Under 16s

The legal age of sexual consent in the UK is 16 regardless of your sexuality. However this does not mean that you can’t access information, support, and treatment from sexual health and contraception services.

Will you tell my parents or carers?

If you're aged between 13 to 16 and want to access contraception, tests for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) or an abortion, professional won't tell your parents (or carer) as long as they believe that you fully understand the information you're being given and feel confident and comfortable about your decision.

They'll encourage you to consider telling your parents or carers, but they won't make you. You have the same rights to confidentiality as an adult.

The situation is different for people under 13 because the law says that people of this age can't consent (say yes) to sexual activity. The professional might feel it's in your best interests to involve other people, such as a social worker, if you're under 13.

Because you’re under the legal age of consent for sex the professional will want to ask you lots of questions about your life, your partner, your friends and your sexual history. This can sometimes feel uncomfortable or embarrassing but they are asking these questions to make sure that you’re safe, that you’re being treated with respect and that you’re not been pressured into having sex.

Even if the professional feels that you're not mature enough to make a decision yourself, the consultation will still be confidential. They won't tell anyone that you saw them, or anything about what you said.

The only time a professional might want to tell someone else is if they believe you’re at risk of harm, such as sexual abuse. The risk would need to be serious, and they would usually discuss this with you first.

'Party Animals' Campaign

The West Yorkshire CSE Communications group (made up of Leeds, Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield Safeguarding Children Board’s and West Yorkshire Police are launching the “Party Animals” campaign to raise awareness of the party model amongst teenagers across West Yorkshire.

Visit the Leeds Safeguarding Children Board for more details.

Chat Health

If you are aged 11-19 years, you can text a 0-19 Specialist Public Health Nurse on 07520 619 750 for confidential health support and advice on a range of health issues.

You will receive real-time advice between (8.30am-4.30pm, Mon-Fri) on health issues such as sexual health, emotional health and wellbeing, bullying, healthy eating and general health concerns.

How quickly will I get a reply?

We aim to reply to you within one working day and you should get an immediate bounce-back to confirm we received your text. Texts will not be seen outside of normal working hours. If you need help before you hear back from us, contact a member of school staff or your doctor. Our text number does not receive voice calls or MMS picture messages. We support messaging from UK mobile numbers only (which does not include messages sent from landlines, international mobile numbers and some ‘number masking’ mobile apps). Stop the 0-19 Specialist Public Health Nurse from sending messages to you by texting STOP to our number. Please respect your school’s mobile phone policy. Messages are charged at your usual rate.

Confidentiality

We do not usually inform your parents, teachers or anyone else if you contact a 0-19 Specialist Public Health Nurse. We might inform someone if we were concerned about your safety, but we would usually speak to you first. Your messages are stored and can be seen by other healthcare staff who follow the same confidentiality rules.