Tackling inequalities faced by Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities Contents

7Roma-specific issues

112.While the EU and other European bodies include Gypsy and Traveller groups as “Roma”, in the UK the accepted usage is that Roma people are migrant populations from Central and Eastern Europe that have arrived in the UK in the last half-century. “Roma” is used as an umbrella term to describe any number of sub-groups, including Sinti, Lovari, Erlides and others. Throughout our inquiry we have sought to hear from Roma people and about Roma issues, as well as those of Gypsy and Traveller people.

113.As our inquiry progressed, it became clear that, while Roma people experienced some of the same inequalities as Gypsies and Travellers, many of the issues that were brought to us had more in common with other migrant groups and some were unique to Roma communities living in the UK. For this reason we have decided to devote a chapter to scrutinising Roma-specific issues, as they are often overlooked in research and policy-making.

Data challenges

114.The absence of any reliable data is even more acute for Roma populations than it is for Gypsy and Traveller populations (see Chapter 2). An option to describe oneself as “Roma” has never been included in any official statistics, although the Government is planning to add the classification in the 2021 census.157 As with Gypsies and Travellers, we have heard that Roma are unwilling to disclose their ethnicity on forms for fear of persecution.158

115.We welcome the Government’s planned inclusion of Roma as an ethnic classification in the 2021 census. The next challenge will be to ensure that community engagement is sufficient to ensure that the data collected is robust and can inform local authority policy on Roma issues.

The National Roma Integration Strategy

116.The UK’s response to the EU’s EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies up to 2020 was to set out how Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people were included in broad social integration strategies.159 Discussion of this can be found in Chapter 3. Despite the UK Government calling this an Integration Strategy, none of the policy measures set out by the Government were specific to Roma people. One of the further criticisms has been that the UK’s Integration Strategy did not consider the specific needs that local areas with high Roma populations might have. Dave Brown of Migration Yorkshire and Jim Steinke of Sheffield City Council both expressed a need to have national strategies that joined up with local strategies so that areas with high Roma populations can use resources from central Government.160 This echoes a report by the National Roma Network which concluded that:

With a limited response, lead or specific policy direction from central government, many local communities, neighbourhoods and services felt that they were left to address the situation by themselves. This has led to significant differences in how towns and cities across the UK have responded to the needs of Roma communities.161

117.Perhaps as a response to this criticism, the MHCLG seems to have recognised the specific needs that Roma communities may have and is currently running 22 pilot projects with a with a focus on migrant groups that may include Roma through the Controlling Migration Fund. Some of these focus specifically on Roma needs.162 It is unclear when these pilot projects will be concluded and how they will be evaluated and rolled out.

118.The historical approach that the UK Government has taken to the EU Roma Framework is lacking in focus and has yielded little to no positive outcomes for Roma communities. The pilot projects being run through the Controlling Migration Fund are a welcome development. However, the Government must properly evaluate all the pilots and explicitly state how each successful project will be rolled out. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government should produce a full final report of all the projects and include clear decisions on which pilots were unsuccessful and should end and which were successful. The Ministry should commit to implementing any successful projects nationally.

Community building

119.Through the inquiry we considered whether specific services are needed for Roma groups or whether it is better to have inclusive mainstream services. We heard conflicting evidence on the need for targeted interventions. Ruth Richardson of Roma Community Care favoured such interventions, saying:

We need specific funding for Roma. We need designated money for Roma. We have not seen the Roma communities advance in, say, the last 10 years that you might have thought other communities would have. That is because of the complex nature of Roma and where they are coming from, and because we are being asked to just generically make the case for Roma within a broader sweep of equality, and often we are not selected and we do not make the cut.163

Colin Havard of Sheffield City Council, however, believed that building up community cohesion in areas where Roma live without specifically targeting Roma residents is the more effective approach:

We have not chosen a Roma approach; we have chosen a neighbourhood approach, because we do not want the Roma to be the problem.164

120.Both Mr Havard and Cllr Steinke pointed to the Controlling Migration Fund as an effective model for providing support to neighbourhoods with large Roma populations as a way of improving the outcomes for all residents.165 However, they both also believed that the funding cycles were too short and that the problems with community cohesion would not be solved in two-year bursts. We agree that both views are, in fact, two sides of the same coin. While for some areas, the Controlling Migration Fund will help to improve outcomes, the Government cannot rely on general policies to address the specific challenges that Roma communities face. Central Government must provide leadership and support to local authorities with large Roma populations.

