Government 'not doing enough' to combat sexual harassment in schools

The Women and Equalities Committee has criticised the government for not doing enough to tackle the issue of sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools.

A report from the Committee exposed ‘widespread’ sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools, as well as an ‘alarming inconsistency’ in how schools deal with these issues.

It recommended that the government should: use statutory measures to ensure every school takes appropriate action to prevent and respond to sexual harassment and sexual violence; ensure Ofsted and the Independent Schools Inspectorate assess schools on how well they are recording, monitoring, preventing and responding to incidents of sexual harassment and sexual violence; and give every child at primary and secondary school access to high quality, age-appropriate relationships and sex education (SRE) delivered by well-trained individuals.

In response to this report, the government has said it will take a ‘holistic school-based approach’ to help schools tackle these issues, which will be based on three areas of work: supporting schools to produce their own new codes of practice, building our evidence base, and setting up an advisory group.

However, the Committee believes that this does not go far enough and has warned that schools need to have ‘a clear and unambiguous message’ to tackle the problem. It has criticised the government for not placing any statutory obligations on schools and further emphasised the importance of compulsory SRE in schools.

Maria Miller, chair of the Committee, said: "The scale of the problem of sexual harassment in schools demands a robust and urgent response from those who take responsibility for our children’s safety when they are at school. Schools are responsible for fostering the best environment for young people to learn; fear of sexual harassment, or worse, should not be part of that.

“We will continue to scrutinise action in this area and work with others to hold those responsible to account for any failure to ensure that all our children are safe and can thrive at school. In particular the government needs to prioritise action to ensure Sex and Relationship education reflects the realities of the 21st century rather than the pre-smartphone age when guidance was last updated."