Just three months after dropping out of the Stonewall Top 100 Gay Friendly Employers Index, Brighton and Hove Council bounced back today and has been named as the top local authority in the country for tackling homophobic and biphobic bullying in schools.
Stonewall, the LGB Equality charity has placed the council in first place in their 2014 Education Equality Index which rates the performance of different councils using a wide range of measures describing the council as “leading the way” in celebrating difference and supporting lesbian, gay and bisexual students.
They also praised the work the council does jointly with local charity the Allsorts Youth Project where young people from Allsorts deliver training to council and school staff and provided anti-homophobic bullying sessions in secondary PSHE lessons and primary school assemblies.
Blatchington Mill School came in for special mention for a Student Equality Conference it held earlier this year that was attended by 60 students from five secondary schools and St Nicolas’ Primary School for the innovative work it has done on challenging the use of homophobic and biphobic language in the playground.
Jess Wood, MBE, director of Allsorts the award winning LGBT youth project, said: “The council and our schools have done amazing work this year and deserve this great recognition. We cannot praise the schools highly enough. They have taken on the issues and worked tirelessly to change things for the better.
“We all work closely together and this mutual support and enthusiasm has made our schools and our city a safer place for lgbt children and young people.”
Hertfordshire Country Council and Wiltshire Council round out the top three performing local authorities in 2014.
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