The last few weeks

It has been almost a month since I have blogged - during which time;

The Dorries Amendment on abortion counselling was defeated and Anne Milton confirmed that government will be consulting on proposals in relation to counselling. Is it possible to disagree with the notion that women who need counselling should have quick and easy access to non-judgemental, non-directive quality provision?

I do however remain concerned that the debate about counselling provision has led to the search for a solution where there is no problem to fix. There continues to be confusion about what currently happens and what does not happen, about what counselling is and what is isn't. At Brook we are completely committed to ensuring that everyone gets the support they need to make decisions about their pregnancy, and that where required they receive counselling. However the debate and the discussion is unhelpful because it perpetuates myths and misinformation about the current state of play. This is one to watch and to make sure the voice of the pro-choice majority is heard loud and clear - abortion care should be equal to and as good as all other aspects of health care but it should not be subject to unnecessary change, additional hurdles and regulation. And lets be very clear abortion provision is regulated by CQC.

I have spent a week in Cornwall enjoying extreme rain and late September sun with lovely friends. In the middle of the week I spent a morning with staff from Brook Cornwall about what the Brook change programme means for them and exploring their hopes and learning more about the particular local context they are working in. I then went to the stunning Dartington Hall in Devon to spend the evening at the SW Region Public Health Conference at which I was delighted to learn that Gabriel Scally has been appointed as Chief of the clusters of Strategic Health Authorities in the South of England. The pre-dinner presentation on the environment and health was fascinating particularly the pilots being undertaken in Cornish workplaces to improve the relationship between health and productivity.

The Family Education Trust has published their report Unhealthy Confusion, which unsurprisingly argues that a healthy school does not need to provide sex and relationships education. I of course do not agree with this supposition at all - how can a school be a healthy school if children are not learning about relationships both to help them in their relationships within school, their emotional development and ability to seek and ask for help as well as play a pivotal role in safeguarding and protecting children from harm?

The Lib Dems conference took place in Birmingham and the Labour Party Conference has taken place in Liverpool, with just the Conservatives left next week in Manchester.
It was great to see old colleagues and friends, as well as meet new ones and particular pleased at how many local councillors are really interested in ensuring the sexual health needs of their population are met in the changing context. I cannot emphasise enough how important it is for all of us interested in sexual health to make contact with local councillors to ask questions, provide information and ensure that teenage pregnancy and sexual health stays on their radar - they have a lot of plates spinning right now.

On being young and 'youngpeopleiphobia'

I don't know whether I have a mid life moment coming on, but I tend to think a lot about age. A few weeks ago Miranda Sawyer wrote about being middle aged in the Observer. There are not many articles that I read more than once, but this one struck a chord. You can find it here http://bit.ly/nD986L

But thinking about age is not new, I have often written here about the importance of remembering what it feels like to be young - real empathy with and understanding about the realities of young people is an outstanding quality of Brook staff that I see time and time again as I visit Brook Centres.

On a day to day basis, like most people I don't feel too different than I did when I was in my mid 20s. Yet more and more I look in the mirror and am surprised to see my Dad looking back at me. There are tell tales signs that I am no longer 18; fast onset of greying hair, my increasing love of celebrating Friday with a quiet night in, rather than a night of partying that ends at dawn, I constantly check my watch if out in the week to ensure I am home before 10.30. These little things have all crept up on me without even noticing mostly.

We do however need to think and talk about age. We need to be clear what our offer is for young people in the UK. I want young people to be young. I want young people to have a chance to influence decisions that affect them, and I want young people to be treated like they are young - not in a patronising way but in a way that recognises a 15 year old should not have the same responsibilities as they likely will later in life. I know that circumstances mean that some young people - those who are carers for example - do have responsibilities and it is vital that they also are given the support to fulfil these, and the space to be young.

When I think about age a lot it is triggered by memories - in the last 48 hours I had a phone call from a friend I haven't seen for 20 years; on thursday friends I went to Ibiza with over a decade ago have gone again - I will never know on balance whether I am deeply envious or deeply relieved I said no. I know how tiring it is. Yesterday I cycled past the old site where our favourite club in Kings Cross - The Cross - used to be and smiled to myself remembering how wonky I often felt when we left. This morning I have been planning for our trip to Cornwall later this month with my group of friends who spent much of our late teens, twenties and thirties together. And as I have been planning I have reflected a bit on how our lives have changed and developed. How responsibilities and roles have shifted - as friends, partners, employees, partners, uncles and aunts.

