OUT North East and ReportOUT would like to invite you, your colleagues, and your wider networks, to join us for our conference #SaferToBeMe 2026: LGBTQI+ Young People in the UK Amid Changing Times, taking place on Friday 6 November 2026 at the ONE Centre in Gateshead.

A vital, one-day, conference equipping educators, youth workers, and frontline professionals working with LGBTQI+ young people, with the insight, tools and lived perspectives needed to better support LGBTQI+ young people in the UK today. A partnership event held by ReportOUT, Pride Action North and OUT North East.

Across the UK, LGBTQI+ young people are growing up amid significant change. Shifts in legislation, education policy and public debate are creating new questions for young people themselves, as well as for the teachers, youth workers, healthcare professionals, charities, public services, families, and communities, seeking to support them. This is why #SaferToBeMe 2026 is needed now.

This one-day conference will bring together professionals, community organisations, LGBTQI+ people, allies, and members of the public, to explore what these changing times mean for LGBTQI+ young people and, crucially, what we can do in practice to ensure they continue to feel safe, supported, and able to belong.

The programme includes five keynote speakers and six conference sessions, bringing together lived experience, research, education, youth work, and practical approaches to supporting young people.

Our keynote speakers include:

• Sue Sanders, CEO of Schools OUT
• Laïla El-Métoui, Founder and CEO of Pride in Education
• Kate Osborne MP
• Colin Scott, former secondary school head teacher, joined by a special guest young person
• Drew Dalton, CEO of ReportOUT

Across the day, sessions will explore rising LGBTQI+ phobia in the UK, youth work and LGBTQ+ people, barriers around transition, LGBTQ+ inclusion within SEND, the disappearance of spaces for LGBTQI+ young people, creating safer and more inclusive schools, and an interactive final workshop asking: “So, what do we do now?”