Gone With The Wind

Cuts to Traveller Education Services are kicking in, and in some areas will mean total scrapping of provision, Damian Le Bas finds

Gypsies, Roma and Travellers are by far and away the United Kingdom's most educationally at-risk ethnic groups. Yet in November 2010, the National Union of Teachers reported that eight local authorities had deleted their Traveller Education Service completely.

These losses form part of a broader national picture of severe damage to TES provision, which has made painstaking gains since the 1967 Plowden Report described Romany and Traveller children as “probably the most severely deprived children in the country”.

In 2011, on top of the eight local authorities which will lose their service entirely, six more are reporting significant staff losses, with twenty more set to lose some posts.

All in all, across the entire country, only nine services have reported that no cuts are threatened in their area.

NATT+: 46% of Gypsy and Traveller pupils are eligible for Free School Meals, but won't necessarily get targeted help

The National Association of Teachers of Travellers (NATT+) has stated that “we are concerned that these changes will fall disproportionately on the educationally very vulnerable group of Gypsies, Roma and Travellers.

“We refer to the contraction of Traveller Education Services in order to demonstrate that expertise is being lost at the same time as the national imperative for improving outcomes for this group is being removed.”

Among Gypsy, Roma and Traveller students of secondary school age, it is estimated that 50% are disengaged from education.

Yet as of the end of this month, the Department for Education's National Strategies programme will no longer focus specifically on the need to narrow the gap in attainment of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils, many of whom are from poor families.

At the recent NATT+ conference in Tingley, Leeds, it was noted of the 15,000 ascribed Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils in British schools, around 46% are eligible for free school meals.

Under government plans, free school meals children attract extra funding to their schools in the form of the Pupil Premium, a flagship Liberal Democrat policy brought in by the coalition government as part of the schools settlement.

The Pupil Premium is of considerable value to schools, having been set at £430 per child.

However, there is no onus on headteachers to earmark funding brought in by Gypsy and Traveller pupils for specific spending on books or services to help those pupils, and hence no guarantee that Gypsy and Traveller students will receive targeted help.