I don't write this to be self indulgent but to reflect on what we want for our young people. At Brook we know that how young people's experiences of being loved and cared for and allowed to realise their rights impacts on how they manage their relationships and sexual choices. We also know that most young people want to be and are responsible.

There has been lots of talk of how young people are going wrong in the post riot weeks and the importance of instilling responsibility in young people. I agree with the premise of responsibility, and at the same time I worry about some of the suggested means to do so. I am a responsible active citizen. I want to contribute to making things better. But that was not instilled in me with hefty discipline or ASBOs. It was through being loved and cared for, having an extended family that introduced expectations, created boundaries and told me clearly when I had crossed the line. Through having the opportunity to take risks and (often) get hurt because I took them. It happened because I was allowed to be young - not treated as a child, but not expected to be a 'fully fledged adult' either, and it happened most of all because I had the opportunity and the encouragement to do things I wanted to do and to achieve. All young people deserve this.

Over the last few weeks I have been discussing the riots with people I count as socially liberal. The riots, or more probably the reporting of them, have sparked a deep belly anger in many of these people and specifically soured their views of young people. And some seem to have lost their skills of discernment, failing to recognise this was a small minority of young people (with adults) and that the majority of young people were not involved. I hope the post riot analysis takes us to the root causes of the problems and as a country we think carefully about what our offer is for young people. Without a firm offer for all young people that we make sure we deliver on, even without a crystal ball I predict further unrest. Worse than that, too many young people will not have the chance to be young and create a happy memory bank and learn vital skills to manage their lives now and in the future.

The government is currently consulting on its Positive for Youth initiative - find out about it and respond here - http://bit.ly/q673GQ.

If you, like me, think being young should be the time of your life please stand up for young people and continue challenging the negative perceptions and assumptions that underpin one of the socially acceptable prejudices of our time - 'youngpeopleiphobia'.

Stand up for women's right to choose

Brook knows from our long history of providing pregnancy choices counselling that when a young woman finds out she is pregnant she needs support from a highly skilled professional who provides a safe space where she can understand her choices fully, and enables her to make her own decisions about whether or not to continue the pregnancy without fear of judgement or reprise. That is, I believe the right of any (young) woman who wants counselling.

This counselling for women (who may or may not go on to have an abortion) is in the news because the Health and Social Care Bill is before Parliament next week. If successful an amendment to the Bill, laid down by Frank Field and Nadine Dorries, would stop those who provide abortion such as BPAS and Marie Stopes to provide that counselling. This is an unnecessary and unhelpful amendment based on the premise that those who provide abortions are driven by profit - Hmm - interesting they are non profits. And they are regulated by Care Quality Commission.

Field said on Newsnight last night that he had no evidence of 'wrong doing'. He went on to say there was no evidence of mis-selling pensions until it was investigated. As Zoe Williams writing in the Guardian today http://bit.ly/nMcN8R said 'then lets investigate' instead of aiming to use backstreet politics to create policy and legislation based on myth, misinformation and lies.

I won't rehearse those myths and lies here, but this amendment is dangerous. It is dangerous for a number of reasons. Firstly it is not based on science nor is there evidence of a problem that needs fixing. Secondly stopping those who provide abortions will delay and block access - this still happens too much anyway. We really don't need more delays and blocks in the system. Those distressed young women who contact Brook because they have been blocked or experienced unbearable delays bear witness to that. And it is dangerous because the motivation of some organisations who currently provide counselling and seek to provide more 'independent counselling' is to frighten and scare women away from abortion thus restricting their right to choose (see Education for Choice mystery shopping report for more information http://bit.ly/mVCcP6.

Finally it is dangerous because abortion law and policy cannot be driven by anything other than science. That is wrong. Other attacks such as the one on the time limit can only have legs if abortion law becomes separated from science.

