Scottish Government

12.1

Learning and Teaching Scotland develop practical guidance and materials to help schools to promote the inclusion of LGBT people in the curriculum and meet their professional and legislative obligations to LGBT young people.

This Government wants all children to become successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens. To achieve this, all our children need to have equal opportunities to learn and demonstrate respect for themselves, and each other.

Our schools must be inclusive, welcoming places for everyone to live and work, no matter what their sexual orientation or gender identity.

To this end, the Scottish Government will work with Learning and Teaching Scotland ( LTS) inclusive education development officers, to ensure proper representation and effective inclusion of LGBT issues in their work. http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/inclusiveeducation/index.asp
In addition, working with LGBT Youth Scotland, LTS are managing the development of Dealing with homophobia and homophobic incidents in Schools (toolkit for teachers) [see also 17.1], and ensuring that it meets the Curriculum for Excellence objectives. The funding for the toolkit is provided by the Scottish Government.

12.2

Not for the Scottish Government.
Equality and Human Rights Commission develop clear guidance for local authorities and schools on their legal responsibilities on LGBT equality.

12.3

NHS Health Scotland mainstreams the needs and experiences of LGBT young people through the roll-out of lessons from Healthy Respect, the National Health Demonstration Project aimed at improving the sexual health of young people in Lothian.

The Scottish Government is supporting a post within NHS Health Scotland to disseminate lessons from Healthy Respect. The post is funded for two years from April 2008 and will focus on disseminating work at a national level, including use of Healthy Respect resources and providing practical support to local areas, helping them to develop education, information and services for young people in their area. Impact of the programme is being evaluated by Health Scotland.

The group believes that this can be achieved within three years.

13.1

HMIE should develop a good practice framework for schools on addressing the needs of LGBT young people and promoting a positive ethos.

The group believes this can be achieved within three years.

In the course of all school inspections, HM inspectors look at how schools are addressing issues of equality and diversity, including LGBT equality. They encourage schools to promote equality and diversity. The following questions are taken from advice recently given to all HM inspectors on inspecting equality and in all cases, these questions cover all equalities strands, including sexual orientation and gender identity.

Inspectors ask these questions in the course of their discussions with staff in schools.

• What action is taken to remove any barriers and ensure all children/pupils are reaching their full potential?
• How well are learners prepared to challenge stereotypes and be involved in actively promoting equality within the pre-school/school and the wider community?
• Are all learners treated with equality, fairness and respect?
• How do staff challenge stereotypes and actively promote and ensure equality of opportunity for all equalities groups?
• How do the courses and programmes offered ensure that all learners develop knowledge, skills and understanding of equality issues?
• How do leaders support and challenge all staff effectively to ensure equality of provision and outcome for all learners?

HMIE has been working with Stonewall Scotland and colleagues in Scottish Government on a draft self-evaluation guide relating to LGBT equality. A decision will be made in the near future regarding the publication of this document which would supplement advice given in the third edition of How good is our school?.

HMIE is looking at the possibility of including video clips of good practice relating to equalities issues, including LGBT equality, on its Journey to Excellence website.

13.2

Inspectors are trained and aware of the issues surrounding LGBT inclusion in education.

The group believes this can be achieved within three years.

Inspectors regularly receive training in all aspects of equality and diversity. They received specific training in LGBT issues at their National Seminar in August 2006. Further training specific to LGBT equality will be delivered within the next year and the issue will be revisited again in future.

13.3

The General Teaching Council for Scotland includes a section on LGBT equality within their information for teachers on professional conduct. The group believes that this can be achieved within one year.

The revised Code of Professionalism and Conduct was published by the General Teaching Council for Scotland ( GTCS) in May this year and came into effect on 1 August 2008. Copies of the Code have been sent to every school and university. The Code takes a proportionate approach to the broad issues of equality and diversity. LGBT issues are addressed in two of the Code's main sections and makes equality and diversity issues clear with regard to:

• Pupils and learners;
• Colleagues; and
• Parents.

The Code also forms the basis of the Code of Professional and Conduct workshops which are delivered by the Department of Professional practice to newly-qualified teachers on the Induction Scheme across the 32 Local Authorities and the Scottish Council for Independent Schools ( SCIS). This replaced a similar presentation which was rolled out in 2004 based on the Council's previous publication; Professionalism in Practice. A leaflet covering professional practice etc was sent to every teacher in 2005 and stresses the importance of equality and diversity under the Working with Others section.

In producing the revised Code of Professionalism and Conduct, the GTCS is enabling the individual teacher to take on board the notion of personal regulation and runs in parallel with the concept of workplace regulations which fall within the scope of employers.

In addition, the Accreditation of initial teacher education ( ITE) programme, which is managed by the GTCS, states that, under the Equal Opportunities/Disability Discrimination, the GTCS requires that courses and programmes will embrace diversity and promote the equal opportunity requirements laid down by statute.

14.1

The Scottish Government and Learning and Teaching Scotland include the pastoral care needs of LGBT young people through the Happy, Safe and Achieving their Potential standards for personal support in schools and related initiatives.

As noted in our response to recommendation 12.1, this Government wants our schools to be inclusive to all children, whatever their sexual orientation or gender identity. The Scottish Government will work with key colleagues in LTS to ensure LBGT issues are included in its personal support in schools work programme. Possible activities which will be explored include:

• developing good practice example(s) to include in the personal support toolkit that LTS hosts online;
• including LGBT in the programme of any events LTS organise; and
• including a theme on LGBT inclusion in any future annual personal support conference.

