The National Institute for Clinical Excellence–whose main role is to ration NHS drugs – is to write to every primary school telling it to start sex education when pupils are five. It will tell teachers that children should not be taught to say no to sex – but should learn about the value of "mutually rewarding sexual relationships"。
The 74-page document was produced on NICE's own initiative after it convened a panel of public health officials and representatives from family planning groups to produce guidance on reducing teenage pregnancy. NICE says that public health is part of its core remit and that cutting teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease would save the NHS money。
Sex education is not compulsory in English schools–and even where it is taught, parents have the right to take their children out of lessons. At present, the only part of sex education that is compulsory is the science element–the human reproductive system and how babies are made。
This is taught at secondary school. Guidance from the Department for Education suggests that from the ages of five to seven, children should learn the names of parts of the body, how people change as they get older, the difference between right and wrong, and that friends and family should care for one another。
Schools do not have to follow the sex education document–but it is the first ever comprehensive guide to what children should be taught produced by a Government department。
Recommendations from NICE include teaching children how to put a condom on and that excessive drinking can lead to sex. It advises schools to use social networking websites to get the sex message across and calls on teachers to offer children confidential sex advice if they need it–without their parents being told。
The report concludes that sex and relationships education is "more effective if it is introduced before young people first have sex". It says sex education – including information about sexually-transmitted infections, methods of contraception, pregnancy and abortion – can help children and teens delay sex until they are ready. "It does not cause them to have sex at an earlier age, or to have more sex, or sex with more partners, and nor does it increase the number of unwanted or teenage conceptions and abortions," the guidance says。