It is important that all young people have the opportunity to lead healthy and happy lives. This includes their sexual health. The government emphasises this and agencies involved with young people have a role to play in reducing teenage pregnancy and supporting young people in making the right choices and safe choices about their sexual health.

Local sexual health training supports staff in developing confidence and knowledge to enable them to work with young people in a positive and proactive way and thus offer young people more choice and control in their relationships. The delay, ‘let’s leave it till later’, training aims to support young people in delaying sexual activity, building on self-esteem and the skills to be able to say no. Regret is a major issue with young people who engage in early sex.

The training is delivered to multi-agency groups.

1. Sexual health local training

Aims:

• To develop confidence and knowledge to enable the staff working with young people to offer young people positively and proactively more choice and control in their relationships including sexual relationships.

• To enable workers to encourage young people to think and consider alternative actions and options before they engage in sexual behaviour.

Objectives

• To look at attitudes and opinions about sex and relationships and understand how they could affect your work.

• To develop an understanding of how self worth underpins and impacts on relationships and sexual health.

• To gain a better understanding of the law and sex

• To develop an understanding of the issues relating to the transmission of sexually transmitted infections including HIV.

• To encourage condom and ‘dam’ use.

• To ensure appropriate confidentiality is understood.

• To develop confidence and skills in the delivery of sexual health information and advice.

2. Delay Training

Aims:

• To develop confidence and knowledge to enable the staff working with young people to offer young people positively and proactively support and strategies to enable them to delay sexual activity.

• To develop awareness of how good self-esteem and friendship skills help young people meet many of their social and emotional needs and prevent regret through early sexual behaviour.

Objectives

• To consider the effects of early sex on young people’s lives.

• To understand the importance of the delay approach.

• To understand the importance of good self-esteem.

• To provide practical activities and exercises to help develop young people’s self-esteem.

• To gain skills to use whilst working with young people in how to say no and resist pressure.

• To consider practical ways in which the delay approach can be integrated into current working practice.

• To help young people of all sexualities to make healthy choices in their relationships.

To access training contact:

Address: Public Health, Southgate House, Pans Lane, Devizes, Wiltshire SN10 5EQ

Telephone: 01380 733844

Details of other training courses can be found on Wiltshire Pathways

http://www.wiltshirepathways.org/trainingCats-new.asp