The community of Ernesettle is leading the NSPCC’s flagship Together for Childhood programme with organisations across Plymouth working with local residents to develop and test ways to best protect children. The Together for Childhood team provide the latest monthly update on its work to keep children safe from sexual abuse.
Conversations around bullying, sexual abuse and sexting should all feed into healthy relationships education young people receive, as well as consent, pornography and domestic abuse.
It’s essential that young people have access to information, education and support on these topics, which may affect their lives and the lives of those close to them.
The voice of children and young people across Plymouth is central to the project.
Empower Plymouth is a project commissioned by Plymouth City Council in 2017, and co-delivered by the NSPCC and Barnardos. Its long-term aspiration is to ensure healthy relationships education is reaching all ages and settings, and that this information is age-appropriate and of consistent high quality. The work will now continue as a fundamental activity of Together for Childhood.
The voice of children and young people across Plymouth is central to the project. They’ve been involved in all aspects of the development and delivery, firstly creating the name and logo for Empower, which stemmed from them feeling empowered; they are empowering teachers and future students.
To them, the image represents a depiction of a healthy relationship that does not focus on age, gender, sexuality or ethnicity, which is reflected in the definition they devised of what the term ‘healthy relationship’ means to them.
“A healthy relationship is a relationship with friends, family or loved ones that is built on a solid foundation of respect, honesty, communication and trust”.
The group has been asking for schools, children and young people across the city to share their experience of sex and relationships education with a view to schools developing a ‘whole school approach’ to the subject, rather than limiting discussions to SRE/PSHE lessons.
With Government plans for sex and relationships education to become compulsory across primary and secondary schools, this project provides an opportunity for Plymouth schools to lead the way, making sure professionals are comfortable discussing the topic.
The Empower project has been collating, reviewing and road testing resources and lesson plans which could be used by schools in their delivery as prompts for having open and honest conversations around the subject. They’ve been giving a “young person stamp of excellence” to the resources.
The NSPCC and Barnardos piloted delivery of lessons covering the topics of healthy and unhealthy relationships, consent, pornography, ‘sexting’, resilience and body image, to two Plymouth secondary schools. Feedback was positive, and one school has already replicated these lessons.
This month Empower will host a series of workshops for secondary schools, that will be co-facilitated by young people. They’ll share with teachers some of the available resources, and offer some top tips on delivery from a young person’s perspective.
Confidence in delivery, up-to-date content, relevance, and practical advice and information about support young people can access locally and nationally are all key points; ultimately, lessons that are interesting and interactive.
If you want to find out more about Together for Childhood contact the NSPCC in Plymouth at Plymouth.Servicecentre@nspcc.org.uk or 01752 422577 or visit the NSPCC website.
Adults with a concern about the welfare of a child can contact the NSPCC’s helpline for advice and support on 0808 800 5000 or help@nspcc.org.uk
Children can contact Childline on 0800 1111 or childline.org.uk 24/7, 365 days a year.
