Debate contribution: Relationships and Sexuality Education

Debate contribution by Mr Paul Givan on 22 April 2024.

MLA

Mr Paul Givan

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

22 April 2024

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Relationships and Sexuality Education

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4484909

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I agree with the Chairman of the Committee that we ought to engage with children and young people in relation to this area, and we do. I will further outline how we do that. I thank the Chairman of the Committee for the respectful manner in which he engaged in the debate and for the way in which he conducted himself, which is in marked contrast to the manner of the Member in front of him, with his sniggering, snarling attitude towards Members of the House throughout the entire debate. If we were to go down the route of standardisation, that standardised approach would, in the words of the motion, be "compulsory" for every child. That fact would fail to respect diversity in the school system and in society in Northern Ireland. It would be fundamentally undemocratic. The Education (Curriculum Minimum Content) Order (Northern Ireland) 2007 sets out statutory requirements relating to the curriculum through high-level areas of learning. Specifically, it provides that the statutory curriculum:

"is a balanced and broadly based curriculum which — (a) promotes the spiritual, emotional, moral, cultural, intellectual and physical development of pupils at the school and thereby of society; and (b) prepares such pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life by equipping them with appropriate knowledge, understanding and skills."

The statutory curriculum for personal development and mutual understanding at primary level and the personal development strand of learning for life and work at post-primary level prescribe the high-level minimum content for relationships and sexuality education. At each Key Stage, that is the minimum entitlement that all young people must receive. The minimum content provides flexibility, and schools have a high degree of autonomy over what is taught. Relationships and sexuality education in the Northern Ireland curriculum is not new. There were requirements for schools to deliver RSE before the introduction of the Education (Curriculum Minimum Content) Order (Northern Ireland) 2007. In 2013, a circular required schools to have an RSE policy. In 2011, the Education and Training Inspectorate published a report on RSE in post-primary schools. The Department of Education subsequently wrote to schools, in 2014, and published a revised guidance circular in 2015 that required schools to have an RSE policy that was based on their ethos and subject to consultation with parents and pupils, and that highlighted issues around dealing with sensitive issues. On 5 June 2023, however, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland brought forward regulations. The 2023 regulations required pupils at Key Stages 3 and 4 to receive:

"age-appropriate, comprehensive and scientifically accurate education on sexual and reproductive health and rights ... covering prevention of early pregnancy and access to abortion"

to reflect the legal duties placed on the Department as a result of the legislation that had been brought forward by the Secretary of State. Whilst the board of governors and the principal in a school have a statutory responsibility to deliver minimum curriculum content, they also have autonomy over when and how that is done and who is involved in curriculum delivery, aligned with the ethos of the school. That includes the change to the RSE curriculum that was made by the Secretary of State. It should be noted that the change to the curriculum that was made by the Secretary of State does not prevent teachers and pupils from discussing and commenting on moral, ethical or spiritual issues that may arise in relation to the matters associated with the legislative change to the minimum content that has been outlined. On 1 September 2023, the Department launched a consultation on proposals for regulations that would prescribe the circumstances in which, at the request of a parent, a pupil may be excused from lessons pertaining to the change to the statutory curriculum. An enormous total of 13,461 responses were received by the close of the consultation. The responses also indicated the overwhelming opposition to the Secretary of State's regulation. At a time when Westminster was not prepared to intervene to support key priorities such as health and education, it saw fit to interfere in what are, clearly, issues that were devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly.

