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Jo Swinson announces a new initiative to help drive out homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in secondary schools during .

The new project will invite organisations to bid for funding to conduct a full review of all the available evidence and existing practices currently in place in schools to tackle this issue.

Today, Jo Swinson met with students at to discuss how they are tackling homophobic bullying. The school is a member of and has been doing some outstanding work on the issue

Equalities Minister Jo Swinson said:

Homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying has serious consequences - it can affect children鈥檚 well-being, lead to poor educational performance and prevent them getting ahead in life. It鈥檚 completely unacceptable that young people are experiencing this type of derogatory treatment.

This new project will help us to fully understand the issues and develop effective, evidence-based tools and best practice that will help schools to stamp out this harmful behaviour.

Guidance for schools

This projects builds on from work the government has already undertaken to tackle bullying in schools, including publishing updated for schools and governing bodies; and giving schools greater legal powers to tackle bad behaviour and cyber-bullying.

Today鈥檚 announcement follows the Church of England鈥檚 pledge to introduce a campaign to fight homophobic bullying in its schools. Earlier this week, Stonewall also launched a to tackle the use of homophobic language in schools through posters and guidance to address the misuse of the word 鈥榞ay鈥�.

Organisations wishing to tender to carry out this piece of work can access details of how to apply by visiting: /contracts-finder

is an annual event set up by the Anti-Bullying Alliance to give people all over the country a chance to think about bullying and come up with new ideas on how to prevent it.

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