Debate contribution: Relationships and Sexuality Education and Healthy Young Adult Relationships

Debate contribution by Ms Cara Hunter on 14 January 2025.

MLA

Ms Cara Hunter

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

14 January 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Relationships and Sexuality Education and Healthy Young Adult Relationships

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4736653

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I beg to move

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I thank the Members from across the House who have given us their attention and enthusiasm throughout the previous debates. I thank them for being here and contributing. I rise to address a critical issue, which is how we educate our young people on establishing and maintaining healthy relationships. Relationships and sexuality education, which is also known as "RSE", should equip our young people with the knowledge and skills to foster healthy relationships, understand boundaries and recognise harmful behaviours. However, for some, including me, RSE in Northern Ireland has, historically, definitely not been fit for purpose. It is really important that it encompasses things such as consent. The findings of Ulster University's healthy young adult relationships project are stark. They reveal significant gaps in how we teach our young people about coercive control, consent and the dynamics of power and abuse in relationships. Those gaps are not just academically recognised; they have real-world consequences, some of which were highlighted in our previous debates. Across the House, we know the statistics: one in three women worldwide will experience either physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, most often, sadly, at the hands of their partner. In Northern Ireland, domestic abuse crimes reached a record high last year, with over 35,000 incidents reported. Every one of us hears about and sees such things happening all the time in our constituencies. It is absolutely devastating for the victims. A 2021 study found that 71% of our young people across these islands have experienced or witnessed coercive control in their relationships. For years, our curriculum here has been woefully outdated. The Education (Curriculum Minimum Content) Order 2007, which sets out what should be included and discussed in RSE, does not mention the word "consent" even once: that is crazy. Consent exists in all aspects of our lives. How can we expect young people to navigate the complexities of modern relationships when we fail to teach them about that fundamental concept? I feel strongly about that. The Education Committee is working through RSE developments and coming to agreement. Thankfully, we agree on more than we disagree on, so I think that there is a wide acknowledgement of the need to educate our young people. We have been listening to young people as well, and I thank the team at the Secondary Students' Union (SSUNI), particularly a young lady named Lauren, who has put together a document called 'Let Us Learn', which explores issues such as the importance of consent, understanding what coercive control looks like and, most important, educating our young people who are experiencing abuse in relationships so that they have the words to describe it, to understand what it looks like and to know whom to go to and to speak to if they are experiencing harm, intimidation or threat. I also spoke with young ladies at Thornhill College in Derry, and they had talked through the importance of including things such as the dangers of spiking in our RSE curriculum. They said that they do not feel ready for the world, and they think that RSE can be one answer in preparing them for real-life situations and preparing them to go out into the world and feeling most confident when establishing and maintaining relationships. Consent is not just a box to tick; it is the cornerstone of healthy relationships. Without a clear understanding of consent, young people are left vulnerable to coercion, abuse and harm. That is particularly urgent when we consider the rise of online abuse, image-based sexual violence and the normalisation of harmful gender stereotypes in digital spaces. It is also really important that we talk about things such as rape myths in RSE and ensure that they are part of the conversation. This is about not just education but prevention, and comprehensive RSE has been shown to reduce rates of sexual violence, improve relationship satisfaction and empower young people to make informed choices. It is about giving them the tools to recognise abuse and arming them with the confidence to know where to go to seek help and to speak up. That is why, today, I call on the Minister of Education to work with the Minister of Justice to establish a task force dedicated to enhancing RSE. The task force must address the gaps identified in the healthy young adult relationships project and implement its recommendations by December 2025. The reason why that is so important is that it is a tangible target and has a timeline. It is very topical, and we have been doing extensive research at Committee level. I really think that establishing a task force will bring a lot of justice to the topic. Why now? We cannot afford to wait. I firmly believe that, every day that we delay, we fail another generation of young people. We fail to equip them with the knowledge to build respectful relationships, and we fail to protect them from harm. I urge every Member across the House to vote for our motion.

844 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:50 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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