Stonewall Education Equality Index Celebrating difference and preventing and tackling homophobic and biphobic bullying in Britain s schools

Transcription

1 Stonewall Education Equality Index 2015 Celebrating difference and preventing and tackling homophobic and biphobic bullying in Britain s schools

2 Stonewall Education Equality Index 2015 Celebrating difference and preventing and tackling homophobic and biphobic bullying in Britain s schools Published by Stonewall Stonewall Tower Building York Road London SE1 7NX info@stonewall.org.uk Registered Charity number

3 SToNEWaLL EduCaTioN EQuaLiTY index 2015 i m delighted to introduce the fifth Stonewall education equality index. this year s index showcases the best performing local authorities from across Britain. they are leading the way on celebrating difference, preventing and tackling homophobia and biphobia in schools and supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (lgbt) young people within their local communities. This year we have seen local authorities going further and doing more than ever before to ensure that tackling homophobia and biphobia is important to the whole community. They are working in partnership with organisations from across their communities to develop strategies to tackle these issues; making sure everyone is invested in helping to achieve the right outcomes. We know that LGBT young people are still disproportionately likely to experience bullying and abuse. We know that too often LGBT young people lack spaces where they feel able to be themselves. What this year s Index shows is that across Britain there are organisations committed to changing this. We continue to be impressed at the commitment they have shown towards guaranteeing that young people in their local community can be accepted without exception. This year s Index has focused on the many great things that local authorities are doing to challenge homophobia and biphobia. Next year s Index will be even bigger, and it will reflect the journey that Stonewall is currently on to become fully trans-inclusive. I would like to congratulate all of the local authorities that have entered the Index this year, and particularly those in our Top Ten. We are proud to be working alongside them and pleased to be able to showcase their work as excellent examples for others to learn from. ruth hunt Chief Executive this government is clear that tackling all forms of bullying, including homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in schools, remains a key priority. Stonewall s research clearly shows that homophobic bullying has a huge impact on the confidence, wellbeing and attainment of young people across the country which is why the government has invested 2 million to support work to tackle this bullying. This year s Education Equality Index shows the great progress that has been made by schools, community groups and local authorities in tackling this issue head on. I would like to congratulate the Top Ten authorities and welcome the continued role that the Index plays in driving improved performance on this important issue. rt hon nicky morgan mp Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities 1

4 Top Ten Local Authorities Stonewall s Top Ten local authorities celebrate difference and work to tackle and prevent homophobic and biphobic bullying in schools. They set examples for others on how to support LGBT young people in 2015, and have scored the highest in Stonewall s 23-question Education Equality Index by demonstrating their good practice with supplementary evidence. They show that success can be achieved regardless of the local authority s location, size, whether it s in a rural or urban area, or which political party is in control = 7= Bath & North East Somerset Council Herts for Learning / Hertfordshire County Council Cambridgeshire County Council Norfolk County Council North Yorkshire County Council Sheffield City Council Bournemouth Borough Council Southend-on-Sea Borough Council most improved local authority Northumberland County Council best new entrant Kirklees Council 9 Leicestershire County Council 10 Oxfordshire County Council We are delighted that Bath & North East Somerset Council has gained top ranking in the Stonewall Education Equality Index This is testament to our excellent inclusion work and to great partnership work between the local authority, schools, external agencies and, in particular, children and young people who are determined to make Bath & North East Somerset a more inclusive place to live, work and visit. Cllr Tim Warren Leader of Bath & North East Somerset Council best performing local authority in the Education Equality Index over the past five years Herts for Learning/ Hertfordshire County Council 2

