Memorandum by the Department for Education
and Employment (TF 53)
Thank you for your letter of 21 February about
the education of the children of travelling showpeople. I am happy
to outline the current provision made within the education system
for these children.
Government policy is that all Traveller children
should be given the same opportunities as all other children to
benefit from what schools can offer them. This is reflected in
the fundamental legal duty on Local Education Authorities to ensure
that education is available for all children of compulsory school
age in their area appropriate to age, abilities and aptitudes
and any special education needs they may have. This duty applies
whether the families are resident permanently or temporarily and
therefore includes all Traveller children. All parents are under
a legal duty to ensure that their school age children receive
appropriate full time education, either by regular attendance
at school or otherwise. Where such children are registered at
a school, Local Education Authorities are responsible in law for
enforcing their regular attendance.
Schools receive funding for Traveller children
in the same way as for other children on the schools roll through
the Standard Spending Assessment. In addition, where Local Education
Authorities and schools face significant extra financial burdens
in responding to the particular educational needs of Travellers,
they may benefit from additional specific grant support, payable
under Section 488 of the Education Act 1996. In this current financial
year the grant is supporting expenditure of some £15.7 million
across 3,400 English schools in over 120 Local Education Authorities.
The grant supports peripatetic teachers, specialist advisory teachers
and Education Welfare Officers, pre school provision, resources
and staff training.
This grant aims to improve levels of school
attendance and achievement among Traveller children including
their full integration alongside other children in mainstream
education. The grant programme is very successful, particularly
at primary level but given the historically poor levels of educational
participation and achievement among Traveller communities, there
is still a long way to go and the Department is monitoring the
situation closely. The Department is currently undertaking an
evaluation of the Traveller Grant.
In April 1996, the Office for Standards in Education
(OFSTED) published a report on the Education of Travelling children
which gives a valuable insight to the provision funded through
the Section 488 grant programme in England. It shows that the
grant is cost effective and well managed and is making a real
impact in improving attendance and achievement.
To protect the continuity of learning of Traveller
children, the pupil registration regulations were amended with
effect from 1 January 1998 to allow dual registration of Traveller
children. This means that the school that children normally attend
when not travelling will be regarded as their base school. They
can register at other schools temporarily while away from their
base school. Their base schools must keep a place open for Traveller
pupils who are travelling, and record their absence as authorised
while they are travelling.
Alison Venner Jones
Traveller, Refugee and Intercultural Education Team
March 2000
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