Sexual Health: Inclusive Sex and Relationships Education for LBGT+ and LGBT+ SEND Young People

Both the Equality Act 2010 and Public Sector Equality Duty provide a strong underpinning for fully inclusive policy and practice within education. Despite this, young people within the LGBT+ community continue to feel let down by their education providers, particularly those who experience multiple protected characteristics.

Brook is a national charity that offers sexual health services, education and wellbeing services to young people. Nick Dunne is Brook’s Head of Education and leads a multidisciplinary team that works with over 150,000 young people each year in schools, delivering a range of relationships, sex education and wellbeing offer.

Nick is a qualified counsellor and youth worker, who started his career working with young people and young adults who were being exploited into the sex industry, later running a youth centre in the West Midlands, specialising in engagement with young people at risk of homelessness, exploitation, and leaving education early. He specialises in trauma-informed support and leads the development of Brook’s harmful sexual behaviours and Traffic Light Tool training for professionals across the UK.

In this video, Nick highlights the lack of diversity and inclusion in schools’ sexual education programmes, which directly affects young LGBTQ+ people. He states that all educational settings are capable of becoming inclusive spaces and should be supported in doing this as a matter of priority.

Historically, there has been a lack of inclusive sex education in schools. Many LGBTQ+ and SEND students have reported feeling left out. We heard from Nick Dunne, Head of Education at the sexual health charity Brook. He outlined the detrimental impact of a lack of inclusion and why accessible education is so important.