5 Measures of Success The Education Equality Index is free to enter for all local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales. Each submission is marked multiple times to ensure consistency and fairness, and consultation meetings are held with the leading local authorities. Every participating local authority receives tailored feedback from Stonewall. This highlights achievements and examples of good practice, as well as identifying future actions to develop their work even further. The Stonewall Education Champions programme will help support them to achieve these outcomes. This year 47 local authorities from across the country entered the Index, making it an extremely competitive benchmarking exercise.the Index measures practice as well as policy. It looks at three key areas (sample questions below): The role of the local authority Does the local authority explicitly state in written documents offered to schools that they must tackle all forms of prejudice-related bullying and language, including homophobic and biphobic bullying and language? Does the local authority offer training on celebrating difference and preventing and tackling homophobic and biphobic bullying and language to staff in primary and secondary schools, including academies and free schools? Working with local schools Does the local authority offer a survey for children and young people which includes questions about their experiences of bullying, including homophobic and biphobic bullying? Does the local authority offer guidance to schools to record and monitor incidents of bullying, including those of homophobic and biphobic bullying? Does the local authority offer support to schools to encourage them to work in partnership to celebrate difference and prevent and tackle homophobic and biphobic bullying? Working with the local community Does the local authority encourage the involvement of children and young people in work to tackle homophobic and biphobic bullying? Has the local authority taken action to link up with local LGBT groups or youth groups that provide support for schools and individuals on how to prevent and tackle homophobic and biphobic bullying? Does the local authority work in partnership with public, private and third sector organisations to prevent and tackle homophobic and biphobic bullying in schools? 3

6 What does a good local authority look like? Benchmarking through the Education Equality Index improves local authority performance in preventing and tackling homophobic and biphobic bullying. The 24 local authorities that entered the Index in both 2014 and 2015 scored, on average, five percentage points higher in Working in partnership with local services 100 per cent of the Top Ten local authorities work with a range of public and third sector organisations, such as the police, health service, and local LGBT groups, to prevent and tackle homophobic and biphobic bullying in schools. Staff training All of the Top Ten have offered training to local authority staff who work directly with children and young people, as well as to the senior leadership teams, teachers, non-teaching staff and governors, on celebrating difference and preventing and tackling homophobic and biphobic bullying. Good practice sharing Every leading local authority has identified primary and secondary schools that demonstrate best practice and has worked closely with them to share their experiences with other schools. Surveying children and young people 100 per cent of the Top Ten local authorities have carried out a survey to explore children and young people s experiences of homophobic and biphobic bullying. Recording and monitoring homophobic and biphobic bullying All of the leading local authorities offer guidance to schools on how to record and monitor incidents of homophobic and biphobic bullying and language. Promoting inclusive Sex and Relationships Education Every top-performing local authority offers ageappropriate advice and guidance to schools to ensure that Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) meets the needs of lesbian, gay, and bisexual pupils. Mental health support 100 per cent of the Top Ten local authorities promote mental health support, specifically for lesbian, gay and bisexual young people, to secondary schools and youth groups. Young people at the heart of anti-bullying work All of the leading local authorities involve young people in their work to prevent and tackle homophobic and biphobic bullying. Measuring impact Every top-performing local authority uses a variety of means to measure the impact of the work they are doing. Education Champions leading the way All of this year s Top Ten local authorities have worked with Stonewall over the past year as part the Education Champions programme. 4

7 1 Bath & North East Somerset Council Bath & North East Somerset Council leads the way in celebrating difference, preventing and tackling homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in schools and supporting LGBT young people in their local community. The Council continually finds innovative ways to undertake this work, and to engage with a wide range of strategic partners. Having been inspired by a presentation at a Stonewall Education Seminar, Bath & North East Somerset has actively encouraged schools and other youth settings to develop children and young people-led Equality Teams (E-Teams) to work collaboratively on campaigns around diversity and inclusion. There are now 35 E-Teams in Bath and North East Somerset, many of which are focusing their activities on challenging discriminatory language. The Young People s Equalities Group recently wrote a detailed guide on how to set up an E-Team. It also organised and delivered a hugely successful E-Summit for children and young people, at which those attending heard about the excellent practice of established E-Teams and were asked to commit to undertake further actions to advance equality in their settings. Bath & North East Somerset has an impressive range of recently updated guidance documents and content on its website focusing on homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying. Its Serious Equality Incident Report Form and associated guidance have been developed so that they can be accessed by schools, early years and youth settings. It has paid for a lead primary, secondary and special school to join the Stonewall School Champions programme. Good practice from these schools has been shared at its Challenging Homophobia and Transphobia Steering Group and used to inspire other schools to take similar action. It has also set up a support group for LGBT staff in schools and settings. The Council commissioned Diversity Trust to provide a range of LGBT-inclusive training for local authority staff, including on the sexual health needs of LGBT young people, and Gendered Intelligence to provide training on supporting trans young people. Bath & North East Somerset s good practice secondary school has delivered training on FREE to its feeder primary schools and its E-Team has delivered training to the whole school staff. Bath & North East Somerset offers a universal early years training session to all home and group based practitioners which explores how to make settings inclusive. This training is consistently over-subscribed. It has also developed dedicated training on tackling homophobic and biphobic bullying and language for School Meals Supervisory Assistants. Bath & North East Somerset uses LGBT History Month to showcase the work it has been doing to the rest of the community. It hosts an annual celebration event, attended by the Chair or Vice Chair, Leader and Chief Executive of the Council as well as other key partners and young people from the E-Teams. Last year Stonewall arranged for Sir Ian McKellen to visit two of its secondary School Champions. His visit achieved local, national and international media interest when a film of him at one of the schools went viral it has now been viewed over 1.6 million times. Our involvement in the Stonewall Education Equality Index over the past three years has not only provided us with an excellent mechanism for evaluating and improving our LGBT work, but has also helped us to sharpen up and enrich our Equalities work generally. We are especially proud of the campaigning work of our 35 Equality Teams - children and young people in schools and other settings working together to end discrimination and celebrate difference and equality. We are also pleased that Bath & North East Somerset is being recognised as a place where people can be themselves, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Kate Murphy Bath & North East Somerset Council 5