I want to make some progress, please. Such piecemeal and selective interventions risk calling into question the very nature of the devolved settlement. There have been many calls for RSE to be standardised and made mandatory in the curriculum. That call has been repeated today. However, RSE is already a mandatory part of the curriculum in schools. The minimum legal content has to be taught and is set out as high-level areas of learning, but it is fundamental to our approach to education in Northern Ireland, across every area, that it is for teachers to decide how the curriculum should be delivered, which resources to use and which specific topics to cover. The flexibility of our curriculum is a key strength. Boards of governors are ultimately responsible for the curriculum that their school delivers and for ensuring that it meets the minimum requirement. It is their responsibility to ensure that a comprehensive programme is delivered that meets the needs of its pupils and aligns with its RSE policy and school ethos. The Department requires schools to consult parents and young people on the development and review of their RSE policy, and it re-emphasised that requirement in guidance that was issued at the start of this year. That is the right approach. It is essential that parents are consulted on what their children are taught and not condescended to by Members who think that they know better. I would not presume to tell parents what to think or second-guess the choices they would make for their children. The sponsors of the motion arrogantly assume that it should be politicians and not parents who make decisions for their children. Schools are very well placed to lead the way in attitudinal and behavioural change, with a whole-school environment that equips and supports the empowerment of future generations to develop healthy, respectful relationships. Addressing the root causes of violence against women and girls, including coercive control, will be a central part of achieving that outcome. On the issue of addressing violence against women and girls and coercive control, the Assembly passed legislation that criminalised the purchase of sexual services. When I went into a school, a girl said to me, "We should not be viewed as a commodity and a product that can be bought by men." Which party in the Assembly voted against that legislation? The Alliance Party. When it had an opportunity to stand with women and girls, it did not take it. It stood instead with pimps and those who traffic people into the country. That is the Alliance Party's record on ending violence against women and girls. The policy landscape on RSE has changed significantly and will continue to do so as we consider the recommendations that arise from the various reports and evaluations and the Secretary of State's legislative change. As I noted earlier, that is fuelling discussion about what should be included in the curriculum and whether there should be greater prescription and standardisation, which is what the motion calls for. However, that would be contrary to the legislation on which the curriculum is built, which states that it should be flexible and teacher-led to best meet the needs of pupils. That does not just apply to the teaching of RSE, it applies to all areas of learning. It is important that flexibility is not lost by a prescriptive approach, which may not guarantee high-quality teaching and learning. That is the approach in England, which has brought schools into conflict with some parents. Scotland takes a largely non-prescriptive approach through guidance, which has caused similar issues with parents. In this country, we have steered a middle path, with limited prescription, which I believe is the correct approach.

I am not going to give way. The challenge, therefore, remains to provide a curriculum that continues to engage with young people and reflect their views, and open engagement with parents and pupils is key to that. I hope that Members will reflect on the approach that my Department takes, which focuses on letting teachers teach rather than directing them centrally. That approach reflects the design principles that underpin our curriculum, which provide schools with autonomy and flexibility to meet the needs of their pupils. The motion calls for "evidence-based" RSE. Let us hope that that evidence is not just a VHS recording. I encourage Members to go into schools to see what is happening. In practice, when such changes to the RSE curriculum took place in England in September 2020, it led to activist groups advising schools and providing them with highly questionable teaching materials. Indeed, many schools adopted radical approaches. In England, under the guise of inclusive and evidence-based RSE, primary-school children have been taught that they all have a gender that depends not on the reality of their bodies but on how their interests match up with stereotypical ideas about boys and girls. It is no stretch of the imagination to think that some of the thousands of children who were referred to England's scandal-hit and now-closed Gender Identity Development Service might not have been had they not received those lessons. The final report of the independent review of gender identity services for children and young people was published on 10 April. Dr Hilary Cass's review found remarkably weak evidence for treatments, such as puberty blockers. Its recommendations were welcomed by both the Conservative Party and the Labour Party.

If the motion has been of any value, it is that it allows me the opportunity to announce —

— that I have asked my Department to review the Cass review for any learning that may be appropriate for Northern Ireland.

I oppose the motion.

1,636 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Flagged Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues

Second assessment

Jev’s answers did not settle this record, so a second model, claude-opus-5-5, read the same text (without the MLA’s name or party) and gave its reasons on 21 October 2026. How the second assessment works

Verdict

Flagged

Public interest or divisiveness

Mixed

Against the published rubric

Much of the speech is substantive defence of current policy: it sets out the 2007 curriculum order, school autonomy, parental consultation and objections to Westminster intervening in a devolved matter. However, it moves into a recognised flashpoint and adopts a social-contagion claim. It describes England's inclusive RSE as delivered "under the guise of inclusive" teaching by "activist groups" with "radical approaches", and suggests that some children referred to gender identity services "might not have been had they not received those lessons". It also uses the gender identity passage as the payoff of the speech, ending on the Cass review, alongside personal and partisan barbs. That dog-whistle content, built into the speaker's own argument, tips the speech towards culture-war activity.

Public interest or divisiveness

The speech engages seriously with how RSE is governed and who decides its content, which serves the public interest. Alongside this, it contains substantial divisive material: the claim that gender-identity teaching itself produces trans-identified children, sneers such as the "VHS recording" jibe, and the accusation that a named party "stood instead with pimps and those who traffic people". These are used to score points rather than to inform the decision on the motion. Both elements are substantial.

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:01 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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