In addition to this, the Scottish Government will facilitate a lunchtime seminar for Scottish Government policy makers in education, to raise awareness of LGBT issues in schools. This will be delivered by members of the LGBT hearts and minds agenda group who drew up this recommendation. The invitation to the seminar was issued by the Director of Schools within the Scottish Government, which sends a strong signal to staff about the importance of this area of work. Staff invited include those with a range of responsibilities within the Education Directorate, whose policy area could impact on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people in Scotland. The aim of the seminar is to explore how these different policy area 'could further support our LGBT young people to feel safe, healthy and included in Scotland's society'. The seminar is scheduled to take place in October 2008.

14.2

Not for the Scottish Government.
Education Authorities take account of the needs of LGBT young people, including through 'coming out' in their work on pastoral care.

15.1

Not for the Scottish Government.

Scotland's Learning Partnership, Learn Direct, Careers Scotland and other relevant providers should work with LGBT organisations to develop and provide LGBT awareness training for adult learning professionals.

15.2

Not for the Scottish Government.

Adult learning providers should target adult learning opportunities at LGBT communities directly.

16.1

Not for the Scottish Government.

Education authorities include LGBT training in their ongoing programme of Continuing Professional Development.

16.2

Not for the Scottish Government.

Education authorities commit to training on anti-homophobia, transphobia and LGBT equality in school development planning.

17.1

The Scottish Government and COSLA actively promote the Scottish Government funded Equal Opportunities In Education: Guidance on Dealing with Homophobic Incidents project to education authorities and schools.

The Scottish Government wants all of Scotland's children and young people to become successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens. To achieve this all our children need to have equal opportunities to learn and demonstrate respect for each other and themselves. Our schools must be inclusive, welcoming places for everyone in which to work and learn no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity. The Scottish Government is supporting the development of guidance on Dealing with homophobia and homophobic Incidents in schools in partnership with a wide range of stakeholders including the Scottish Anti-Bullying Steering Group. We will ensure the guidance is promoted to education authorities, schools and school staff, including through the Learning and Teaching Scotland website and the respectme national anti-bullying service [see also 12.1].

The toolkit will be launched in November 2008. Training events will take place in Stirling, Aberdeen, Galashiels and Glasgow. Local authorities have been invited to send delegates to the events. The Scottish Government's Positive Behaviour Team will also be provided with the toolkit, so that they can respond to queries and requests on dealing with homophobic incidents from the local authorities they work with.

17.2

The Scottish Government should take every opportunity to make further positive leadership statements on challenging prejudiced attitudes towards LGBT people in schools.

The Scottish Government is committed to challenging the systems, behaviours and attitudes that cause and sustain prejudice and discrimination across Scotland. We will continue to work with all Scotland's communities to develop our approach to progressing equality in Scotland. The Scottish Government has demonstrated this commitment in the national outcomes within the concordat with local government where it is stated that one of our shared outcomes with local government is that 'We have tackled the significant inequalities in Scottish society.' The Scottish Government is committed to tackling all types of prejudice and discrimination including LGBT issues. This is demonstrated by the Government's commitment to the development of the guidance Dealing with homophobia and homophobic Incidents in schools [see also 17.1] and the promotion of The Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007 through guidance issued by the Scottish Government to local authorities and schools on discrimination related to sexual orientation.

17.3

Not for the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Parliament Equal Opportunities and Education Committees hold an inquiry into bullying, including bullying on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender (including transgender).

17.4

Not for the Scottish Government.

COSLA coordinates and hosts a conference on LGBT equality in schools for local education authorities.

The group believes that this can be achieved within three years.

18.1

Research is conducted into the experiences of children of LGBT parents.

In order to establish existing knowledge on the experiences of children of LGBT parents and reveal any research gaps, we will carry out a literature review to identify existing research which examines attitudes towards and experiences of children and young people with one or more parents who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender.

Specifically, the review will collate research which examines one or more of the following:

1. attitudes towards children and young people (up to the age of 18) who have one or more parents (adoptive or biological) who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender;

2. the experiences of children and young people (up to the age of 18) who have one or more parents (adoptive or biological) who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender.

The review will not examine the experiences of children who themselves identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender unless their parents also identify as such.

This work will be carried out internally within the Scottish Government Analytical Services Team, and will be completed before the end of 2008.

18.2

Research is conducted into the needs and experiences of transgender young people in partnership with Scottish transgender organisations.

We recognise that our understanding of the needs and experiences of transgender young people is at present very limited. Scottish Government researchers have met with the Scottish Transgender Association and LGBT Youth Scotland to explore how this can be taken forward in partnership. We have now agreed to work with these two organisations to undertake a small piece of research in response to this recommendation.

The overall aim of this project is to establish how the needs of transgender young people in school can be more effectively met.

Within this, the main aims are to:
a) Investigate the experiences young transgender people have at school;
b) Explore what is known about gender stereotyping in schools;
c) Examine the service and support provision for young transgender people in school in Scotland.

The research (which will start before the end of 2008) will aim to clarify gaps in support and service along with evidence of good practice where this exists.