RSHE policy

The rule: which law requires an RSHE policy

The subjects themselves are compulsory under the Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education (England) Regulations 2019. The Department for Education's Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education statutory guidance summarises them at paragraph 2: they “make relationships education compulsory for all pupils receiving primary education and relationships and sex education (RSE) compulsory for all pupils receiving secondary education. They also make health education compulsory in all schools except independent schools.” Academies are independent schools in law, but that exemption does not reach them: health education applies to academies and free schools, and is optional only for independent schools that are not academies.

The policy duty for maintained schools is section 80B of the Education Act 2002. The governing body must “(a) make, and keep up to date, a separate written statement of their policy with regard to the provision of education under each of paragraphs (1)(c) and (d) of section 80, and (b) publish a copy of the statement on a website and provide a copy free of charge to anyone who asks for one.” The statement “must include a statement of the effect of section 405(3) of the Education Act 1996 (exemption from sex education: England)”, and “The governing body must consult parents of registered pupils at the school before making or revising a statement”.

Academies and other independent schools have equivalent duties under paragraph 2A of the Schedule to the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014: a separate written policy statement for relationships education and RSE, consultation with parents before making or revising it, and publication on a website with a free copy on request. Paragraph 2A has no counterpart to the statement of the effect of section 405(3), though the guidance says every policy should explain the right to request withdrawal. The relationships and health education duties in paragraph 2A do not apply to pupils below compulsory school age.

The guidance itself is statutory. The DfE's collection page says: “This revised statutory guidance from the Department for Education (DfE), issued under section 80A of the Education Act 2002 and section 403 of the Education Act 1996, came into effect on 1 September 2026.” It was published in July 2025 and replaced the 2019 guidance. “Schools must have regard to the guidance and, where they depart from those parts of the guidance which state that they should or should not do something, they will need to have good reasons for doing so.” Independent schools that are not academies need not have regard to the health education parts.

Paragraph 12 of the guidance puts the duty in one line: “All schools must have an up-to-date written policy for relationships education or, where they teach sex education, for RSE.” The requirements do not apply to sixth form colleges, 16 to 19 academies or further education colleges, although further education and sixth form colleges that provide full-time education for 14 to 16-year-olds are required to follow DfE guidance that has included RSE and health education since September 2020, and footnote 6 of the guidance says “such providers need to follow this guidance”. The rules are England's: Wales teaches relationships and sexuality education (RSE) as a mandatory part of its Curriculum for Wales for ages 3 to 16, with no right to withdraw (Senedd Research brief on RSE in Wales), and Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own arrangements.

What the RSE policy should contain

Paragraph 14 of the guidance lists what the RSE policy should do. It should:

• “Set out the subject content, how and when it will be taught, and who is responsible for teaching it, including any external providers the school will use.”
• “Differentiate between relationships and sex education (where sex education is taught), so that parents have clear information.”
• “Include information about a parent's right to request that their child is withdrawn from sex education.”
• “Explain how content will be made accessible to all pupils, including those with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND).”
• “Describe how the subject is monitored and evaluated.”
• “Set out how parents can view curriculum materials.”
• “Explain how teachers will answer questions about topics in sex education that the school does not cover (in primary) or that relates to sex education from which the child has been withdrawn.”
• “Explain how the policy has been produced, who approves the policy, and how and when it will be reviewed.”

A maintained school's policy must also state the effect of section 405(3) of the Education Act 1996, which in practice means setting out the withdrawal rules in section 04 below in the school's own words.

A primary school that teaches no sex education beyond the science curriculum still needs a written relationships education policy, and should say plainly that it does not teach sex education and how it will answer pupils' questions. The guidance says at paragraph 30: “Sex education is not compulsory in primary schools, but we recommend that primaries teach sex education in years 5 and/or 6, in line with content about conception and birth, which forms part of the national curriculum for science.”

Health education needs no published policy. Paragraph 13: “While schools are not required to publish a policy for health education, it would be good practice for schools to set out some of the details about how health education will be taught.” That is why many schools publish a single RSHE policy covering all three. A separate PSHE policy is not a legal requirement for any school.

Publish the policy on the school website and keep a free copy for anyone who asks; a school without a website should make it available by other means. Our guide to statutory policies for schools places the RSE policy among the others a governing board has to keep.

Consulting parents and showing them the materials

Consultation is a legal duty, not a courtesy. Section 80B(3) and paragraph 2A(1)(f) both require the school to consult parents of registered pupils before making or revising the policy, and paragraph 12 of the guidance says: “Schools must proactively engage and consult parents when they develop and review their policy”. Primary schools have a further step at paragraph 31: “Primary schools should consult parents about the content of anything that will be taught within sex education.”