8 2 Herts for Learning/ Hertfordshire County Council The partnership of Herts for Learning Ltd (the UK s largest schools-owned company, providing school improvement and business support services across Hertfordshire and beyond) and Hertfordshire County Council is consistently recognised as being at the forefront of work around celebrating difference and challenging homophobia and biphobia in schools. To acknowledge this, Herts for Learning (HfL) and Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) are the recipients of a special award this year to celebrate their achievement as the overall best performing local authority in the Education Equality Index over the past five years. Hertfordshire has prioritised engaging young people in work to prevent and tackle homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying. Hertfordshire Youth Connexions has supported 15 LGBTQ young people to establish the Herts 1125 Who Not What group to provide strategic input into the development of services and resources across the county. Stonewall has trained these young people to develop their campaigning skills. Tackling homophobia and increasing the support for LGBTQ young people was voted by 2299 young people as one of their top priorities for the Herts Young People s Manifesto Young people from Who Not What attended the Hertfordshire Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) Review, sharing Manifesto evidence and their own stories with over 80 professionals in attendance. They have since been asked to write the forward to the CAMHS Review Report. Six young people from Free2B, the North Hertfordshire and Stevenage LGBTQ youth group, have been trained to become Hertfordshire Youth Health Champions. They are now promoting their healthy relationships message to their peers in a variety of settings, and will be presenting at the Annual Youth Conference in December HfL places a strong emphasis on training for both local authority and school staff. Governors are offered termly training on tackling bullying, and HfL has recently developed a pupil welfare and wellbeing package that pays significant attention to the specific vulnerabilities of LGBTQ young people. Bespoke training and workshops are provided to school staff. Early years providers have been trained on valuing difference and creating inclusive environments. HfL ran a conference focused on Embedding British Values, which included a workshop focused on LGBTQ issues. It also held a SRE Summit for local authority and school staff at which a fellow Stonewall Education Champion provided a keynote on delivering LGBTQinclusive SRE. HfL s ground-breaking online hub, Hertfordshire Grid for Learning, has a regularly updated section on preventing and tackling homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying. It features a range of high quality guidance, a model anti-homophobia and anti-transphobia policy, lesson plans and case studies from local good practice primary, secondary and special schools, academic research as well as HfL and Stonewall resources. It details HfL s Drawing the Line initiative which supports anti-homophobia and anti-transphobia work in the whole school community. Also available are resources developed by the Hertfordshire LGBT Partnership such as the Herts LGBTQ Guide which details local services and the LGBT Equality Self-Assessment Toolkit for Schools in which HfL offers specific training. In Hertfordshire we value the opportunity to fully audit our work annually and to evaluate our performance in a quality benchmarking process. The Stonewall Education Equality Index challenges us to ensure that we are making a real difference for LGBTQ young people and delivering best quality support services to all our schools. Over the past year, Herts for Learning has particularly focused on providing training to support schools in delivering LGBTQ-inclusive Sex and Relationships Education; Youth Connexions Hertfordshire has supported our young LGBTQ community to establish a strategic voice working with Elected Members and key decision makers, as well as making progress to have young LGBTQ Health Champions in our schools. Karin Hutchinson Herts for Learning 6

