I will leave it to other committee colleagues to explore particular recommendations in more detail.

When my committee approached the work, we were keen to hear from as many young people, teachers and parents as we could, as well as hearing from experts and stakeholders. We invited responses in the form of short emails or directly through Facebook and Twitter on what PSE sessions should be about and how they should be delivered. The response was tremendous, and many of the most powerful aspects of our inquiry came through the voices of young people.

We followed that up with a round-table discussion on 22 February. Again, we focused on hearing the views of young people and youth and children’s organisations. It was, as Tavish Scott observed at the time, a “brilliant panel”.

As members might expect from such an open consultation, there were a great many suggestions about the context of PSE. There were so many suggestions that I simply cannot cover them all in the time available but, to give a flavour, many comments were about sex and relationships education, inclusivity, mental health, drug and alcohol misuse, citizenship and financial planning.

However, content is only part of the story. Who chooses the content, who delivers it and how it is delivered are also vital. We heard that PSE has the most impact and relevance if the curriculum is co-designed with the children and young people themselves, and delivered by a range of people. The committee therefore recommended that all PSE programmes should have an element of co-design and should also feature external speakers.

PSE should differ from class to class and school to school. However, there are some things that the committee firmly believes should be part of every school’s PSE lessons. The committee identified mental health, equalities, sex and relationships education and substance abuse as the cornerstones of any PSE programme.

The committee received many personal and sometimes heartbreaking accounts from young LGBTI people, their parents and their teachers about experiences of LGBTI people in school. One email said that, at school, people were

“only really told in passing that gay people exist, nothing about any other sexuality or gender identity.”

It continued:

“I therefore spent years thinking I was wrong for liking both men and women, and for not experiencing sexual attraction. I thought I was broken.”

The last topic that I want to address is good sex and relationships education, which has become even more important in the modern, online world. In relation to children’s access to the internet, Joanna Barrett from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children told the committee that

“by the age of 14, 90-odd per cent of young people had seen pornography, and about half of boys thought that it was an accurate representation of sex. Girls were articulating that they were very worried that boys’ impressions of and attitudes to women were negatively impacted by exposure to pornography.”—[Official Report, Education and Skills Committee, 22 February 2017; c 33.]

Some of the most powerful and disturbing evidence that we heard was about consent. Clare Clark from Sexpression:UK stated:

“Consent is a massive issue, but it seems not to be coming across to young people. There is clearly a gap ... We are letting people leave school with no information about consent, and we are having to cover it in universities.”—[Official Report, Education and Skills Committee, 22 February 2017; c 14.]

I will come back to that later in my speech.

The committee also heard about the importance of age-appropriate sex and relationships education starting at an early age, which was also highlighted in the session 4 Health and Sport Committee’s 2013 report on teenage pregnancy, and the committee asked the Scottish Government about the progress that it had made in that respect since 2013.

One of our main findings is that PSE provision is patchy. The committee heard from teachers who are truly committed to PSE—fantastic guidance teachers who put enormous thought, effort and passion into ensuring that our young people are equipped to face and be part of the world—but there are some places where we could do a lot better.

The committee believed that the first step was for there to be a recognition of the inconsistent delivery of PSE and for the Scottish Government to undertake a review. We simply do not know enough about how PSE is taught in our schools and the reasons why it is better in some schools than others. The committee was pleased to be pre-empted by the Scottish Government, which announced such a review before we even had the chance to suggest it—joined-up thinking, eh?

As part of the review, the committee wants the Scottish Government to examine whether schools’ PSE offer meets their duty to be health promoting and their duties under the Equality Act 2010 to meet the needs of those with protected characteristics, such as LGBTI young people.

Recently, the committee asked those who had engaged with us during the inquiry to let us know for this debate what one point they would make in the chamber if they could. One response, from Liz Mclnally, simply states:

“the issue of LGBTI equality cannot be emphasised enough in the context of PSE, particularly with regard to the number of non-binary young people now self-identifying in the school community, to help their peers understand the importance of knowledge and respect, to help them challenge homophobic bullying safely.”

In terms of the next steps, we need to wait for the conclusion of the review of PSE and, indeed, the working group looking at the recommendations of the time for inclusive education—TIE—campaign. I would be grateful if the cabinet secretary could provide an update on those pieces of work in his speech or in summing up.

Before I finish, I beg my fellow committee members for a little leeway to speak briefly as the member for Glasgow Cathcart. We spoke earlier about the importance of knowledge about the meaning of consent. That is important in schools, not just for the wellbeing of the young people while they are at school but to prepare them for when they leave to attend further and higher education institutions. Constituents of mine, Fiona and Germain Drouet, lost their daughter in the most terrible circumstances imaginable when she took her own life in her first year of university last year after being bullied and abused by another student. With their permission, I would like to let them use my voice so that they can speak to you today about the importance of PSE. They say:

“Losing our beloved daughter Emily in such tragic circumstances left us questioning every aspect of our life. The never ending ‘What ifs’, ‘Why didn’t we’, ‘If onlys’. But in our calmer and more rational states of mind we understand all these questions have the same answer: him. Our question ‘Why didn’t we’ often continues as: ‘Why didn’t we know “he” was a danger?’. The misogynistic, cold hearted and determined way he conducted himself was alien to Emily and the outcome speaks for itself. How could a 20-year-old boy be so ignorant and lacking in human decency, empathy and compassion.

Unfortunately, it seems parents can’t be relied upon to have those all-important conversations with their children about healthy and respectful relationships. PSE is the perfect opportunity to tackle the many and complex issues young people in our fast evolving society may face but it has to be made relevant to our children. Consent, kindness, love, honesty, respect are values that can only be brought home by involving them in a thought provoking discussion. We have to develop PSE in such a way that pupils fully engage with the subject. PSE shouldn’t be just another lesson but be a challenging experience where pupils are openly asked their opinions and encouraged to share experiences and feelings. Youth should also be educated in their role as by-standers Early intervention in education can only help other girls avoid the horrific experiences our daughter had to endure.”

There are no words that I could possibly add that would more eloquently and powerfully highlight the importance of PSE, and I very much support the motion in the name of Christina McKelvie.