Gypsy/Travellers action plan 2024-2026: Child rights and wellbeing impact assessment

Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment

1. Brief Summary

Type of proposal:

Decision of a strategic nature relating to the rights and wellbeing of children

Name the proposal, and describe its overall aims and intended purpose:

Improving the Lives of Scotland’s Gypsy/Travellers 2. Action Plan 2024-2026.

The Gypsy/Travellers Action Plan 2024-2026 sets out the Scottish Government’s commitments to improve outcomes for Gypsy/Travellers communities in Scotland, in particular in areas such as accommodation, education, health, social security, and fighting discrimination. The Gypsy/Travellers Action Plan 2024-2026 is in line with our long-term ambition to make Scotland a place where every person has the same opportunities and where everyone’s individual needs are recognised and met.

Start date of proposal’s development: July 2023

Start date of CRWIA process: October 2023

2. With reference given to the requirements of the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024, which aspects of the proposal are relevant to children’s rights?

Children and young people will be impacted by the proposal in several ways as a result of: direct interventions on their own lives, positive impact on their families access to improved services, improved support for service providers and increased representation in relevant policy.

Accommodation objectives specifically to continue to fund demonstration projects through the Gypsy/Traveller Accommodation Fund, and ensure good standards of accommodation advance Article 27 (States Parties recognize the right of every child to a standard of living adequate for the child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development). The previous Ministerial Working Group on Gypsy/Travellers identified more and better accommodation as the key to unlocking improved outcomes for Gypsy/Travellers. The Gypsy/Traveller Interim Site Design Guide has looked particularly at the needs of women, children, people with disabilities and older people who are not well served by existing accommodation.

‘Improvements to accommodation/sites’ also advance other articles e.g. Article 31 (Leisure, play and culture) – through the Interim Site Design Guide, local authorities are required to provide safe communal recreation/play areas for children of all ages on sites where suitable provision is not available within reasonable walking distance from the site on a safe route.

Education objective ‘Develop a series of high-level actions to ensure a national, strategic, and sustainable response to the community perspectives and their experiences of barriers to education’ advances Article 4 (States Parties shall undertake all appropriate legislative, administrative, and other measures for the implementation of the rights recognized in the present Convention).

Education objective ‘Support schools to be proactive in communicating with Gypsy/Traveller parents to ensure that they have access to information and support at all stages of their children’s education’ advances Article 8, protection and preservation of identity, Article 14, Freedom of thought, belief and religion, Article 28, Right to education, Article 29 Goals of education, Article 30 Children from minority or indigenous groups and Article 31, the right to leisure, play and culture.

Education action ‘Adopt rights-based approaches ensuring that Gypsy/Traveller children and young people’ have meaningful roles in the development of proposals and resources using appropriate participation processes’ advances Article 12, ‘Respect for the views of the child’.

Health objectives ‘Embed learning from MECOPP community Health Worker (CHW) service in mainstream health services, to inform future service planning and design’ and ‘Increase knowledge and understanding about the health needs and inequalities experienced by the Gypsy/Traveller community to inform and influence future service planning and design’ advance Article 24, States Parties recognize the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health and to facilities for the treatment of illness and rehabilitation of health.

Social Security, Skills and Combatting Poverty objective ‘Publication of a seldom-heard benefit take-up action plan to develop social security policies and communication strategies actively targeting Gypsy/Travellers’ advances Article 26, States Parties shall recognize for every child the right to benefit from social security, and shall take the necessary measures to achieve the full realization of this right in accordance with their national law.

Whilst not specific to children and young people, Social Security, Skills and Combatting Poverty objective ‘Understand how the Tackling Fuel Poverty Strategy and our programmes may need to be adapted to reflect the particular needs of Gypsy/Travellers communities’ aligns with Article 27, States Parties recognize the right of every child to a standard of living adequate for the child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development.

Empower Communities, Improve Representation, and Tackle Racism and Discrimination objective ‘Provide leadership to challenge racism and discrimination, promote Gypsy/Traveller’s rights and recognise Gypsy/Traveller history and culture’ advances Article 2, States Parties shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present Convention to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child’s or his or her parent’s or legal guardian’s race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status.

Empower Communities, Improve Representation, and Tackle Racism and Discrimination objectives ‘Improve opportunities for children and young Gypsy/Travellers to have their views heard’ and ‘Increase opportunities for young Gypsy/Travellers to improve their skills and confidence to influence decision making processes; and challenge and change prejudice and discrimination’ advance Article 12 “Respect for the views of the child”.

