Protect & Teach CIC has written to the Department for Education seeking clarification on the Government’s newly announced whole-school approach to tackling misogyny and promoting healthy relationships.
The Department announced on 26 September that schools would be “supported with a practical framework” covering classroom teaching, enrichment, pastoral support and interactions beyond the school gates.
Protect & Teach supports effective, evidence-based safeguarding and action to protect children from sexual harassment, abuse and harmful behaviour. But before any wider rollout, parents, governors and schools need clarity about exactly what the new framework will require and how it will operate in practice.
Our letter asks the Department to clarify, among other things:
- whether the framework will be statutory or non-statutory;
- which elements, if any, schools will be required to implement;
- how it will interact with existing RSHE guidance;
- what parental transparency will apply outside identifiable RSHE lessons;
- how sex education and withdrawal rights will be identified within a whole-school model;
- how “misogyny”, “harmful attitudes” and “belonging” will be defined;
- who will sit on the new £150,000 RSHE expert advisory group;
- who is delivering the two VAWG prevention pilots and how they will be evaluated;
- how external providers will be scrutinised;
- what pupil data may be collected;
- how boys will be protected from stigmatisation;
- how political impartiality duties will be maintained;
- and whether the framework will be linked to Ofsted, funding or other accountability mechanisms.
We have also asked the Department to identify the source and methodology behind the statistics cited in its announcement.
Where relevant recorded information is held but has not been published, we have asked that those elements of the letter be treated as a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
This follows our recent analysis:
and our practical guide:
Whole-school healthy relationships programmes: questions parents and governors can ask
Read the letter
Letter to the Department for Education: whole-school misogyny and healthy relationships framework
Sent by Protect & Teach CIC, 29 September 2026
We will publish the Department’s response and update our guidance as further details become available.
Follow the live tracker
We are maintaining a live tracker of the Government’s whole-school misogyny and healthy relationships plan, including what has been confirmed, what remains unanswered, and what Protect & Teach has formally asked the Department for Education.