Live tracker: This page will be updated as the Department for Education publishes further detail, responds to Protect & Teach’s questions, or new information becomes available. Items will be updated as their status changes.
Tracker: the Education Secretary’s whole-school plan to tackle misogyny
On 26 September 2026 the Department for Education announced a whole-school approach to tackling misogyny, led by Education Secretary Lucy Powell. Protect and Teach welcomes genuine efforts to keep girls safe from harassment and abuse. This page sets out what the government has said, with sources, the questions that remain unanswered, and what Protect and Teach has formally asked the Department for Education. We will update it as more detail is published.
Last updated: 12 October 2026
Key
- Confirmed
- In an official government publication
- Reported
- Published or reported by media or stakeholders, not an official government publication
- Awaited
- Promised or expected, detail not yet published
- Open question
- Not yet answered by the government
- Protect and Teach asked
- Formally put to the Department for Education
29 September 2026: Protect and Teach wrote to the Department for Education seeking clarification on the framework, parental transparency and withdrawal, external providers, pilot evaluation, pupil data, political impartiality, belonging, accountability and the source of the statistics cited in the announcement.
Latest updates — 12 October 2026
Stakeholder intervention80+ organisations call for action on sexual violence in schools
The End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW) reports that more than 80 organisations from the violence against women and girls and education sectors wrote to the Prime Minister on 5 October 2026. EVAW published its announcement on 6 October.
The coalition calls for urgent action to prevent sexual violence in schools, a properly resourced whole-school approach, strong relationships, sex and health education, and engagement with specialist organisations.
The coalition letter is stakeholder advocacy: it is not confirmation that DfE has appointed the signatories to the £150,000 advisory group, awarded them contracts, selected them to deliver the pilots or approved further funding.
EVAW also reports that it sent a separate briefing and recommendations to the Secretary of State for Education.
Questions for further scrutiny
- Which organisations will participate in developing or delivering programmes?
- How will they be selected, funded and subject to due diligence?
- How will safeguarding responsibilities and parental transparency be maintained?
- How will schools uphold political impartiality where genuinely political issues are addressed?
- How will effectiveness be measured against actual safeguarding and safety outcomes?
Parliamentary written question — answer awaited
As at 12 October 2026, the parliamentary written question being tracked about the whole-school misogyny plan remains unanswered. Its expected answer date is 13 October 2026.
The expected answer date is not confirmation that a response will be published on that day. This tracker will record the answer when it becomes available in the official parliamentary record.
Government has said
Taken from the DfE press release and a Guardian interview, both 26 September 2026. Quotes are exact.
-
Confirmed
A “practical framework” for schools
“Schools will be supported with a practical framework to tackle misogyny with resources including practical guides, teacher training and parent support.”
-
Confirmed
A whole-school culture of “respect and belonging”
The approach aims to “create a culture of respect and belonging, and embed positive attitudes from classroom teaching and enrichment activities to pastoral support and interactions beyond the school gates.”
-
Confirmed
Builds on the revised RSHE guidance
DfE says the plan “builds on the government’s strengthened Relationships, Sex and Health Education curriculum now being taught in schools”. The revised RSHE statutory guidance came into effect on 1 September 2026.
-
Confirmed
£150,000 RSHE expert advisory group
A new group “bringing together expert organisations and practitioners” that “will develop new resources to support teachers delivering sensitive and complex topics confidently.”
-
Confirmed
Two pilots under the £16m VAWG Prevention Programme
Two programmes “have also begun work this week”: one with secondary pupils on attitudes to healthy relationships, one with boys “to challenge harmful attitudes and negative online influences”. They will be tested “before being rolled out to further schools.”
-
Confirmed
Work with the Youth Endowment Fund
The government is working with the Youth Endowment Fund, which is running programmes with children aged 12 to 16 “to promote respect, build resilience and provide positive role models.”
-
Awaited
Media literacy through future curriculum reform
Strengthened teaching on media literacy is promised “through future curriculum reforms”. No timetable is given.
-
Confirmed
Evidence cited by DfE
“New data shows that half (50%) of girls reported hearing misogynistic comments from other pupils during a week at school in May”, and “nearly a third (30%) of year 10 and 11 pupils” had recently heard comments that made them worry about girls’ safety. The release does not name or link the survey.
-
Confirmed
Part of wider government work on misogyny
DfE links the plan to a new partnership with major employers announced the same day by the Minister for Women and Equalities, Bridget Phillipson.
-
Reported
Powell: schools would be “required” to act
Powell said schools would be required to “embed healthy relationships and belonging into every part of school life, not just RSHE [relationships, sex and health education] lessons”. The Guardian also reported that she would say schools must go further than the misogyny strategy announced earlier this year.
-
Reported
Powell: “We simply cannot just teach our way out of misogyny”
“Schools with strengthened RSHE teaching but no wider culture shift will not shift attitudes.”
-
Note the wording: the Guardian reports Powell saying schools would be “required” to act. The DfE release says schools “will be supported with a practical framework”. The release does not say what, if anything, schools will be obliged to do.
-
Confirmed
No new legislation or consultation named
The DfE release does not name any new legislation or public consultation for this package.
