Sex education drop will leave youngsters 'vulnerable', says FPA

April 12 2010

Ed Balls' decision to drop compulsory sex education is going to leave young people "vulnerable", according to Rebecca Findlay, spokesperson of the Family Planning Association (FPA).

After failing to reach an agreement with the opposition parties, the government was forced to abandon a series of key reforms, including sex education, in order to push through legislation before parliament is dissolved for the forthcoming general election.

"We fought long and hard to get statutory sex and relationship education, and to lose it now is a travesty. We are bitterly disappointed," said Ms Findlay.

She added that teenagers will not be given the information and the education that they need to navigate safely through a "world which is highly sexualised".

In 2009, FPA released data that revealed that rates of UK teenage births are seven times those in the Netherlands, double those in France and more than twice those in Germany.

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