North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has called on the Education Secretary to ensure that all schools and local authorities in Wales know how they should be advising pupils experiencing homophobic bullying in schools.
Mr Isherwood called for Welsh Government action to address the matter in the Assembly Chamber this week after a constituent, whose son was suffering homophobic bullying, informed him that he was not made aware by the school of his right to independent advocacy.
Mr Isherwood said:
“I was recently contacted by the parents of a young man who was suffering homophobic bullying - I won’t name the local authority - but although the local authority and teachers claimed to have awareness to respond, that was not exhibited. It was only after he contacted me, and I referred them to Stonewall Cymru (which campaigns for the equality of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people across Britain) that they then discovered the access to independent advocacy.
“What action can you take to ensure that schools and local authorities know that they should be advising such young people of their right to independent advocacy at the beginning of the process?”
Cabinet Education Secretary, Kirsty Williams, replied: “If you would like to supply me with full details of the case, I’d be more than happy to look at it…We are about to carry out a refresh of the Welsh Government’s existing anti-bullying strategy, to look to see whether we can refine it, better target it, and to make sure it’s up to date. I will be making a statement to the Chamber when that work is complete.”
ENDS