Empower Communities, Improve Representation, and Tackle Racism and Discrimination objective ‘provide leadership to challenge racism and discrimination, promote Gypsy/Traveller’s rights and recognise Gypsy/Traveller history and culture’ and ‘strengthen community development and engagement and work with Gypsy/ Travellers to improve their involvement in decision-making’ advances Article 8, States Parties undertake to respect the right of the child to preserve his or her identity, including name and family relations as recognized by law without unlawful interference.

Empower Communities, Improve Representation, and Tackle Racism and Discrimination objective ‘Empower communities to better understand their human rights and how to exercise these’ and ‘Improve opportunities for children and young Gypsy/Travellers to have their views heard’ advances Article 42, States Parties undertake to make the principles and provisions of the Convention widely known, by appropriate and active means, to adults and children alike.

3. Please provide a summary of the evidence gathered which will be used to inform your decision-making and the content of the proposal.

Evidence from:

• existing research/reports/policy expertise and consultation/feedback from stakeholders

Our decision making will be informed by existing policy and research, specifically those that draw attention to the need for culturally-relevant and culturally-sustaining approaches to service delivery, for example: Education Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence, Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC), Supporting children and young people with healthcare needs in schools: guidance, Included, engaged and involved part 1: promoting and managing school attendance; Education: National Improvement Framework and improvement plan 2024 and Scotland's Race Equality Framework.

Several recent reports have drawn attention to the barriers the Gypsy/Traveller community face when trying to access public services. Most are affected by persistent discrimination of both parents and children. Reports describe bullying, racism and marginalisation (Anti-bullying Alliance et al., 2020; Riddell, 2022).

Scottish social attitudes data (2015) has revealed how this negative judgement extends into the employment realm; one in three people in Scotland (34% of respondents) felt that Gypsy/Travellers are unsuitable primary school teachers.

Lower levels of literacy and education make it harder to find and keep a job. More than 60% of UK Gypsy/Traveller households have no one with any formal educational qualifications, compared to 10% amongst the general population (Scottish Government, 2024).

Scottish Government statistics have shown that in education Gypsy/Traveller attainment and positive transitions and destinations are among the lowest in Scottish education. 2011 Census analysis data showed that 50% of Gypsy/Travellers aged 16 and over had no qualifications compared to 27% of the general population.

Evidence from the Improving educational outcomes for children and young people from travelling cultures: guidance (Dec 2018) shows that as a group, Gypsy/Travellers educational outcomes in terms of attainment and positive destinations are among the worst in Scottish education. A two-year average from the 2014/15 and 2015/16 school leavers’ data, shows that:

• 74.6% of leavers recorded as ‘White - Gypsy/Traveller’ were in a positive follow-up destination, compared to 91.7% for all publicly funded secondary school leavers.
• 23.9% of leavers recorded as ‘White - Gypsy/Traveller’ left school with no qualifications at SCQF level 3 or higher, compared to 2.1% for all publicly funded secondary school leavers.
• 43.3% of leavers recorded as ‘White - Gypsy/Traveller’ left school with 1 or more qualifications at SCQF level 5, compared to 85.4% for all secondary school leavers.

The Scottish Government funded research to survey the educational experiences and views of children and adults from Gypsy/Traveller communities in Scotland. STEP, in 2023, conducted conversations with 41 community members of mixed age including 10 young participants in the ‘under 17’ category. The researchers met the participants in small groups in local settings such as libraries or community portacabins on council-run sites.

As part of the study community participants were asked to share the first thing that came to mind when they thought about their own experience of school education. Consistent with the literature, the majority of participants’ immediate response were negative. Words used included ‘scared’, ‘fear’, and ‘bullying’ relating to experiences of discrimination. Negative references to the school curriculum were suggested with: ‘boring’, ‘irrelevant’, ‘waste of time’. Some participants shared feelings of marginalisation: ‘being singled out,’ ‘outsider’, ‘nothing for us’, and ‘not accepted’. Two participants’ words suggested a fear of identifying as a Gypsy/Traveller: ‘hiding’ and ‘just keeping quiet’. Many stressed the importance of good staff relations being a key factor in improvements: ‘it’s better now’, ‘friendly teachers’, ‘more helpful headteachers now,’ and ‘they get us better’.

