The government has run out of ideas on sexual health
15 Mar 2013
Diane Abbott MP, Labour’s shadow public health minister, calls the government’s much heralded, 22 month-delayed sexual health policy document an ‘insult’ to the public, healthcare workers and local authorities: ‘What have Ministers been doing for the past 22 months? This document has come out just weeks before most sexual health commissioning transfers to local authorities. This is an insult to the public, healthcare workers and to local authorities who are on the frontline. The unacceptable delay has created chaos, bringing work to a standstill, and yet this document has no new answers. It’s families, local authorities and healthcare workers paying the cost of this government’s incompetence.
‘It’s clear the government has run out of ideas. This weak leadership throws Britain’s sexual health services up in the air, creating a postcode lottery, with local authorities having to find their own way, relying on trial and error. The government has weakened and loosened the progress Labour made on teenage pregnancy, Chlamydia screening, and improving access to services.
‘It’s deeply concerning that the government has turned its back on Sex and Relationships Education. It’s clear there is no real plan for it, no new ideas and no interest in it. We need a sex education revolution in ordinary schools. We should have the statutory sex and relationship education in schools that the Tories shamefully blocked before the election. We need it for boys and for girls, including zero tolerance of violence in relationships. The government has blocked any movement on legislation to introduce compulsory sex and relationship education with zero tolerance of violence in schools for three years now. Most children say their sex education is irrelevant, out of touch, too little, too late.’
--ENDS--
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