Neither the law nor the guidance prescribes a method. A parent survey, an information evening, a draft circulated for comment or a meeting with the parent council can all serve. What matters is that the school can show it happened: what was sent, to whom and when, what parents said, and how the final policy responded. That evidence is what a governor, an inspector or a complaints panel may ask for.

Parents should see what is taught. Paragraph 56: “Schools should show parents a representative sample of the resources that they plan to use … and should ensure that parents are able to view all curriculum materials used to teach RSHE on request. Parents are not able to veto curriculum content, but schools must consult with parents when developing their RSHE policy”.

External providers cannot prevent that. Paragraph 57 says “schools should not agree to any contractual restrictions on showing parents any content”, and paragraph 58: “Where contractual clauses exist that seek to prevent schools sharing any material at all with parents, they are void and unenforceable.” That is the DfE's view of the public interest in parents knowing what their children are taught, not a statutory provision, but a school should not rely on such a clause. Paragraph 60 closes the copyright route: copyright law “affects the way in which materials are shared, but should never be used as a reason to refuse to share them.” Paragraph 59 suggests ways to respect it, such as a parent portal, acknowledging the author and asking parents not to share further.

Consultation continues after the policy is approved. Where a school adds new content to respond to emerging issues, paragraph 12 says it “should be careful to inform parents of any shifts away from the policy and continue to share relevant materials on request”. Each request to view materials, and each answer, is part of the record.

The right to withdraw from sex education

The right is narrower than many parents expect. Paragraph 21: “Parents do not have the right to withdraw their pupils from relationships and health education, nor can they be withdrawn from topics taught as part of the science curriculum, including science topics related to puberty or sexual reproduction.” What can be requested is withdrawal from sex education.

In secondary, the law is section 405(3) of the Education Act 1996 for maintained schools and paragraph 2A(2) of the Independent School Standards for academies and independent schools. In the words of section 405(3), if a parent requests that the pupil “may be wholly or partly excused from sex education provided as part of statutory relationships and sex education, the pupil must be so excused until the request is withdrawn, unless or to the extent that the head teacher considers that the pupil should not be so excused.” The guidance says at paragraph 18 that secondary head teachers “can refuse a request in exceptional circumstances, for example because of safeguarding concerns or a pupil's specific vulnerability.”

In primary the request is granted. Paragraph 18: “Where primary schools provide sex education, head teachers must automatically grant a request to withdraw a pupil from it, other than content that is taught as part of the science curriculum.” For maintained primaries that rests on section 405(1), which excuses pupils from sex education outside the national curriculum on request; for primary academies it rests on the guidance.

The pupil can opt back in before 16. Paragraph 19: “From three terms before the pupil turns 16, a pupil can choose to opt back into sex education even if their parent has requested withdrawal. For example, if a pupil turns 16 during the autumn term, the pupil can opt back into sex education at any time after the start of the previous autumn term. Schools should ensure that pupils know they have this option.” That is a guidance rule, which operates through the head teacher's discretion in section 405(3).

The process creates a record. Paragraph 17: “Before granting any request for withdrawal of a child from sex education, it is good practice for the head teacher to discuss the request with parents, and the child if appropriate, to understand the request and to clarify the nature and purpose of the curriculum. … Schools will want to document this process to ensure a record is kept.” A sound withdrawal record shows the request and its date, the discussion and who took part, the decision and any refusal reason, what the pupil will do instead, and, in secondary, when the pupil was told of the right to opt back in. Paragraph 20 says what the pupil does instead is the school's job: “it is the school's responsibility to ensure that the pupil receives appropriate, purposeful education during the period of withdrawal.”

What changed in September 2026, and what governors check

The 2026 guidance, which “updates the Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education statutory guidance 2019”, adds or expands content that most policies will need to mention. In secondary it includes the prevalence of deepfakes, “how deepfakes can be used maliciously as well as for entertainment, the harms that can be caused by deepfakes and how to identify them”; misogyny and its links to violence against women and girls; and suicide prevention, with a condition at paragraph 44: “Schools should consult mental health professionals and put in place high quality, evidence-based staff training before addressing suicide directly with secondary aged pupils”. It also sets out how schools should teach the facts and the law about biological sex and gender reassignment, at paragraphs 67 to 72, which a policy can point to rather than paraphrase.

The final guidance does not set the age limits on topics proposed in the 2024 draft. Instead it asks schools to “sequence teaching so that pupils are supported and equipped with the knowledge to navigate different experiences in a positive way before they occur, and to prevent harms” (paragraph 15d), and to keep the curriculum “age and stage appropriate” (paragraph 15e), which puts the weight on the policy's account of how and when content will be taught, and on what parents are shown.

