Local authority health services (GGD) in central parts of the country may stop providing sex education services in schools from next year because of government cut-backs, the Volkskrant reports on Friday.

The measure is one of several under discussion to help councils balance their books. If councils vote in favour, sex education will end in some 500 primary and secondary schools in an area around Utrecht, including Amersfoort, Soest and Baarn.
In addition, health boards will no longer pay for the tracing of partners of people found to have sexually transmitted diseases. Cuts will also be made in tuberculosis and other infectious disease services, the Volkskrant says.
Serious
The local health boards have to find savings totalling €1bn. ‘Councils are struggling financially,’ said Henk Kruisselbank, head of GGD services in the Midden-Nederland region. ‘But this will be very serious for health boards. The easy choice is to go for the softer side, such as information services, which is difficult to quantify.’
Ton Coenen, director of the Dutch sexually transmitted disease group Soa Aids Nederland, said teenage pregnancy, disease and sexual pressure on girls will increase if the cuts go through.
‘Every year, some 200,000 youngsters become sexually active. They need information and lots of them don’t want to hear it from their parents,’ he said.