9 3 Cambridgeshire County Council Cambridgeshire County Council has demonstrated a long-lasting commitment to celebrating difference and preventing and tackling homophobic and biphobic bullying in schools. Cambridgeshire provides schools with an impressive array of practical support. Its PSHE Service has updated its anti-bullying toolkit and offers schools specific guidance on supporting diversity and difference in SRE, whilst its Early Years Service recently launched its updated Handbook for Equalities Named Coordinators (ENCos), containing a section on institutional discrimination. This was shortlisted for the 2014 Nursery Inclusion Awards. Cambridgeshire Race Equality and Diversity Service (CREDS) has published Equally Safe, which provides guidance to schools on dealing with and reporting prejudice-related incidents. Schools are advised to report using Cambridgeshire s dedicated online recording system, the Prejudice-Related Incident Data Entry (PRIDE) website. Cambridgeshire s Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE) is developing guidance and support for teachers to navigate discussion about sexual orientation and gender within Religious Education (RE). Cambridgeshire s Constitution and Ethics Committee has recommended that Elected Member Development Plans incorporate regular provision of equality and diversity training tailored to the roles that Elected Members play on particular committees. As a result Elected Members will receive regular training as corporate parents that will include a focus on how to support LGBT looked after children and young people. Following a motion in Full Council, Cambridgeshire County Council flew the rainbow flag over Shire Hall during LGBT History Month 2015 for the first time ever and celebrated this by creating a human rainbow. CREDS continues to offer schools an extensive range of training for senior leaders, governors, teachers and non-teaching staff on celebrating difference and preventing and tackling homophobic and biphobic bullying and language. CREDS also organised two screenings of Stonewall s primary film FREE in rural Cambridgeshire, which were attended by more than 400 primary pupils and included question and answer sessions with the film s director. SexYOUality, a local charity supporting LGBT young people, has delivered training to school staff and nurses, and run a number of workshops for students on LGBT issues. It has been supporting peer mentors to tackle homophobic language in their school, and has delivered trans awareness training to local authority staff. SexYOUality has been given funding to offer additional one-to-one mental health support to LGBT young people across the county. It has developed and delivered an intergenerational project, LGBT Vision, which saw 20 LGBT young people interviewing 20 LGBT older people living in Cambridgeshire to create a truly inspirational film that premiered at the Fitzwilliam Museum. The LGBT young people also delivered workshops in 20 schools and youth settings about the project, and a number of Cambridgeshire s libraries hosted exhibitions about it during LGBT History Month Cambridgeshire takes part in the Stonewall Education Equality Index because it is an excellent tool for reviewing and developing our practice. Stonewall s positive judgement of our submission provides external validation of our work and sends a strong message of support which helps us when developing new partnerships and projects. We are extremely proud of the collaborations that have underpinned this year s submission and can see that these combined approaches create a strong and coherent message. Significant achievements this year include SexYOUality s increased one-toone support for LGBT young people in schools and the screenings of FREE organised by Cambridgeshire Race Equality and Diversity Service, which were attended by 404 primary school children. Rose Elgar Cambridgeshire County Council 7

