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xCampaign for access to relationships education
Date: 28th September 2026
Category:
Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities
NSPCC Scotland has launched a campaign calling on Scottish Government to improve relationship, sexual health, and parenthood (RSHP) education in schools to keep children and young people safe.
NSPCC is pushing for more consistent RHSP education that reflects the realities of modern relationships, with a view to empowering children and young people to recognise harm, seek help, and build healthy interpersonal relationships.
To tackle the patchy delivery of RSHP education in Scotland, NSPCC wants Scottish Government to introduce a duty on local authorities to provide relationships education, recognise children’s right to relationships and sex education in law, produce clearer guidance for teachers to help them deliver effective relationships education, and provide teachers with the necessary time and resources to fulfil this aim.
Together has previously called on Scottish Government to ensure the provision of mandatory, age-appropriate and inclusive RSHP education, including in our 2023 shadow report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. The UN Committee subsequently issued a recommendation to the Scottish Government to make this happen:
“44. The Committee recommends that the State party….Integrate comprehensive, age-appropriate and evidence-based education on sexual and reproductive health into mandatory school curricula at all levels of education and into teacher training and ensure that it includes education on sexual diversity, sexual and reproductive health rights, responsible sexual behaviour and violence prevention, without the possibility for faith-based schools or parents to opt out of such education.” (2023 Concluding Observations)