THIS year’s annual Wirral anti-bullying conference will focus on homophobic abuse and cyber bullying.

Kieran Bohan, who made history when he and his partner became the first gay couple in the UK to register a civil partnership in a religious building, is among the guest speakers at the event this week.

The conference, being held in the run up to “Anti-Bullying Week 2013”, includes the launch of the new Wirral Anti-Bullying Strategy and Anti-Bullying Charter, which all schools will sign up to.

Kieran, a youth support worker at GYRO, the UK's longest running LGBT youth group, at the young person's advisory aervice in Liverpool, will be talking about the impact of homophobic bullying and what can be done to stop it when he gives a keynote speech on the morning of Wednesday, October 16, at Wirral Professional Excellence Centre, Acre Lane, Bromborough.

The conference’s other keynote speaker, e-safety consultant Ken Corish, will shift the focus to cyberbullying as he talks about his work with a broad range of national and international organisations including Childnet and CEOP, the UK’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.

Other speakers include Trish Conning of the educational charity The Ariel Trust, whose educational resource ‘Denial’ is being used to raise awareness of and tackle homophobic bullying in secondary schools, and Kayte Walsh, co-ordinator of the anti-bullying charity Bullybusters.

There will also be a dramatic presentation by Wirral Youth Theatre, whose recent production, ‘If You Loved Me You Would,’ explored abusive relationships.

Elsewhere in the borough, Anti-Bullying Week 2013 - from November 18 - will be marked in November by individual events in schools around the borough.

Councillor Tony Smith, Wirral’s cabinet member for children and family services, said: "This conference, and the launch of the new strategy and schools’ charter, will send a clear message that bullying is not acceptable, and demonstrate our commitment to outlawing bullying in all its forms."