10 Further Good Practice Norfolk County Council, North Yorkshire County Council and Sheffield City Council 4 Norfolk County Council s Challenging Homophobia Partnership Group brings together a range of partners including Norfolk Constabulary, Norfolk LGBT Project and good practice schools. Together with Stonewall, the group has developed an Equality Audit Tool for governors to use to identify strengths and weaknesses in their schools approach to challenging homophobia, biphobia and transphobia. A new support group for LGBT young people has been established in Great Yarmouth, bringing the total number of support groups across the county to five. Celebrating Difference training has been delivered to a wide range of stakeholders including teachers, governors and foster carers, and a Stop Homophobic Bullying lesson plan and pack has been developed by Norfolk LGBT Project and subsequently delivered to 1380 secondary school students. In LGBT History Month 2015, Norfolk held a screening of FREE Stonewall s film for primary pupils for more than 140 pupils from primary and special schools. 5 North Yorkshire County Council ensures that the needs of LGBT young people are taken into account in strategic decision making and planning. A data-led report entitled Growing up as a LGBT young person in North Yorkshire was presented to the Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee in early As a result, an Elected Member-led task and finish group has been established to focus on the specific needs of LGBT young people. For Anti-Bullying Week 2014, North Yorkshire ran a Mind your Language competition, with the winning entries being a film focusing on the emotional impact of homophobic language and a song about standing up for LGBT people. The film has since been used in workshops with Year 7 and 8 students at a local high school delivered by members of the LGBT youth group. Young people from the Scarborough and Harrogate LGBT youth groups have also been trained by Stonewall to run local campaigns to tackle homophobic language. 6 Sheffield City Council surveys schools every two years to evaluate their progress in tackling homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying. These evaluations inform Sheffield s policies and practices. This year the Emotional Health and Wellbeing Service commissioned a project to provide mental health and social support to vulnerable groups, including LGBT young people. As well as this the local LGBT youth group, Fruitbowl, provides one-to-one support for young people. Sheffield has built a relationship with a local Stonewall Diversity Champion which hosted a Stonewall-led primary teacher training focused on FREE. In partnership with a local primary school, the Council has begun developing city-wide guidance on supporting trans children and young people. 8

11 Further Good Practice Bournemouth Borough Council, Southend-on-Sea Borough Council, Leicestershire County Council and Oxfordshire County Council 7= Bournemouth Borough Council has developed specific guidance on tackling homophobic, biphobic and transphobic language in schools called Stop and Think Words Can Hurt. An anti-bullying pamphlet for young people was also designed and distributed to all secondary schools for Anti-Bullying Week Bournemouth has developed a series of lessons plans for Key Stage 3 as part of the Kaleidoscope curriculum to enable schools to teach an LGBT inclusive curriculum. The curriculum also includes modules on relationships, family and social diversity. These lesson plans build upon the Rainbow curriculum for Key Stage 1 and 2. Recently Bournemouth ran a Wellbeing for All workshop with Stonewall, which focused on meeting the SRE needs of LGBT young people. 7= Southend-on-Sea Borough Council has run a year-long Equality and Diversity Champion pilot programme. The programme has brought together 11 schools, including two special schools, to develop and share best practice around tackling homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying. Southend funded these schools to attend Stonewall s Train the Trainer course and they have been working together to develop more efficient methods of recording homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying incidents. This year, CAMHS ran five courses for school staff, which included a focus on supporting LGBT young people s mental health needs as a vulnerable group. Southend has launched an inclusive SRE programme for all primary schools which includes lessons on different families and gender stereotypes, and is about to launch a secondary SRE programme to meet the needs of LGBT students. 9 Leicestershire County Council s Anti-Bullying Team now shares schools achievements and good practice in preventing and tackling homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying through a dedicated Twitter feed, allowing closer engagement with schools across the county. Leicestershire, together with its Public Health team, commissioned Street Meet, a film created and acted by LGBT young people. The film is being used by Further Education colleges to help them to explore LGBT issues for young people and raise awareness of local support services. Together with Stonewall, Leicestershire has trained primary and secondary school staff in tackling homophobic and biphobic bullying and celebrating difference. Leicestershire is also developing an anti-bullying app with advice and information for primary-aged children. 10 Oxfordshire County Council has established a partnership group to lead on the work in place to tackle homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying. The group has consulted with a range of partners including Public Health, CAMHS and individual schools, and has ensured that the experiences of children and young people are included through its annual bullying survey, which specifically asks pupils about their experience of homophobic bullying and language. This year work has also focussed on further developing and delivering training to raise awareness and support adults to tackle homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying, as well as to support LGBT young people more effectively. In conjunction with Stonewall, Oxfordshire developed its Homophobic, Biphobic and Transphobic Bullying Toolkit which has been recently updated to reflect local statistics on the vulnerability of LGBT young people, ensuring that it is always relevant to schools. 9

