Tackling homophobic bullying in schools

George Osborne has announced new plans to do more to address the real problem of homophobic bullying in schools.

A key part of tackling homophobic bullying is to give teachers and heads the power to keep order and set clear standards of behaviour in their schools.

Under Labour, homophobic bullies excluded from schools can be returned to the classroom by a bureaucratic appeals panel, and teachers are often unable to break up violent homophobic bullying because of ‘no touch’ policies that prevent them from intervening.

The Conservatives will give headteachers the final say over the exclusion of homophobic bullies and give teachers the power to stop violent homophobic incidents.

We would also change government guidance on behaviour and exclusions to make it clear that bullying aggravated by prejudice – including homophobic bullying should result in tougher punishments. And in order to improve the level of information we have, we would include a new category in exclusions data specifically for ‘homophobic abuse.’

In summary, our approach to tackling homophobic bullying in schools involves:

• Freeing heads to exclude homophobic bullies. Under the current rules, a pupil expelled for homophobic bullying could be returned to their school on appeal by an appeals panel; something that would obviously be extremely upsetting to their victims. By scrapping appeals panels, we will ensure that the final say over exclusion rests with the heads and governors of a school and their authority cannot be undermined.
• Giving teachers the power to stop violent homophobic incidents. At the moment, teachers are often unable to break up violent homophobic bullying because of the lack of clarity over use of force. One study showed that half of all schools now have some kind of ‘no touch’ policy which prevents teachers intervening. We would change the law to give teachers absolute clarity over use of reasonable force to prevent violence, and to allow teachers to search for all potentially disruptive items that could be used to bully pupils.
• New guidance on bullying aggravated by prejudice. We would change government guidance to schools on behaviour and exclusions to make it clear that non-violent bullying aggravated by prejudice like homophobia should result in tougher punishments than other forms of persistently disruptive behaviour. This would include homophobic bullying, as well as bullying on the basis of gender, race or disability. And we believe that all forms of violent bullying should continue to lead to some form of exclusion.
• Recording incidents of homophobic abuse. We know that homophobic bullying is a real problem in our schools but it is difficult to assess the scale at the moment because of the way the Government collect data. We would include a new category in exclusions data specifically for ‘homophobic abuse’ (sexual misconduct and racial abuse are already included).