-
Reported
Conference speech published by LabourList
LabourList published Powell’s conference speech in full on 27 September. It discusses education, belonging, school culture and curriculum reform, but does not contain the specific misogyny/RSHE announcement. The schools detail on this tracker therefore remains sourced to the DfE release and Guardian interview.
Still unanswered
Questions the published material does not yet answer. These have now been put to DfE where relevant.
- Open question
Statutory or guidance?
Will the practical framework be statutory, statutory guidance that schools “must have regard to”, or non-statutory support?
- Open question
“Required” or “supported”?
How does the Guardian’s “required” relate to DfE’s “supported with a practical framework”? What, if anything, will schools be obliged to do?
- Open question
Publication date
When will the framework document be published, and will a draft be open for comment?
- Open question
Advisory group
Who will sit on the £150,000 RSHE expert advisory group, how will members be chosen, and what exactly will it produce?
- Open question
Inspection and funding
Will the approach be linked to Ofsted inspection or to any funding conditions?
- Open question
Parents’ access to materials
Will parents’ ability to see RSHE materials extend to content delivered in assemblies, enrichment, behaviour policy and pastoral work?
- Open question
Right to withdraw
Will the right to request withdrawal from sex education follow that content when it is delivered outside RSHE lessons?
- Open question
Definitions
How will “misogyny” and “belonging” be defined for schools’ purposes?
- Open question
“Beyond the school gates”
What role are schools expected to play in pupils’ “interactions beyond the school gates”?
- Open question
Pilot evaluation
How will the two pilots be evaluated, by whom, and will the evaluation look for harms as well as benefits? Will results be published before wider rollout?
- Open question
Rollout
What does rollout “to further schools” mean in scale and timing, and which types of school will be covered?
- Open question
External providers
Which external organisations or providers will deliver the pilots, training and resources?
- Open question
Source of the data
Which survey produced the figures cited by DfE, and will it be published?
Protect and Teach has asked DfE
Our letter was sent on 29 September 2026. We asked the Department to clarify the following before wider rollout:
-
Protect and Teach asked
Publish and classify the framework
Confirm when the practical framework will be published, whether it is statutory or non-statutory, which settings it covers, and which elements schools will actually be required to implement.
-
Protect and Teach asked
Clarify parental transparency and withdrawal
Explain what parents can see when related material is delivered through assemblies, enrichment, mentoring, pastoral or behaviour work, and how sex-education withdrawal arrangements will operate within a whole-school model.
-
Protect and Teach asked
Name the advisory group
Publish the membership, organisations represented, terms of reference, selection process, declarations of interest and commissioned outputs of the £150,000 RSHE expert advisory group.
-
Protect and Teach asked
Identify and evaluate the pilots
Name the commissioning and delivery organisations, participating areas or schools where publishable, programme content and funding, and publish robust evaluation arrangements including unintended or adverse effects.
-
Protect and Teach asked
Scrutinise external providers
Confirm the due-diligence expectations for external organisations, including campaigning activity, evidence, safeguarding, access to materials, pupil data and political impartiality.
-
Protect and Teach asked
Explain pupil data collection
Set out whether pupils will complete questionnaires or assessments, what information will be collected, whether it is identifiable, who sees it and how long it is retained.
-
Protect and Teach asked
Avoid stigmatising boys
Explain how the Government’s own commitment not to stigmatise boys will be reflected in the boys-focused pilot and wider framework, with responses based on individual behaviour and evidence.
-
Protect and Teach asked
Uphold political impartiality
Confirm how existing impartiality duties will apply wherever the programme enters genuinely political or contested territory, including content delivered by charities or campaign organisations.
-
Protect and Teach asked
Define “misogyny” and “belonging”
Provide workable definitions and explain whether belonging will connect to the Pupil Engagement Framework, Ofsted, school improvement or other accountability mechanisms.
-
Protect and Teach asked
Identify the evidence and funding
Explain the £16 million VAWG Prevention Programme and identify the source, sample, fieldwork and publication status of the headline statistics cited by DfE.
Sources
- Department for Education and Rt Hon Lucy Powell MP, “Education Secretary unveils plan for schools to tackle misogyny”, press release, 26 September 2026. DfE press release.
- Jessica Elgot, “Labour must reunite progressive voters to win the next election, says Lucy Powell”, The Guardian, 26 September 2026. Guardian article.
- Department for Education, “Relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education”, statutory guidance; revised version in effect from 1 September 2026. RSHE guidance.
- Education Act 1996, section 406 (political indoctrination) and section 407 (duty to secure balanced treatment of political issues). Section 406 · Section 407.
- Department for Education, “Political impartiality in schools”, guidance. DfE guidance.
- LabourList, “Deputy leader Lucy Powell addresses party conference – her speech in full”, 27 September 2026. LabourList.
- Protect and Teach, “Beyond the RSHE lesson: what Lucy Powell’s new whole-school misogyny plan could mean for schools and parents”, 27 September 2026. Protect and Teach article.
- End Violence Against Women Coalition, “80+ expert organisations call on government to act on sexual violence in schools”, published 6 October 2026, reporting a letter dated 5 October. EVAW publication and signatories.