The Statement of Ed Balls and Post-Vatican II Evangelisation
Editorial FAITH Magazine May-June 2010 - Further Material
Time-Line of Relevant Public Statements25 January
DCSF issues draft "Guidance to Schools": SRE "should" include "range of local and national sexual health advice, contraception and support services available". CES director says it is "a positive step forward [... It] helps support schools".
23 February
Ed Balls says Catholic schools "must explain how to access an abortion [... and] contraception".
Amendment passed: nothing in the law should be "read as preventing" SRE being "taught in a way that reflects the school's religious character".
DCSF announces "Teenage Pregnancy Strategy: Beyond 2010". in which "the promotion of condoms remains central".
24 February
Ed Balls says he is "worried" that teenage pregnancy strategy has failed to meet 1998 target.
25 February
Home Office releases independent review on "Sexualisation of Youth", which confirms "negative effects" of "sexualised content [which] is everywhere".
5 March
Director of CES writes to The Catholic Herald: Catholic schools "will not promote abortion", but "will not seek to withhold facts in SRE".
8 March
Baroness Morgan, of the DCSF, says the bill "does not [...] require Catholic schools to teach young people where to access an abortion [...] but they will be required to teach that contraception [...] is available".
12 March
CES website publishes director's words to Catholic School leaders on 28 January that CES believes in "being seen and heard through dialogue rather than remote pronouncements".