Those (young) women faced with a decision to make about whether to continue with her pregnancy WANTING counselling deserve the highest standard counselling which is non-judgemental, non-directive and impartial. Full stop. This amendment to the Health and Social Care Bill will not take us closer to that goal. I urge you to write to your MP NOW and tell them you oppose the proposed changes to pregnancy choices counselling. Follow this link to FPA's website and find out how http://bit.ly/nxbMmW

Chlamydia screening - tell us what you think

If you are under 25, or work with people under 25 Brook needs your help! We have been commissioned by the National Chlamydia Screening Programme to seek young people's views on chlamydia screening. This is an important opportunity to ensure young people's views are heard in the next phase of development - so if you are under 25 please click on the link below and get your voices heard, and if you work with young people please can you disseminate this as far and wide as you can visit the Brook website or go straight to the survey here

Looking in and beyond the Brook gates

Over recent weeks I have been travelling around the country visiting Brook services and meeting/seeing again the Brook staff teams working across Brook's clinical and support services, education and our advocacy and lobbying work. It is a true pleasure spending time with my colleagues who are working with young people day in day out; and from each and every session I have left energised, inspired by their creativity and passion, and with further clear ideas about what they want from their Chief Executive and their experience of the new Brook organisation.

As one person said, 'I come to work each day not quite knowing what I am going to find, and I always go home knowing that if I have helped at least one young person even just a little bit then it has been a good day'. And this sentiment was echoed often and I was particularly struck by one colleague who said 'in my work I do a lot of work with young women - lots of them are being hurt or not enjoying their relationships and through the work we do I try to help them see that is not good enough for them and they deserve me, and when someone comes back and says I've had enough, or I tried this instead today and it worked, that gives me a real buzz.'

Meanwhile in the national team in Kentish Town our cohort 3 volunteers left us last week - this cohort devised and developed the sex: positive campaign and worked hard and tirelessly to convince many stakeholders of its value. I am immensely proud of their work, and of their individual and group achievements. They brought their own buzz into the office and whilst we will miss them, of course most of all we wish them well and welcome the new volunteers working in both our Kentish Town and Oldham offices.

Whilst spending my hours on the train I am trying to both keep away from too many sandwiches, and keep on top of the policy documents and what is happening. Most notably Positive for Youth, and the PSHE Education review, both from Department for Education.

Positive for Youth is important because it sets the framework for a positive approach to working with young people. There is much to be liked about the tone and content of some of the discussion papers, and I am delighted the health and well being paper emphasises the importance of sex and relationships education and services, and highlights the Brook @besexpositive campaign (www.sexpositive.org.uk). Like many others I am keen to really understand further how this translates to action and dovetails with other initiatives.

The PSHE review was launched by DfE at the end of July and this is an important opportunity to influence the future of PSHE Education including sex and relationships education. In the scope of the document it states that sex education is statutory and that schools must have regard for the sex and relationship education guidance therefore no further changes are needed to legislation. It is absolutely true science contains some 'sex education' and that 'secondary schools must provide a programme which includes as a minimum teaching about STDs including HIV and AIDS' and it is true they must have regard to the sex and relationships education guidance. The unspoken bit here though is they must pay regard to the guidance IF they deliver SRE outside of the statutory minimum which we know so many many schools don't. And young people tell us they suffer from poor quality SRE as a result.

Brook is also concerned the review document does not include consideration of withdrawing the parental right of withdrawal. The UK is signed up to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and there is evidence of this government listening to young people - so I fail to understand a) how we will ensure the entitlement of all children and young people and b) why when there are so many young people telling us their sex and relationships education is not good enough decade after decade, and there is a huge majority consensus from parents and professionals about the need for SRE that it continues to be played a curriculum subject that gets politicised. Only when it becomes as normal and everyday as maths and english will children and young people get the education about relationships, emotions, sexuality and sex education they want and deserve to help them navigate their way through the complexity of the 21st Century.

We will be working with FPA to prepare a full submission to the PSHE Education Review consultation.

And whilst the Positive for Youth discussion papers and the PSHE Education review are in the public domain, we also know that proposals are being considered with regard provision of pregnancy choices counselling, and whether abortion providers will be able to provide this counselling in the future. You can see Brook and FPA briefing and advice about what you can do to let your views be known here http://bit.ly/owp9pG

Finally in the Westminster village, we await the Lords Select Committee report on HIV in early September which I am hopeful will provide strong support for improving the quality and quantity of SRE.

