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Question from: County Councillor Matthew Dorrance Subject: Implementation of Stonewall Cymru Recommendations
Question: At the meeting of Council held on 19th October 2017, I asked what assessment the Cabinet had made of Stonewall Cymru’s 2017 School Report. The Cabinet member gave an undertaking to implement the recommendations of the report in full.
Will the Cabinet Member provide an update on progress towards achieving this result?
Minutes: Response by the Portfolio Holder:
There has been progress made towards implementing the recommendations of the Stonewall Cymru 2017 School Report. Those recommendations are varied and multifarious, and so a comprehensive breakdown of that progress would be difficult to give succinctly. The Schools Service would like to offer Cllr Dorrance the opportunity to meet with the lead officer for LGBTQI+ issues, in order to discuss the progress more fully.
In terms of a brief summary, there has been considerable work undertaken with regard to bullying, equality and diversity, and further work will now be undertaken in light of the new Welsh Government statutory anti-bullying guidance for schools and Local Authorities. This guidance includes a requirement for incidents of bullying to be logged with the Local authority, a significant change from previous guidance. This will generate monitoring data for the Schools Service. The Schools Service has provided training to school leaders on transgender issues, and has supported a number of schools with individual cases of supporting learners who are transgender. A new local authority guidance and support document is being developed as a reference guide for schools in respect of LGBTQI+ issues. Curriculum developments, in particular the Health and Well-being Area of Learning and Experience, will also lead to improvements in how LGBTQI+ issues are addressed through the curriculum.
In addition to particular training for school leaders, the safeguarding training delivered to all school staff across Powys highlights equality and diversity issues, and particularly highlights LGBTQI+ topics. The lead officer has also been part of the multi-agency work that is ongoing around the Health Board’s Sexual Health Improvement Plan.
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