Petition Campaign of the Year Award

On Monday we were in the Speaker’s House at Westminster where Cat Smith MP, Chair of the Petitions Committee, presented us with the Petition Campaign of the Year Award. We were very pleased to receive the recognition for the effort we’ve put in on getting suicide prevention added to the school curriculum but it all comes to nothing if the changes we’ve campaigned for do not come to fruition.

With Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle and Cat Smith MP, Chair of the Petitions Committee

In January we met Damian Hinds, the newly appointed Minister for Schools, who told us that the process to bring the new RSHE curriculum to public consultation was still moving forward...but nothing has appeared.

We know that the week after we saw Mr Hinds the Department for Education went back to the experts who contributed to the review last summer and asked them to resubmit the evidence they had previously given. Amongst other things this evidence shows:

·      Talking about suicide prevention does not provoke suicides.

·      Suicide prevention lessons can be delivered safely and age-appropriately.

·      Suicide is the biggest risk in our young people’s lives, NOT talking to them about this risk and giving them skills to mitigate it makes no sense whatsoever.

We are aware that a draft RSHE curriculum has been drawn up with the experts’ evidence to the fore, when it’s put into action it will play a significant part in saving lives as well as changing societal attitudes towards suicide and suicide prevention.

At the moment the RSHE curriculum review is stalled at Damian Hinds’ desk. If you have time please write to your MP and Mr Hinds to ask them why this lifesaving piece of work isn’t being enacted.

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