Category: ACERT

Dr Siobhan Spencer, Trustee of the National Federation of Gypsy Liaison Groups, co-ordinated a call for the Home Office Consultation on the strengthening of police powers of eviction of Gypsies and Travellers to be withdrawn.

A broad range of Gypsy and Traveller organisations supported the move after a meeting coordinated by Friends Families and Travellers.

• Friends Families and Travellers
• Traveller Movement
• London Gypsies and Travellers
• Leeds Gate
• Travelling Ahead
• Derbyshire Gypsy Liaison Group
• GATEHerts
• York Travellers Trust
• Irish Community Care
• ACERT

The reasons are spelled out in the letter but are essentially these:

• The Consultation doesn’t conform to Cabinet Office Consultation Principles and the relevant law.
• Following the judgment in the Court of Appeal in the case of The Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Bromley v Persons Unknown and Others [2020] , it is clear that the criminalisation of trespass would be unlawful.

Lisa Smith, Davie Donaldson and others feature in a BBC podcast, called The Future Of Housing For Gypsies, Romas and Travellers, released on February 28th.

It is a response to the Government consultation on whether police should evict and arrest Gypsy, Roma and Travellers living on unauthorised sites.

Despite the thoughtful and largely positive recommendations of the Women and Equalities Committee last year, we have just seen a Government elected whose only policy on Romanies and Travellers is to increase police powers against families on roadside camps.

Last year the professional association of teachers and supports workers for Traveller Education (NATT+) folded, and in most areas of the country, Gypsy, Roma and Traveller parents have no-one to turn to if they are struggling with their children’s education.

ACERT believes that parents, who have faced and overcome challenges in getting their children a decent education, could provide advice and support to others in a similar position.

Our plan is to try and develop and support a parent’s network, on-line and face-to-face, where parents can raise and discuss questions and concerns, and hopefully get answers from other participants. We are also developing a dedicated website where can find clear basic information for parents about enrolment, appeals, attendance, curriculum, Special Education Needs, exclusions, home education, further and higher education, and child protection, regularly updated in response to the issues raised is by the network.

With the demise of Traveller Education Services and financial cutbacks, teachers who may want to understand their children better often have nowhere to turn for advice and information. So we would like to plan something similar to help them give our children a better deal.

Our conference of 26th June in Manchester aims to attract parents and teachers and to engage them in developing the ideas in ways that will work best for them.

Our aim is to present ideas to the conference and for participants to discuss them in workshops. To make sure our ideas are relevant and realistic, we would like to discuss them as widely as possible in the run up. If you would be willing to help us in this you can join our mailing list on the topic networks-conference@acert.org.uk using this form. We also plan to hold online meetings in mid-February for anyone expressing interest.