The House of Commons women and equalities committee published the Tackling Inequalities faced by Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communitieson Friday 5thApril 2019.
The report confirmed that Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities had the worst outcomes of any ethnic group across a huge range of areas, including education, health, employment, criminal justice and hate crime, but little was being done to tackle longstanding inequalities.
The Conservative MP Maria Miller, the committee’s chair, said:
“Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people have been comprehensively failed by policymakers and public services for far too long. Access to education, health, employment, criminal justice, tackling hate crime and domestic violence – all these require services which differentiate between different groups who have different needs, and yet so many services are ill-equipped to support Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people.”
The report outlines a series of recommendations to address inequalities in healthcare, discrimination and hate crime, economic activity and education and was the conclusion of a two-year inquiry, which heard that students from Gypsy, Roma or Traveller backgrounds had the lowest attainment of all ethnic groups throughout their school years.
It also shines a light on prejudice towards GRT students in the educational system referring to evidence given by ACERT committee member Brian Foster on how schools can be so entrenched in their stereotypes that in their minds being a Gypsy or Travellers equates to poor attainment.
