The 2026 RSHE guidance, explained for sixth forms

The Department for Education published revised statutory guidance for Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education on 15 July 2025. It became mandatory for every school in England on 1 September 2026. If you lead a sixth form, RSHE or safeguarding, this guidance now sets the floor for what your students must be taught, and the newest content is aimed squarely at the oldest students.

What actually changed

The revised guidance goes further than its 2019 predecessor in three areas that matter for Years 12 and 13. First, misogyny and violence against women and girls: schools are expected to address the attitudes behind harassment and abuse, including the influence of online content, and to do so in a way that engages boys rather than blames them. Second, personal safety: the guidance covers safety in public places and the night-time economy risks older students are months away from meeting, including spiking, which became a standalone criminal offence under the Crime and Policing Act 2026. Third, transparency: parents have a strengthened right to see what is taught, which means every resource you use needs to stand up to scrutiny.

You can read the full statutory guidance on GOV.UK. It is 47 pages; the sections most relevant to sixth forms are those on respectful relationships, online harms and being safe.

What it means for external providers

The guidance is clear that schools may use external providers but remain responsible for what is taught. In practice that means three tests for anyone you bring in. Their content should be available to you in full before the visit, not summarised. Their material should be evidence-informed and age-appropriate, framed on the law and on perpetrator responsibility rather than victim behaviour. And they should make your evidence trail easy: you need to show how each session maps to the guidance if you are asked.

How to evidence delivery

Inspectors and governors increasingly want to see not just that RSHE happened but that it was planned against the statutory content. The cleanest approach we have seen is a simple mapping document: each session or assembly listed against the guidance modules it delivers, held with your RSHE curriculum plan. Pre and post polling of students adds impact evidence, and a staff briefing note shows the teaching was reinforced beyond the one-off.

The honest limitation

No external assembly, ours included, discharges the whole duty. The guidance expects a planned curriculum, and a visiting speaker is one component of it. What a good external session adds is credibility on content your staff cannot easily carry, the parts that live in licensed venues after dark, taught by people who work there.