Suicide prevention will be taught in schools following campaign by 3 Dads Walking
Mike Palmer, from Sale, Cumbria's Andy Airey and Tim Owen, from Norfolk, known as 3 Dads Walking - all lost their daughters to suicide.
They have been calling for suicide prevention to be a mandatory part of the curriculum, to ensure pupils are equipped "with the life skills to keep them safe in later life".
The news follows a meeting with the prime minister and the education secretary at the beginning of July, and now new guidance has been released by the government on relationships, sex and health education (RSHE).
It also includes requirements on helping children with their mental health, including working with mental health professionals to discuss suicide prevention 'in an age-appropriate way'.
Children will be taught the importance of 'grit and resilience' in order to help them 'feel able to take on challenges and risks'.
Andy, Mike and Tim Owen – who founded suicide prevention charity 3 Dads Walking in memory of their daughters – said: 'Giving schools permission to talk about suicide prevention means more young people can be supported to open up about difficult feelings and know where to find help.
'We know, from painful personal experience, how much this matters. This change will save lives.'
Schools will be able to implement the guidance from September this year, and must follow it from September 2026.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: 'Children today are bombarded by content – whether it's Instagram influencers with impossible expectations for how we should look, or algorithms that trap young people in a vortex of vices from gambling to drugs.
'Our new RSHE curriculum will equip kids to develop positive attitudes from the get-go, building their resilience to harmful content in an age-appropriate way.
'With mental health, just like physical health, prevention is so much more powerful than the cure.
"So we're going further in making sure that once children are old enough to understand issues around self-harm and suicide in secondary school, they get the tools to distinguish fact from fiction, and reject the vile content that trades in encouraging young kids to harm themselves or worse."
The Three dads have raised £1.5 million for for the suicide prevention charity PAPYRUS in memory of their daughters.
They recently completed their fourth fundraising walk which took more than 130 miles around the Anglesey coastal path.
They completed their first challenge in 2021 by walking 300-miles.
A year later they trekked 600-miles, walking between the parliaments of all four nations from Northern Ireland through Scotland, Wales and England.
Last year they walked a further 500 miles from Scotland down through the eastern counties of England.
In November they were honoured with MBEs in the King's Birthday Honours List.
In other changes to the curriculum, children will be taught how to combat misogyny and resist so-called incel culture under new guidance for schools.
The guidance on relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) focuses on helping boys find positive role models amid the increasing spread of sexist online content from 'manosphere' influencers such as Andrew Tate.
It also stresses the need to avoid 'stigmatising boys for being boys'.
As well as lessons on so-called incel (involuntary celibate) culture, secondary schools will be required to provide young people with greater awareness of AI, deepfakes and links between pornography and misogyny.
The guidance comes as the Department for Education (DfE) warned that misogynistic attitudes had reached 'epidemic scale' among young people, with 54% of those aged 11-19 saying they had witnessed misogynist comments.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: 'Before I was elected to Parliament, I managed a refuge for women and children fleeing domestic violence, so I have seen first-hand the devastating impact when we don't foster healthy attitudes from the youngest age.
'I want our children to be equipped to defy the malign forces that exist online. Schools and parents alike have a vital role to play, helping children identify positive role models and resist the manipulation too often used online to groom impressionable young minds.'
In its manifesto last year, Labour pledged to halve the rate of violence against women and girls in 10 years.
And earlier in 2025, Sir Keir Starmer praised the Netflix drama Adolescence for highlighting how misogyny had 'taken on a different form' and said he wanted a discussion on what could be done to stop young boys 'being dragged into this whirlpool of hatred and misogyny'.
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