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Re-thinking Sex and Relationship Education in Schools: Targeting potential young fathers

Funded until 2010 by the North Lincolnshire Teenage Pregnancy Partnership, Freelance Trainer & Consultant Lynnette Smith has been working across North Lincolnshire to deliver an innovative Sex and Relationship programme to all young people in the region’s schools.

Since 1999 the Local Authority has had a designated Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) team but the contraceptive input has always been delivered in a rather traditional factual way, covering a wide range of contraceptives and how females utilise them. Following a radical review and revamp between May and July 2008 (prompted by a national initiative spearheaded by the Sex Education Forum), it was found that there was an urgent need to refocus the programme in order to bring the spotlight onto young men (and potential young fathers) specifically to raise their awareness of and, responsibility for, contraception upon starting a sexual relationship.

Lynnette Smith who heads up the programme alongside a dedicated team of specially trained youth workers reports that it is first delivered to pupils when they are in year nine (six sessions), and then again when they are in years 10 in order to reinforce the lessons being learnt. Having reached a total of 2000 young people in 14 schools so far since starting in September 2008, the programme aims to engage a total of 4000 in its first year.

'Although it's early days, we want to promote the idea that young people have a choice. For young men, they have a choice about whether to be a father or not. We are not saying ‘don’t be dads’ – we are saying just be a father at time they choose. We are aiming to try and empower young men to take more responsibility for contraception and whether or not they become a father.'

The content of the programme is deliberately and strategically focused covering relatively few methods of contraception; just those long acting reversible methods of contraception (LARC) methods recommended by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). Amongst other reasons, this helps ensure that key learning points are retained by the pupils. Examples of topics discussed include conception, choice about when to become a parent, effective forms of contraception for men and women, impact of pregnancy on life chances for fathers and mothers (such as education, finance, legal issues, poverty, infant mortality, housing etc), and the impact of alcohol on decision-making.

Learning Points and Next Steps

• An important part of the SRE programme is to put young men in school at the forefront of the sessions to ensure that they know it is ‘for them’ as well as well as for young women. Lynnette Smith reports that this is often done in quite subtle but effective ways, for example by ensuring the language used reflects this focus by referring to contraception as a choice for the father and the mother rather than vice versa.
• Preliminary evaluations (including informal feedback from pupils) of the revamped SRE programme has shown promising results with young men being actively involved in the sessions and reporting enjoyment and learning of the issues. However, not all people are able, or wish to, access the sessions through school exclusions or truancy for example. In such circumstances the North Lincolnshire SRE Team are able to offer flexible provision by delivering the sessions through the Pupil Referral Units, Youth Offending Service, alternative learning venues or via home visits if necessary:

'We believe so strongly in the importance of this programme, that if young men are not able (or willing) to attend the sessions in school, then we will go to them, we view it as an entitlement. Our SRE database ensures we are able to adopt an inclusive approach.'

• Some formative evaluation has already been conducted as integral part of the revised SRE programme in North Lincolnshire. However, no formal evaluation has yet been done although this is planned to take place after the first year of the programme has been completed (September, 2009)

Contact:
Lynnette Smith (Freelance Sex & Relationship Trainer & Consultant)
Big Talk Education
Email:Lynnette-smith@talk21.com

If you have any questions or comments for Lynnette Smith on this casestudy, please post them on on the forum here.