Mayor pledges to help stamp out homophobic bullying in our schools.

Doncaster's elected Mayor, Peter Davis recently attended a meeting with the Pride committee. The entire agenda given over to two main topics, that of raising the LGBT awareness across Doncaster and the committee's desire to see a more inclusive aproach to LGBT issues across the Borough and the second a plea from the committee for the Mayor to intervene and assist in policies and strategies to help tackle homophobic bullying in Doncaster's schools.

Following the annual post Pride survey the committee has been alarmed and extremely concerned at some of the comments and statistics from our young LGBT community, many claiming they themselves have been victims of; or have seen homophobic bullying in our schools.

The bullying issue is something the committee feel has to be tackled from the most senior levels and understands the power to make change rests outside our capeability - but we have a voice, we have influence and we have the ability to put the information we have gathered into the hands of those people that can make changes.

Mayor Davis agreed to do whatever he could to bring changes and offered for the committee to attend and present our findings to a meeting of the Councils Overview and Scrutiny Committee. A copy of the letter read out at this meeting is attached.

Pride is committed to working with DMBC to do whatever we can to stamp out homophobia in our schools.

Schools, Children and Young People

Doncaster Council

19^th October 2011

Dear Members of the Scrutiny Panel

We write to you with an open letter, as a representative voice for Doncaster’s  lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) community. Doncaster Pride is a non- political community group, who many of you will know organises an annual LGBT  pride event. Pride events across the country have various desires and outcomes,  but in the main, for Doncaster Pride we have two main points of focus. Firstly, to raise the profile of the LGBT community, raising public awareness that Doncaster has a large LGBT community and through the raising of that profile, attempting to tackle discrimination. Secondly, to increase the confidence of members of the LGBT  community, and to give them one day a year where they can feel a sense of togetherness and share their individuality with the rest of the LGBT community, their families and supporters of the community. The confidence of Doncaster’s LGBT community certainly has started to grow, and one of the results of this has been that many young LGBT people have started to feel confident in approaching us, and responding to survey requests, about their experiences in mainstream education in Doncaster. In particular, there have been issues raised about homophobic bullying in schools, and in a recent survey where aquestion was asked of school experiences, those of school age responded with some shocking statistics:

• · 4 out of 10 LGBT or Questioningchildren admitted to being homophobically bullied at school.
• · 28% admitted keeping their LGBT status a secret out of fear of being bullied or isolated.
• · 32% of those responding occasionally get issues (or in other words are occasionally bullied).
• · Half of all those that responded to our survey, including those of school age who do not identify as LGBT or Questioning, have witnessed homophobic bullying at school.

We hope that this scrutiny panel will share the concerns of Doncaster Pride and appreciate the alarm and upset that these revelations bring. In response to this,  Doncaster Pride has started to carry out some research into the situation, and has  sent Freedom of information requests through to all secondary schools and academies in the Doncaster Borough to ask what provision they are making to both tackle homophobic bullying in their schools, and to ensure an LGBT inclusive curriculum. We are in the process of receiving these results. We are about to go outwith a more in-depth survey to find out more detail about the situation for many of  our teens and children, and their experiences either as LGBT or Questioning youth, or as members of the wider community who are witnessing homophobic bullying.  We have written to OFSTED and sought more information about details on LGBT  inclusivity and tackling homophobicbullying in general for Doncaster overall. We have also sought and received support from the Doncaster branch of the National Union of Teachers, and are
currently receiving support from the LGBT arm of the NUT. We are also receiving support from Stonewall, the largest charity for the LGB community in the UK. We have met
with Mayor Peter Davis to raise this issue withhim too. The overall aim is that we shall eventually be publishing a report with our findings, in an attempt to raise public and press awareness about the extent of this issue, and to highlight that when considering this as a national issue, this concerns Doncaster’s LGBT children too, and isn’t just a case of being a national problem. Today, we address this panel to ask you to consider your part in tackling what has become for us a priority, and to encourage the panel to ensure that you tooremember that homophobic bullying requires attention in the work that you are doing. We are particularly concerned about the fact that the Doncaster Children and Young People’s Plan 2011-2016 doesn’t consider Doncaster’s LGBT youth, despite briefly  considering disability and race as aggravating factors of bullying. We have gonethrough minutes of the Children’s Trust Board Meetings and cannot find  reference to homophobic bullying or LGBT issues. We are currently seeing very little work done on the issue of homophobic bullying and raising LGBT awareness amongst Doncaster’s children, and yet this has nationally been debated and raised as an issue for many years now. The Schools, Children and Young People’s Work Plan, discussed in your September 2011 meeting, refers to Key Priorities that all have room for LGBT inclusivity and for the tackling of homophobic bullying. Not exclusively, but including: Developing Stronger Communities, Protecting and Improving All Our Children’s Lives, Improving Help and Support for Independent Lives, and Tackling Crime and Anti-Social  Behaviour. As a community group, we would like to see this scrutiny panel commit to asking tougher questions on how its partners, and those it is given the mandate to govern or supervise, are helping LGBT youth. We would like to see stronger efforts from the panel to question those within its governance or those required to seek the panel’s advice, on how they
intend to tackle the issue of homophobia, including raising LGBT awareness. We would like to see any revised or future aims of this  panel to use inclusive and equality driven language whilst developing those aims. We kindly remind you that most of you on this panel are affiliated to parties that have made pledges to tackle homophobic bullying. We hope that your commitment not only as members and leaders of Doncaster’s community, but as members of political parties also, will remind you of the need to pay more focus on this issue. As a community group over the comming months we certainly look foward to hearing more about your individual and collective efforts in this area. In closing, if any member of the panel wishes to speak to us in more detail on this issue, we would be more than willing to discuss.

Many Thanks

Doncaster Pride