Housing

121.Many Roma families are living in extremely poor housing conditions, mostly in private rented properties. Professor Margaret Greenfields of New Buckinghamshire University described housing as “overcrowded” and residents as being “exploited by slum landlords”.166 The National Roma Network has stated that Roma people are unlikely to complain either because they do not understand how to enforce their rights or because they fear retaliatory eviction.167 Our evidence suggests that some landlords may be taking advantage of the community for these reasons, leading to situations in which there are “20 people in a two-bedroom house”.168 Michal Daniel of Roma Community Care told us of his personal experience in Derby:

I had a family of five dependent children, with no gas, no heating, no cooker; they just had plain beds in the middle of the flat and sleeping on the floors. When we asked the landlord to do something, they just put the phone down.169

122.Selective licensing can be used to regulate privately rented accommodation in a local authority area. Local authorities have the power to require landlords to apply for licenses before they can rent properties in the area in which the scheme operates. Local authorities can place conditions on licenses, requiring landlords to show that their properties comply with minimum standards as set out by the license.170 For instance, Liverpool City Council operates a scheme which requires all rented properties in the city to “meet fire, electric and gas safety standards and be in a good state of repair.”171 The National Roma Network reported that selective licensing schemes are operating in some areas and that this has had a positive effect:

Licencing schemes for landlords were introduced, with additional funding provided for third sector organisations to support Roma navigating the private sector housing market. Joint initiatives between local authorities and housing associations were also reported. In Liverpool, Roma development workers were employed to help with community cohesion and to raise awareness of environmental issues among Roma communities, while in Glasgow Govanhill Housing Association were refurbishing unused flats, which were then rented to local residents on low incomes, many of whom were Roma.172

However, Dave Brown also warned that selective licensing only went so far, because both Roma people and landlords may move out of an area with selective licensing into one without.173 As selective licenses can only be implemented at the discretion of individual local authorities, their use is inconsistent.

123.Selective licensing seems to be effective in areas in which it operates, as it provides a mechanism for councils to regulate the housing in their area and ensure that people are not living in unacceptably poor accommodation. Roma communities are especially vulnerable to exploitation, so would particularly benefit. However, this is a scheme that is not widely used, so Roma and other communities are not adequately protected.

124.All Local Authorities that have Roma populations should consider the use of selective licensing to prevent exploitation in the private rented sector.

Education

125.On our visit to Leeds, we spoke to a group of Roma people who told us about their experiences with the education system in the UK. The predominant feeling among the group was that the system in the UK was a vast improvement on the schooling in their countries of origin, not least because some countries continue to segregate Roma pupils (notably Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria).174 In the UK, Roma parents who understand the education framework have found it much more inclusive in comparison, with the National Roma Network reporting that their members were more likely to be positive about education than any other public service.175 Nonetheless, this does not mean that schools are perfect environments for Roma young people.

126.The Government considers the Pupil Premium as being the main mechanism for improving educational attainment for under-performing groups.176 Pupil Premium eligibility was raised as a concern by some stakeholders. Pupil Premium is paid to schools according to the number of children who have registered for free school meals (FSM). Eligibility for FSM is based on benefit entitlement, including benefits such as Jobseekers Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance, Child Tax Credit or Universal Credit. Most migrant Roma are EEA nationals, restricted in their eligibility for such benefits, meaning that they may not be eligible for FSM and, consequently, their school would not be able to claim Pupil Premium for them. The Roma Support Group concluded that lack of eligibility for the Pupil Premium for EU nationals is leading to cuts in English as an Additional Language teaching, as schools cannot afford to offer it.177 The Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government seems to have accepted that these ongoing needs exist and has responded through the projects funded by the Controlling Migration fund. Pilot projects are currently running in Middlesbrough, Oldham, Wakefield, Bradford, Fenland, Leeds, Kirklees and Thanet with the expressed aim of improving access to public services and English language skills for young people.178 These pilot schemes are welcome, but we seek reassurances from the Government that they will be properly evaluated and, should they be successful, that they will be rolled out across all areas in which Roma people may live.

