SCHOOLS in Worcestershire are being urged to offer more help to gay and lesbian students by council chiefs.

Worcestershire County Council's leadership says it will write to headteachers to urge them to join a national effort at supporting non-straight pupils.

Back in July County Hall's opposition Labour group created a motion asking for more assistance for 'LGBT' (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual) children.

The Conservative cabinet, which was supportive of the idea, has now agreed to take it further.

Schools will be encouraged to take part in a national 'equality' index to see how they compare to others.

The Stonewall Equality Index measures how schools tackle homophobia and celebrate people's differences.

This year's index now compares more than 50 local authorities across the nation including those in England, Scotland and Wales - the highest number of participants ever.

During a cabinet meeting, the motion the leadership endorsed was slightly re-worded to remove a reference forcing schools to get involved.

The cabinet argued that as so many schools are academies and therefore autonomous, the council could only "encourage" them to sign up.

If they do not like the Stonewall Equality Index, they will be advised to adopt an LGBT help-kit developed by the University of Birmingham which aims to offer the same level of support to pupils.

Councillor Marc Bayliss, the cabinet member for children and families, said: "Essentially, we agree with the 'motioneers' (the Labour group).

"The amendment to the motion is to reflect the reality of the situation now, where a great number of our schools have autonomy from us due to the academisation process."

Councillor Marcus Hart, a fellow cabinet member, said: "It's a very fair, equitable compromise, we should encourage schools to take part in this index or something similar.

"As the cabinet member has pointed out, mandating them to do so is something else entirely."

Councillor Jo Baker, an openly-gay Labour politician, was the driving force behind the original motion.

He said: "The consequences of homophobic bullying, if it becomes unchallenged can be devastating for young LGBT students."