Tonight I am going to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival which I am looking forward to, and am taking the opportunity to visit the new integrated sexual health service recently launched in Edinburgh. To pack my shorts or my raincoat was a dilemma last night, but this morning I think it is definitely raincoat.

Have you pledged to be sex: positive? Its free, its easy and it takes two minutes, just click here http://bit.ly/nOphPt

'I will never forget how kind the Counsellor was'

Last weekend I went to a friend's birthday. The usual round of what do you do party conversations led a small group of us to talk about the abortion stories in the news recently, and Brook's role in supporting young women through their pregnancy choices.

One woman now in her 40s told me about her experience at Brook. She gave permission for me to tell her story here.

She became pregnant in her early 20s and really wasn't sure whether she wanted to keep the baby or have an abortion - her instinct said she wanted an abortion, but she needed both practical and emotional support to think. She spent time with a Brook counsellor working through her options and through that process she decided she wanted to keep the baby, even if it impacted on her relationship with her partner which she feared it would. She was helped to think through and prepare for the different scenarios, and practised how she would tell her partner and her parents about the pregnancy.

She described her experience like this; 'The counsellor was a wonderful woman who cared about what I wanted. She helped me by listening, asking questions and questioning my assumptions and later she offered practical tips about how to explain MY feelings about the situation and MY decision to keep the baby to my partner and family. She gave time for me to practise it'.

And that for me is a perfect example of how pregnancy choices counselling should be - focused on the needs and choices of the woman, providing a safe space for her to explore the choices available to her and having done so to make her decision without any bias or direction from the counsellor about what is the best option. As always when I hear these types of stories I felt proud of the work of Brook staff - this just one example, of which I hear so many, about the difference Brook has made and continues to make on a day to day basis over the decades to many individual woman's lives. Women's right to objective pregnancy choices counselling must be preserved, maintained and protected. That is an absolute fact.

22nd June - my big day

For two reasons;

Firstly I was appointed as Chief Executive of Brook which is an absolute privilege and an honour. I am really looking forward to working with colleagues, partners and stakeholders.

And Brook held our first ever joint parliamentary reception at the House of Lords with the FPA (www.fpa.org.uk). Brook and FPA recently announced a formal collaboration to ensure we make the greatest difference for those we serve. I am really grateful to Brook's President Baroness Massey of Darwen and FPA's President Baroness Gould of Potternewton for hosting the reception which was a wonderful opportunity to see friends, colleagues and partners who make such a difference to sexual health.

Public Health Minister, Anne Milton spoke and confirmed that sexual health is an important issue for the Government. She also reminded us that it is always the squeaky wheels that get oiled, and that constituency MPs need to be influenced - get writing and contacting them about the importance of sexual and reproductive health.

So I urge you, the majority who support people's sexual rights to get your voice heard, in a non squeaky way to make sure the views of the majority are the wheels that are oiled. We as the majority who support sex and relationships education, who trust young people, who are pro-choice and want people to be able to enjoy and take responsibility for their sexual health need to take heed of Anne's message. It is important not to be complacent or take those rights for granted because the small, but vocal, minority are ensuring that MPs, Ministers and other decision makers are hearing their views. Just look at Hansard and the increasing number of questions for evidence.

We have to ensure our support for contraceptive and reproductive choice, sex and relationships education and positive sexual rights is heard loud and clear - from Brook's perspective that means making sure young people get evidence based, accurate and factual information, skills development in education, as well as clinical services and support.

Also speaking at our reception was Gabriel Scally, regional director of public health for the SW who urged all of us to make Director's of Public Health our allies as responsibilities for sexual health move to Local Authorities; Ian and Carol, parents involved in FPA's Speakeasy Programme told how the programme had helped make a real difference to the way they communicate with their children about relationships and sex; and Brook's Sex: Positive campaign volunteers Lucy, Chris and Gloria told the negative attitudes about young people and sex have to change (see www.sexpostive.org.uk) and why we must support the sex: positive campaign. All the speeches inspired and inspiring.

The reception was a wonderful celebration of all that is good in sexual health work and I enjoyed it thoroughly.