The results from the research and the data provided evidence for the need for a national approach to tackle discrimination and ensure equitable access to all public services.

An overarching concern was societal misconceptions about Gypsy/Traveller culture and how this affected all aspects of their lives:

“Most people don't really want to talk to us or hate us. It's more about distrust or if they're feeling a bit of unease and nervous when they're around us because of what they've heard instead of actually coming to us and actually having a talk with us themselves. I think it's about fear of the unknown, like not knowing what to expect. What are they (Gypsy/Travellers) like? I mean, I'm not saying all Travellers are good, far from it, but it's the same as any culture. There's good and bad in everybody. And I think, you know, it's like, we do get like, ‘Oh, let's just paint them all with the same brush’.”

The Best Start, Bright Futures: tackling child poverty delivery plan 2022 to 2026 sets out Scotland's national mission to tackle child poverty and how Scottish Government will work with partners to deliver on this. The 2023-24 tackling child poverty progress report included an evidence review on marginalised groups at risk of poverty, including Gypsy/Travellers.

In Young Gypsy/Travellers Discuss the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child - Children and Young People’s Evidence Bank (2018), recommendations for change include that there should be more opportunities for young Gypsy/Travellers to take part in decision making and have their voices heard; and recommendations of young people with regards to the Concluding Observations published in 2016, and the issues which they feel continue to impact upon their lives, and those of their families, friends and communities, include: “We should be consulted about where sites should be”, “We should be part of the planning process to allow us to say what type of sites and facilities we want”; and “There should be more opportunities for us to take part in decision making and have our voices heard”.

The Scottish Government recently published an independent evidence review of ‘seldom-heard’ groups across the Scottish social security system, undertaken by the Scottish Centre for Social Research. This evidence review notes that Gypsy/Traveller communities continue to be marginalised from, and face barriers to, accessing social security entitlements. Particular barriers highlighted for Gypsy/Traveller communities include stigma and prejudice, challenges accessing support to apply and digital exclusion.

• consultation/feedback directly from children and young people

In October 2022 the Scottish Traveller Education Programme (STEP) arranged for three young people to meet Emma Roddick, the Minister for Equalities at the Scottish Parliament to talk about their experiences as young Gypsy/Travellers. The young people raised concern about the lack of communication between homes and schools and suggested the need for a link person, saying that it would be even better if that person was a community member: “Would be good if it was someone from the community, as a representative within the school. I remember when there used to be a teacher that went to camps (sites), but that stopped.” One young person described how she never saw her culture represented in the school or curriculum: “In RE you learn about all different ethnicities they’re all covered but not one mention of Gypsy/Travellers. I mentioned that to my teacher, but the teacher said it’s not in the curriculum.” When asked about their rights each of the young people suggested that bullying was the main thing that affected their right to education: “I think it’s bullying. You can tell teachers or schools about it until you’re blue in the face, but it’s been ignored for so long. Schools and education see themselves as inclusive. Everyone is welcome and included. But it’s not how it is. When it comes to racism, it’s bypassed. I literally got told by a teacher I don’t have time. What am I supposed to do in that situation?” One young person described the lack of recognition and support for their nomadic way of life: “all my family members are settled but there are families who are still learning and travel and there’s nothing to support their learning. STEP has got good resources and making resources to further education. There needs to be more of that.” When asked how they would change things one participant said: “The most important thing is to educate teachers. If you can’t look at yourself then how can you educate young people. You have to teach teachers to be sensitive.”

We heard through the recent listening exercise with Gypsy/Traveller community members of the continued need for more accommodation. More sites and increased pitch numbers are needed to allow extended families to live together. There is also a need for better accommodation and an improvement in standards. Gypsy/Traveller Accommodation Fund projects are improving some sites and setting an expectation for improvement, highlighting contrasting conditions of some underdeveloped/older sites.

4. Further to the evidence described at ‘2’ have you identified any 'gaps' in evidence which may prevent determination of impact? If yes, please provide an explanation of how they will be addressed.

Researching with school-aged children is usually based on contemporary models of childhood where children are viewed as individual rights holders with their own agency. Gypsy/Traveller communities, like many other indigenous groups, are a collectivist culture. Where children have participated in research, they have been part of intergenerational groups. Typically, views expressed will be those widely held by the community. This is being addressed through local authority staff training: training to increase staff confidence in using participative methods that recognise the unequal life realities of the young Gypsy/Traveller people and finding ways to amplify their voices so that their views can impact on service provision. Effective participation strategies are developed over the longer term with trusted professionals and will rely on accessible methods including digital and visual approaches.