12 RECoMMENdaTioNS Steps towards further success drive change Homophobic bullying is demonstrably lower in schools that explicitly state that it is wrong (The School Report, Stonewall, 2012). Ofsted now explores what schools are doing to combat homophobia, biphobia and transphobia as part of its inspection framework. Local authorities should make an explicit, written commitment to tackle homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying and language, and make sure that all of their schools and other educational and youth settings do the same. Train staff, governors and Elected Members schools, as well as early years settings, and Over 90 per cent of primary school teaching and and inspire others. In particular, local authorities non-teaching staff, and eight in ten secondary should seek to engage with academies and school teachers, say they have not received free schools to tackle homophobia, biphobia specific training on how to tackle homophobic bullying (The Teachers Report, Stonewall, 2014). Local authorities should offer training to all local authority staff who work directly with children and young people, as well as to all school staff and governors, on challenging homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying identify, challenge and measure success and supporting LGBT young people. Staff Fewer than a third of lesbian, gay and bisexual should also be trained on how they, as corporate pupils say their school responds quickly to parents, can best support LGBT looked after homophobic bullying when it occurs (The School children. Report, Stonewall, 2012). Local authorities should offer schools guidance on recording and monitoring all incidents of homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying and language and ask for from early years settings should be trained on celebrating difference. Elected Members offer appropriate online arenas and network meetings where they can share their expertise and transphobia. They should also encourage partnership working, for example between secondary schools and their feeder primary schools. promote a fully inclusive curriculum More than half of lesbian, gay and bisexual young people are never taught anything about lesbian, gay and bisexual issues in their lessons and more than four in five are never taught about the biological or physical aspects of same-sex relationships (The School Report, Stonewall, Collaborate and share good practice this data to be fed back to them. Local authorities Local authorities should facilitate opportunities should ask primary and secondary school pupils for schools to support each other to improve questions about homophobic, biphobic and the work they do to celebrate difference and transphobic bullying as part of their anti-bullying/ prevent and tackle homophobic, biphobic and health and wellbeing surveys in order to determine transphobic bullying. They should identify the extent of the problem, and to inform future anti- good practice primary, secondary and special 2012). Local authorities should offer primary, secondary and special schools age-appropriate guidance and suggestions on how to integrate LGBT issues into the curriculum, including into Sex and Relationships Education, for example by using Stonewall s FREE and FIT films, Different Families resources and recommended books. bullying and commissioning strategies. further resources different families the School different report: The families: The experiences of gay experiences of young people in children with Britain s schools lesbian and gay (2012) parents (2010) and Some people are gay. get over it! posters, postcards & stickers education guides: Supporting lesbian, 10 the teachers gay and bisexual young people; Including report: different families; Working with faith Homophobic communities; Effective school leadership; bullying in Britain s Primary best practice; Tackling homophobic schools (2014) language; Staying safe online

13 involve young people Integral to the programme is a day-long Train Local authorities should encourage schools to provide specialist mental health support involve their pupils and local LGBT youth groups More than half of lesbian, gay and bisexual other staff in their school on how to tackle in their work to challenge homophobia, biphobia young people deliberately harm themselves, homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying. and transphobia. Schools should actively consult and nearly a quarter have tried to take their Local authorities should encourage schools to with pupils in the design of anti-bullying, own life at some point (The School Report, equalities and behaviour policies, and encourage Stonewall, 2012). Local authorities should pupil-friendly versions to be written, so that explicitly children and young people can take ownership support, specifically for LGBT young people, of anti-bullying initiatives. Local LGBT youth is a priority and reflect this in Joint Strategic use outside experience groups can provide particular expertise to assist Needs Assessments and Health and Wellbeing Local authorities should use objective, external schools in challenging homophobic, biphobic Strategies. This mental health support should measures to benchmark their year-on-year and transphobic bullying. be promoted to all secondary schools and youth progress in celebrating difference and tackling groups. homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying, Work in partnership recognise that mental health partners, such as the police, health service, Encourage schools to become School Champions CAMHS and charities, as well as local businesses Stonewall works directly with over 770 primary, and LGBT groups, to support schools in their work secondary and special schools, as well as pupil to prevent and tackle homophobic, biphobic and referral units (PRUs), from across the country transphobic bullying and celebrate difference. as part of the School Champions programme. Local authorities should work in partnership with a broad range of public, private and third sector the Trainer course which gives participants the tools, techniques and confidence to train join the School Champions programme as a cost-effective way to tackle bullying and help them meet the Ofsted inspection criteria. as well as identifying areas for improvement. Local authorities can be supported by Stonewall as part of the Education Champions programme to develop policy and practice, and learn from the successes of other local authorities in this area. If you missed out on participating in this year s Education Equality Index, why not take part in 2016? gay. get over it! A guide for students to help them recognise and challenge homophobic language amongst their peers celebrating difference: challenging homophobia in primary schools and coming out answers Spell it out: tackling homophobia in to some of questions our schools Stonewall s staff training you may have A guide DVDs for primary and secondary schools answering young people s questions about coming out fit A film for Key Stage 3 and 4 students that tackles the issues of homophobic So you think your bullying and language free A ground-breaking film for primary pupils that conveys powerful messages about difference, diversity child is gay? A guide FREE designed to answer some of the common questions By Rikki Beadle-Blair gay. let s get the meaning straight and respect, available at campaign Posters to help challenge the use of homophobic language that parents might have when they think their child is gay, or has just come out 11

