CALLS are being made to beef up Worcestershire's help available to gay and lesbian schoolchildren.

Worcestershire County Council is being urged to take policy advice from Birmingham by launching a new programme to better support pupils who may be at risk of bullying due to their sexual orientation.

Council chiefs in the second city have an 'LGBT' (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual) support package which actively aids students.

The plea has come from Councillor Jo Baker, an openly-gay politician who has secured the support of the Conservative leadership to look into it.

A motion on taking the idea forward attracted support across the political spectrum.

Councillor Baker, from County Hall's Labour group, said: "The consequences of homophobic bullying, if it becomes unchallenged, can be devastating for young LGBT students."

Independent Councillor Stephen Peters said: "This is a very knowledgeable organisation that can identify issues within our schools.

"The county council should be supporting this, there are a lot of young people in our schools who need it."

Liberal Democrat Councillor Fran Oborski added: "It's only appropriate that as a county council, we take a lead in demonstrating to our schools, whether they be academies or our schools, that they all have a role to play in leading on this."

The Tory leadership has agreed to look into it further, including investigating whether Worcestershire should take part in a national 'equality index' to compare how it fares to others.

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

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

Councillor Marc Bayliss, the county council's cabinet member for children and families, said: "I'm sympathetic to this and endorse the comments Councillor Oborski has made.

"I do think the council has to recognise the different relationships we have with academies, as opposed to other schools - it may be a case of 'influence' rather than 'control'.

"But if there's anything we can do around this, I'm prepared to look at it."