Violence against women and girls strategy: Boys to be sent on courses to tackle misogyny in schools
Schools to take part in the teacher training pilot will be chosen next year, while ministers will aim for all secondary schools to teach healthy relationship sessions by the end of this Parliament.
The taxpayer will foot £16m of the bill, while the government says it is working closely with philanthropists and other partners on an innovation fund for the remaining £4m.
The funding covers the three-year spending review period.
Nearly 40% of teenagers in relationships are victims of abuse, domestic abuse charity Reducing the Risk has said.
Online influencers are partly blamed for feeding this, with nearly one in five boys aged 13 to 15 said to hold a positive view of the self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate, according to a YouGov poll.
Schools in England are already required to identify and tackle misogyny and some teachers said schools were already doing the kind of work in the new measures.
Sukhjot Dhami, principal at Beacon Hill Academy in Dudley, said: “The challenge isn’t starting from scratch: it’s ensuring that this £20m is spent wisely and in partnership with schools already leading the way.”
Pressed on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on which measures were new, Phillips said teachers currently did not have anywhere “specialist or targeted” to send pupils who were showing signs of sexually harmful behaviour.
