Baroness Barran (Con)

My Lords, this group of amendments seeks to strengthen the curriculum by extending the teaching of RSHE and PSHE to the age of 18 and broadening it to include non-religious beliefs in the RE curriculum. I confess to being sceptical about the impact of extending RSHE in particular to 18, in relation to safeguarding young women, principally, who might be affected by domestic abuse. My experience from working in that field is that young people are very good at identifying domestic abuse in other people and that training and support can facilitate disclosures of abuse, but it is much less likely that they will identify it in time in their own relationships. That is because, of course, most abusive relationships start off looking like any other relationship and it is only when you are in that relationship and significantly controlled by your partner that you begin to realise what is going on. I absolutely support helping and providing advice to people, young and old, in abusive relationships, but I am not convinced that RSHE to 18 will change much on the ground.