A COUNCIL has been heralded by a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights charity for its efforts to tackle homophobia and celebrating difference in its schools.

North Yorkshire County Council has been ranked by Stonewall as being among the top five local authorities in the country for its practices and policies supporting young people's sexuality and fighting bullying.

A spokesman for the Conservative-led authority said it worked hard with schools to ensure the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people were taken into account and that it had set up a task group to focus on their needs.

During Anti-Bullying Week last year, the council ran a Mind Your Language competition, the winning entries of which were a film and a song focused on combating homophobic and biphobic bullying.

The film has since been used in secondary school student workshops.

A Stonewall spokesman said: "We’d like to extend huge congratulations to North Yorkshire County Council for all of their achievements in continuing to fight against bullying and discrimination.”

Councillor Janet Sanderson, executive member for children, added: “We have an action plan for schools based on the outcomes from our Growing Up in North Yorkshire schools survey which assesses the health and emotional well-being of our young people.

"We believe that all young people in our county should be supported to have the most positive experience of life both in school and in the wider world.”