Barnardo’s is calling on the new UK government to ensure all children in England receive age-appropriate sex and healthy relationship education.
The calls came after figures revealed the number of sexually exploited and at-risk children it supported last year across the UK rose by almost 50%.
Barnardo’s is calling on David Cameron’s new Conservative administration to guarantee children get the education they need to form healthy relationships in the future.
‘We must ensure the new UK Government prioritises work that helps keeps our children safe from exploitation. Key to this is teaching young people about healthy relationships,’ Barnardo’s chief executive, Javed Khan, said.
‘Our specialist services are seeing more and more children who are identified as needing our help. Whenever and wherever we open a service we find children who urgently need our support.’
‘Recent high profile sex abuse scandals like Rotherham and Oxford pushed child sexual exploitation to the forefront of the public consciousness. However, we must ensure that this profound crisis doesn’t get lost in the maelstrom of the post-election fallout.’
‘We must maintain the political momentum on this threat to children. It must not be allowed to drop off the agenda. The new government in Westminster must work with local authorities, police, schools and parents across England to help keep young people safe and bring their abusers to justice.’
In the financial year 2014/15 the charity supported 3,175 children across the UK, up from 2,118 the previous year. Barnardo’s now provides support in 47 different areas across the UK, helping girls and boys, with some victims as young as 11 years old.
Due to the challenging nature of this topic, Barnardo’s also wants teachers to receive specialist training on the nature of child sexual exploitation and abuse so they can deliver classes effectively and confidently.
Parents also have a hugely important role to play and schools should involve them in the planning and process, including taking into account their wishes on whether boys and girls should be given sex and relationship education together.