Governors and trustees have their own list. Paragraph 61 asks governing boards and academy trust proprietors to make sure, among other things, that “clear information is provided for parents on the subject content, teaching materials and external providers, and on the right to request that their child is withdrawn from sex education”. A board that reviews the policy should see the consultation evidence, the list of external providers and the withdrawal log alongside it.

RSHE lessons can prompt disclosures, and the guidance expects that to be planned for. Paragraph 84: “Where lessons are delivered by external agencies, schools must agree in advance of the session how a safeguarding concern would be dealt with by the external visitor.” Write that agreement down before the visit. Paragraph 84 also mentions that the Government is introducing a new law on reporting child sexual abuse; the duty in section 85 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026 is prospective and was not in force on 8 October 2026, so existing safeguarding procedures still govern.

Where the consultation and withdrawal conversations happen

An RSHE policy generates conversations the school is expected to be able to show. A parent replies to the consultation not through the survey but by messaging the class teacher they know. A father texts a form tutor that he wants his daughter taken out of next week's lesson. The RSHE lead and an external provider agree, in a thread of messages, how the visitor will handle a disclosure. A parent asks to see the slides about deepfakes and is sent them by a teacher from a personal phone. Each of those is part of the record the guidance describes: consultation, the withdrawal discussion the school “will want to document”, the materials shared on request, the safeguarding agreement made in advance. Held on staff's own phones, none of it can be produced when a complaint, a governor's question or a subject access request arrives.

The fix is mostly procedural: route requests to one named person and log them. Where those conversations still happen by message, they belong in a channel the school controls. ComplyChat is one: a messaging channel the school owns, which parents and external providers join with a verified mobile number and staff use on any phone, where everyone added is told the channel is on the record. Messages are recorded as they are sent and, on paid plans, file into the school's own Microsoft 365 once its tenant is connected, under the school's own retention rules. Free is a permanent personal tier for up to 25 staff in one private group, with direct messages, three calendar months of recent history and no Microsoft 365 archive, so it is not where a withdrawal record should live.

It is not a consultation survey tool, a parent portal for teaching materials or a curriculum platform, and it does not write the policy. The withdrawal log, the consultation summary and the provider agreement still need to be kept in the school's own records.

A question for the next governors' meeting: if a parent challenged a refused withdrawal request tomorrow, could we produce the request, the discussion and the reasons, and do we know whose phone they are on?

Questions people ask

What are the changes to RSHE and PSHE in September 2026?

The Department for Education's revised RSHE statutory guidance, published in July 2025, came into effect on 1 September 2026 and replaces the 2019 guidance. It adds content such as deepfakes, misogyny and its links to violence against women and girls, and suicide prevention in secondary, and strengthens parents' access to all RSHE teaching materials. PSHE as a whole is not statutory for maintained schools; only its RSHE parts are.

What is RSHE guidance?

RSHE guidance is the Department for Education's statutory guidance on relationships education, relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education, issued under section 80A of the Education Act 2002 and section 403 of the Education Act 1996. Schools must have regard to it and need good reasons to depart from what it says they should do.

Is RSHE compulsory?

Yes, in England: the 2019 Regulations make relationships education compulsory for pupils receiving primary education and RSE compulsory for pupils receiving secondary education in all schools, including independent schools, and health education compulsory in all state-funded schools including academies, but not in other independent schools. Sex education in primary is not compulsory, and the requirements do not apply to sixth form colleges, 16–19 academies or FE colleges.

What's the difference between PSHE and RSHE?

RSHE is the statutory core – relationships education, RSE and health education – while PSHE (personal, social, health and economic education) is the wider subject. Independent schools other than academies must make provision for PSHE under the Independent School Standards rather than provide statutory health education.

Do schools need to have a PSHE policy?

No: the legal duty is a written policy for relationships education and RSE, under section 80B of the Education Act 2002 for maintained schools and paragraph 2A of the Independent School Standards for academies and independent schools. The DfE guidance says schools are not required to publish a policy for health education, though setting out how it is taught is good practice.

What are the key changes to the RSHE curriculum?

The 2026 guidance adds or expands teaching on deepfakes, online misogyny, suicide prevention (secondary, with staff training and advice from mental health professionals before suicide is addressed directly) and the facts and law about biological sex and gender reassignment. The final guidance does not set the age limits proposed in the 2024 draft; it asks schools to sequence content so that it suits pupils' age and stage.

Official guidance and your next step

The guidance is the Department for Education's Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education statutory guidance, from its collection page. The duties are in section 80B and section 80A of the Education Act 2002, section 405 of the Education Act 1996 and paragraph 2A of the Independent School Standards. Quotations are from those pages as published on 8 October 2026.

This guide is a summary for schools in England, not legal advice and not a model policy. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own law and guidance.

Then do one thing: put the current policy beside the eight points in paragraph 14 and mark each one met or missing, then check the website copy is the version the governors approved.