Talk Relationships: delivering sex and relationships education training courses

The teachers’ course will help you to:

• understand the importance of good-quality sex and relationships education
• create safe and respectful learning environments
• confidently respond to safeguarding concerns and young people sharing their experiences of abuse
• handle difficult discussions and respond to questions from young people
• overcome common challenges and barriers
• have effective conversations with parents and carers
• understand how your attitudes and beliefs play a part in your delivery of sex and relationships education
• understand the relevant education and safeguarding legislation and guidance.

The course for leaders will help you to:

• implement a whole-school approach to sex and relationships education
• create safe, inclusive learning environments
• adhere to national guidance and legislation
• understand how sex and relationships education relates to safeguarding and child protection
• support teaching staff delivering sex and relationships education
• recognise and monitor outcomes of the school’s sex and relationships education provision.

The teachers' course is for anyone who is responsible for delivering any element of sex and relationships education to secondary school-aged children and young people. 

The leaders’ course is for anyone in a school or academy leadership team, responsible for delivering the ethos and vision agreed by your school governors, board or trustees.

Thanks to a generous donation from a charitable trust, the two Talk Relationships elearning courses have been free to take since 9 September 2024.

Contact our dedicated Talk Relationships Helpline for advice on:

• how to respond to questions or concerns from students, parents or carers
• preparing a response to questions you think you may be asked
• managing a safeguarding concern or disclosure
• managing anxieties about delivering sex and relationships education.

We are committed to supporting people working in secondary education to overcome any challenges they may face when delivering sex and relationships education. If there are any other related topics you want to discuss, please contact the Helpline and we will do our best to support you.

How to contact us

Call 0800 389 5347 or email help@nspcc.org.uk with "Talk Relationships" in the subject line.

We are available from 8am-10pm Monday to Friday and 9am-6pm on Saturday and Sunday. 

Other sources of support

If a child is in immediate danger, call the police on 999.

If you are in Northern Ireland and have a safeguarding query please contact the Education Authority Child Protection Support Service (CPSS) on 028 9598 5590.

If you are a professional and worried about how child protection issues are being handled within your own organisation, contact our Whistleblowing Advice Line on 0800 028 0285 or email help@nspcc.org.uk. Find our more about the Whistleblowing Advice Line on the NSPCC website.

For any general questions about Talk Relationships or technical issues accessing the resources, please contact learning@nspcc.org.uk or call 0116 234 7246 Monday to Friday 9am-5pm.

Find out more about our full Talk Relationships service.

At the NSPCC, we work to keep children and young people safe from abuse and neglect every day.

As the UK's experts on safeguarding and child protection, we understand the issues organisations and people working with children can face. That’s why professionals trust us to provide the support, training and resources they need to help protect the children and young people they work with.

Our highly-rated training courses are developed by experts. We work with a number of organisations, experienced consultants and subject matter experts in a range of sectors to develop courses that are clear, easy-to-use, up-to-date and in line with the latest statutory guidance, and tailored to your needs.

Both these elearning courses are CPD certified by the CPD Certification Service. This means you can be confident that the training meets the highest standards.

Continuing professional development, or CPD for short, helps professionals keep their skills and knowledge up to date. It demonstrates your commitment to safeguarding children and upholding the standards of your profession.

Some professional associations have mandatory CPD or safeguarding training requirements for their members, but all professionals will benefit from investing time in their CPD. And taking an online CPD course means you can train at your own pace, wherever suits you.

Our online courses will work in most browsers, though we recommend that you use Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge or Safari (not Firefox). You will need to make sure your browser is up to date for the course to run.

This course can be taken on PCs and Macs, as well as iPads or other tablet devices. Please note, we are unable to provide full technical support for tablet users. We do not support other mobile devices.

Having trouble with the course?

Try:

• clearing your cache
• accepting our cookies (essential cookies are required for the purposes of undertaking our elearning)
• turning off private browsing
• permitting access to videos on Vimeo
• setting the following web domain to ‘trusted’: https://mylearning.nspcc.org.uk

Call us on 0116 234 7246 or email learning@nspcc.org.uk if you have any questions.