Less than 5,000 schools have been delivering the new Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education curriculum, it has emerged.

There are 24,000 primary and secondary state schools in the UK, but school standards minister Robin Walker has revealed that in the 2020/21 academic year, the new programme reached 3,800 schools, and provisional data for the last wave, which ended in July, shows a further 1,000 schools have been supported.

Labour MP Sarah Champion asked a parliamentary question around what assessment he has made of the adequacy of training for teachers delivering the new Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education curriculum.

Mr Walker replied: “The consultation on the statutory guidance for relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) curriculum revealed that many teachers and subject leads needed training and support to deliver the new content.”

As a result, the Department for Education invested in a package of support to develop teacher capability and competence to teach high quality RSHE. The package of support included a training and peer support programme, delivered by teaching schools and based on the department’s training modules which were developed with subject experts and tested with teachers.

The figures then showed that 3,800 schools had been teaching the RSHE curriculum and the last wave revealed a further 1,000 schools had been supported.

"This is a cascade model of training whereby those trained are expected to share the training with other teachers in their school and wider school networks,” said Mr Walker. “Teaching schools have made their training materials and other resources freely available on their websites.”

The department’s training modules are also freely available for all schools to download via the following link .