For the purposes of this FOI young people refers to young people under 19.
Local Authority provision of Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) services.
1. Please confirm or deny if the LA provides the following services in secondary schools (for 14-16 years olds) to meet the needs of young people.
If the LA does provide the service please confirm which types of schools the LA provides them in (e.g. LA maintained, academies and free schools, independent schools, special schools, alternative provision/pupil referral units).
a) Specialist RSE training for teachers and other practitioners
b) School nurses to deliver RSE
c) Specialist training in delivering RSE for school nurses
d) Funding for external visitors (e.g. from sexual and reproductive health services) to contribute to RSE in local schools, RSE curriculum guidance, resources or lesson plans
e) Healthy Schools scheme or equivalent, including RSE
f) Information/publicity materials about local sexual health services
g) Support/training for governors
h) Other (please detail)
In respect of all of the above areas
We are providing Person, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) training to schools for this financial year, which includes sessions on relationships and sex education (RSE).
In respect of school nurses (question 1(b)) Public Health Nursing is included in the partnership delivery team, and is a co-creation/ delivery partner for this pilot project
Babcock Education, who provide education support on behalf of Devon County Council, don’t offer training to governors specifically on RSE – however, they will include updates and the latest changes to the regulations in our Chairs Update training sessions in March.
In September 2018 Babcock included information for governors in our Checklist document (subscribing schools only) which gave information on the consultation process re RSE which was underway – with a closure date of 7th November.
Babcock highlighted to governors that once the regulations were finalised that ‘relationships education would become compulsory for all primary schools in England (from Sept 19), and that RSE would be compulsory in all secondary schools from that date, along with health education becoming compulsory in al state funded schools.
Babcock will ensure that all changes to the regulations with regard to RSE are communicated to governors through our regular channels.
The training Babcock offer to governors is a combination of traded and delivered as part of the contract.
2. Please confirm the amount of money spent by the LA on RSE-related activities (e.g. training, provision of resources, paying for external visitors, providing curriculum support) in all secondary schools in the following financial years:
a) 2016-17
Nil
b) 2017-18
Nil
c) 2018-19
Nil
3. Please confirm or deny if the LA has plans in place to increase spending in the next financial year for RSE-related activities, to support schools to prepare for the introduction of mandatory RSE in 2020.
LA provision of young people’s sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services – i.e. those providing GUM/STI services and/or contraception)
Plans to increase expenditure are not yet finalised but will follow the outcome of the “consultation process re RSE”. Devon County Council therefore do not hold this information.
However, following on from our response above regarding school nurses, we can confirm that for 2018/19 £100k has been committed from OPCC via Safer Devon Partnership to provide co-ordination and administration for this pilot.
4. Please confirm or deny if the LA commissions or provides the following services to meet the needs of young people:
a. School-based or school nurse delivered SRH services (please specify which of these is provided: condoms, emergency hormonal contraception, chlamydia testing, hormonal contraception, LARC methods of contraception)
School Nursing no longer provide most of these services to young people with the exception of chlamydia testing kits.
b. Specialist training on young people and sexual and reproductive health for professionals in primary care.
Yes (Specialist reproductive sexual health clinical training for healthcare professionals is delivered as part of the Integrated Sexual and Reproductive Health Service. Ensuring Primary Care Sexual and Reproductive Health Services are young people friendly is integral to this training. Primary care professionals can also access sexual health training with a young person focus from the Eddystone Trust, also commissioned by DCC).
c. Specialist young people’s sexual health services.
No
d. You’re Welcome (or similar young people friendly) accreditation scheme for local services
Yes
e. Specialist young people support within all age integrated sexual health clinics
Yes.
f. Sexual health outreach/popup clinics/clinic in a box in non-clinical settings
Yes.
g. C-Card scheme or other free condom distribution schemes
Yes.
h. Pharmacy provision of emergency hormonal contraception
Yes.
i. Chlamydia screening programmes
Yes.
j. Additional LGBT+ specific young people’s services
No, we can clarify that the ISRH services are commissioned to ensure they meet the needs of LGBT+ young people.)
k) Other (please specify)
Nil
5. Please confirm the number of contacts for sexual health or contraception needs made by young people under 19 in the financial years 2016/17 and 2017/18 in the following settings:
a) Community Sexual and Reproductive Health services (i.e. not general practice)
We should clarify that total contacts can only be provided for under 18s and not the requested under 19s. This is because ages are broken into the categories under 18 / 18-24 years etc for both North Devon Healthcare Trust (NDHT) and Torbay Sexual Medicine Service (TSMS).
Total contacts for under 18s in 2016/17 = 3149
Total contacts for under 18s in 2017/18 = 2978
b) General practice
Devon County Council does not hold this information
6. Please confirm or deny that you fund specialist young people’s sexual health and contraception services (e.g. standalone sexual health clinics, sexual health outreach in youth settings, and sexual health services in schools). If you do fund these services please confirm the budget for the following years:
a) 2015-16
b) 2016-17
c) 2017-18
d) 2018-19
Yes, funding exists to support specialist young people’s sexual health and contraception services but it is neither budgeted nor reported separately; the funding sits within larger value contracts for sexual health services. Devon County Council therefore does not hold this information.
Integrating RSE and sexual health services
7. Please confirm or deny if your LA communicates with schools to:
a. Provide updates about changes to local sexual health services.
Yes.
b. Inform them of local sexual health priorities and concerns that need to be addressed in RSE.
Yes
8. Please confirm or deny if the LA’s contracts with Sexual and Reproductive Health services include a requirement to promote services for young people under 19 through:
a) Schools
Yes
b) Other routes (for example public awareness campaigns)
Yes
9. Please confirm or deny if the LA experienced any of the following barriers when developing links between RSE and young people’s sexual health services?
a) Budgetary issues
Yes
b) Fragmentation of service provision
Yes
c) Changes in school governance (e.g. academisation)
Yes
d) Resistance from senior leadership in schools
Devon County Council does not hold this information
e) Other (please detail)
10. Please confirm or deny if the LA uses the following routes to ensure visibility and awareness in schools of local sexual health services for young people
a) Provision of information about services for schools to use within the RSE curriculum
b) Publicity of services to be displayed in schools
c) LA website which includes sexual health information for young people
d) Information available in pharmacies
e) Via youth services/clubs
f) Advertising (e.g. posters, leaflets etc.)
g) Online advertising (including social media)
Other (please detail)
With respect to the above queries we can confirm that our Integrated sexual health and reproductive health service has been commissioned to develop a marketing strategy to position to new service as the go-to for sexual health information, advice and services in Devon. This will cover marketing of the service to all of the requested areas (a) – (g) above (both online and off line).