The Scottish Government also captures statistics for the ethnic group ‘White Gypsy/Traveller’ in the data collected through the annual school pupil census.

However:

• there are many Travellers who attend school who, while fitting the description for the White Gypsy/Traveller ethnic group, would choose not to disclose themselves as such, to a greater degree than is common with other groupings.
• there will be many Travellers attending school who belong to a distinct Traveller group which cannot be identified through these statistics. For example it is impossible to identify Roma children and young people as a separate group through these statistics.
• fluctuations in population and small numbers mean that year on year comparisons for the White Gypsy/Traveller ethnic group may not be fully reliable.
• anecdotally, we know that some Traveller children and young people never attend school, but we have no statistics to measure this.

5. Analysis of Evidence

The evidence points to the need for a coherent approach that brings stakeholders together to address the barriers facing children and families’ access to public services. The theme of discrimination runs through the majority of the evidence backed by a community perspective that seeks better representation and advocacy for the community.

Community feedback (see 3) and recent reports provide evidence that there is a clear need for inclusion of Gypsy/Travellers in anti-bullying policy as well as staff training in strategies to tackle and manage racist incidents in schools (Anti-Bullying Alliance et al., 2020; The Traveller Movement & Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, 2019). Traveller Movement 2017. This evidence informed Objective 9 in the Action Plan, STEP’s programme of staff development, along with Objective 8, high-level policy action, which includes Gypsy/Traveller young people inclusion in the new ‘Respect for All: The National Approach to Anti-Bullying for Scotland’s Children and Young People. These actions will impact positively on Articles 8 and 42, ensuring that Gypsy/Traveller young people are consistently and coherently contributing to a holistic approach to tackle racism and bullying.

Within education there is a clear need for staff training in strategies to tackle and manage racist incidents. Cultural awareness raising is identified as a solution across the range of services, particularly with frontline staff, for example in health and social services. These approaches will support families which will, in turn, have a positive impact on children.

The Action Plan has potential to make a very significant difference for a small number of the most disadvantaged children in Scotland. Families facing multiple disadvantages are often amongst those deepest in poverty and will therefore face particularly challenging journeys to get out. 2011 Census data shows that Gypsy/Traveller children are more likely to fulfil multiple criteria for priority families; they are an ethnic minority, are more likely to be larger families, lone parent families and mothers under 25. Families face multiple barriers in terms of discrimination, harassment, access to education and securing work.

For existing residents of public Gypsy/Traveller sites, including children, we anticipate that the improved standard of accommodation will contribute to reduced household costs through greater energy efficiency and therefore lower heating bills. Provision of broadband on sites will improve access to work and services, including welfare rights which may in turn make benefits more accessible. Provision of a community facility allows for outreach services including education. Additional accommodation will make public pitches available where people may have been living on roadside encampments, giving access to sanitation, heating and basic services such as maternity services and healthcare.

The evidence gathered in the Listening Exercise reinforced the importance of continuing to work towards providing more and better accommodation for Gypsy/Travellers. By continuing to fund the demonstration projects we will complete the improvements to those sites benefiting residents, including children. An independent evaluation of the Fund and Design Guide is now under way. This will gather the key points of learning from the demonstration projects to inform future projects, a final Site Design Guide and policy on Gypsy/Traveller accommodation. The new action plan includes a commitment to take the necessary steps so that funding for Gypsy/Traveller accommodation can be accessed alongside housing under the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (or a successor housing programme) in the next Parliament i.e. from 2026-27 onwards. This demonstrates a long-term Scottish Government commitment to supporting Local Authorities to meet their duties in relation to Gypsy/Traveller homes and allows Local Authorities to better plan ahead.

Given the desire for young Gyspy/Travellers the preparation of guidance for the communities about the planning system has the potential to be one means of improving the awareness of children and young people in the communities of their opportunities for getting involved in the planning process and thereby having their voices heard within its decisions that affect them.

6. What changes (if any) have been made to the proposal as a result of this assessment?

As the above elements were taken into considerations while developing the Action Plan, no changes were made to its final version. For instance, considerations of how to include children and young people from the communities and how the new guide to the planning system may be made accessible to them has been included in early conversations about preparation of the guide with partners. Therefore, described above, the evidence reinforced areas of focus for inclusion in the plan and therefore changes were not required.