Happy Birthday Sex Education Forum - my long tweet

This is really a substitute for a long tweet - Tomorrow is the Sex Education Forum's 25th Birthday Party and I am really sad to not be able to make the bash.  The Sex Education Forum was eight when we first met and now like then, I have rather fond feelings.  I agree wholeheartedly with what is stands for, I think SEF is quite remarkable in the way it brings people together in pursuit of a common aim, and I am proud to have been involved over the last 15 years or so.

The SEF matters to Brook because SRE matters so much to young people. Over the last year young people volunteering at Brook have supported what the research has told us - that current SRE is not good enough and they want more on relationships, emotions and sexualities.  They have therefore launched the @besexpositive (www.besexpositive.org.uk) campaign which sets out their desire for 21st Century SRE.

I have written a blog for the Sex Education Forum which will be published in due course and that tracks some of my highs and lows but in summary raising a glass and celebrating 25 years is important because the Sex Education Forum now, like then, is a body of organisations and people passionate about children and young people's rights to sex and relationships education.  And the Forum now, like then, is working with another successive government that is unwilling to make SRE statutory in schools which would go a long way to ensuring all children's entitlement to SRE. 

So the Forum may be 25 but its job isn't done and all of us must stand together for the next 10, 15 or 25 - however long it takes until that aspiration is a reality - to ensure that sex and relationships education is good enough for all children and young people.  

Happy Birthday SEF!