14 Education Champions Programme Work with Stonewall and improve Every year local authorities from across Britain are signing up to tackle homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying as members of the Education Champions programme. Working with a dedicated point of contact at Stonewall and benefitting from a wide network of shared best practice, these local authorities are making significant strides towards tackling homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in nearly half of Britain s schools. This year s Education Equality Index is a testament to the hard work and success of these local authorities. Despite a challenging environment, the Index shows that local authorities are not only preventing and tackling homophobia and biphobia in their schools but also taking innovative and proactive steps to celebrate difference and create learning environments where all young people are empowered to be themselves. Twenty four of the 47 local authorities that entered the Index this year also entered last year. They have received dedicated support from Stonewall as part of our Education Champions programme and have seen their average scores increase by five per cent in the past 12 months. It is particularly impressive to see that those local authorities that have taken part in all five Indexes have seen their scores increase by an average of 25 per cent. However, there s still a lot to do. YouGov polling of 2,000 primary and secondary school teachers in 2014 found that nine in 10 teachers have never been trained in how to tackle homophobic bullying, almost unchanged from a similar study five years earlier. The results of this lack of training are stark: only two in five primary and three in five secondary school teachers are confident they are allowed to talk about lesbian, gay and bisexual issues in school, while fewer than half of all teachers say that they always challenge homophobic and biphobic language. Local authorities can create real change by supporting schools to address this gap in training, as well as providing teachers with the tools that they need to confidently challenge homophobic and biphobic bullying and language. The highest performing local authorities have gone further, recognising the impact of bullying on mental health and wellbeing, and have offered specific support to LGBT young people as an integral part of their drive to improve public health. If your local authority isn t already a member of Stonewall s Education Champions programme, we hope you will consider joining. We provide tailored support to every local authority with which we work. Thanks to support from The Monument Trust, we are able to offer all of these benefits to local authorities for just 1500 a year ( 1250 for members of Stonewall s Diversity Champions programme), making the programme an incredibly cost-effective way of supporting school improvement as well as improving education, and health and wellbeing, outcomes for children and young people. To find out how Stonewall can support you, please do get in touch with us on or educationchampions@stonewall.org.uk. Simon Feeke Director of Membership Programmes Key benefits of the programme include: A dedicated point of contact who will meet with you regularly and provide tailored support National and regional good practice seminars to hear from, and share experiences with, other local authorities Stonewall representation at two local events each year Priority access to Stonewall s acclaimed education resources Support with your submission to the Education Equality Index and detailed feedback Priority and discounted access to Stonewall s Education for All conference and other Stonewall events 12

15 Stonewall Education Equality Index 2015 Celebrating difference and preventing and tackling homophobic and biphobic bullying in Britain s schools Published by Stonewall Stonewall Tower Building York Road London SE1 7NX info@stonewall.org.uk Registered Charity number

16 Stonewall Education Equality Index 2015