127.Roma children who arrive in the UK from other countries can also pose a challenge for allocation of Pupil Premium. Allocation of Pupil Premium is based on the school census, taken annually in January of each year. A school that has eligible Roma children listed on the date of the census will receive Pupil Premium for those children for that year, but not if a child arrives in the school after the date of the census. Funds from the Pupil Premium are given to schools in June of each year, which means that schools with newly arrived Roma pupils may be waiting up to 18 months from when a child eligible for Pupil Premium registers and when they actually receive the funds they need to support their attainment. The Government should therefore ensure that Roma children arriving from outside the UK are identified quickly and ensure that the Pupil Premium reaches the school no more than one school term after a child has registered.

128.Aside from issues of language and unfamiliarity, Roma children can still find themselves at a disadvantage at school for other reasons. An Ofsted report published in 2014 into Roma school attainment concluded that Roma children starting school may have had “little prior experience of formal education” and that this can lead to schools finding it difficult to engage families to “adhere to school routines”.179 This can sometimes manifest itself in abnormally high rates of exclusions. The Institute for Race Relations published an article in 2017 that stated that, in Sheffield, one quarter of children described as Gypsy/Roma had been excluded from school in 2015.180 A report from 2017 by the Roma Support Group states that the most common reason given for excluding Roma children was “persistent disruptive behaviour”. The report suggests two main causes:

While some incidents are based on a pupil finding it difficult to abide by the formal rules of the school setting, there are also incidents of racist bullying which have not been addressed by the school.181

129.Witnesses representing Sheffield City Council told us that they were working hard to tackle the problem of exclusions in their schools. Colin Havard told us that they have been using a Controlling Migration Fund project to try to spread best practice:

We went to the schools and said, “What is your key message to these children? How can we do your outreach work for you, because you are not resourced for it? Let us leave you alone, as an educational specialist, but what do we do outside?”182

However, Dr Ruth Richardson from Derby Community Care told us that her experience as a caseworker showed that schools were now using a different method to hide their exclusions:

The way that they have responded is that they are no longer externally excluding Roma and have set up their own internal exclusion units. It does not show up on the statistics anymore, so they can say, “We are not excluding Roma as much as we were before”, but we know that they are internally excluded, so often our Roma pupils are only going to school for three hours a day within the school.183

130.Schools have responsibilities to support and educate young Roma people. Internal and informal exclusions of Roma children should not be used as a mechanism to improve exclusion rates. Ofsted should actively inspect schools for signs of Roma students being internally or informally excluded.

Leadership in Education

131.Ofsted also found that, while Roma children could integrate well into school life, “exceptionally low starting points” meant that attainment could remain low throughout their school years.184 Ofsted found that dedicated and knowledgeable senior leaders in local authorities could help to drive up attainment and that this needed to be coupled with specialist services within local authorities that could provide appropriate training to schools.185 These proposed solutions are not new, but rather feel like a return to Traveller Education Services with added elements of commitment and motivation from senior leadership to make them effective. These recommendations would require implementation by individual local authorities. As our inquiry only extended to a small number of local authorities who gave evidence, it is difficult to ascertain how widely the recommendations have been taken up. We invited the Local Government Association to give evidence on this and other issues and were disappointed when they declined to give evidence on the basis that they had nothing to contribute to the inquiry.186

Exiting the EU

132.The UK’s exit from the EU has caused a lot of worry and uncertainty within the Roma community, as it has among other European migrant communities. Migration Yorkshire conducted a study that concluded that, while Roma people were concerned about what leaving the EU might mean for them, views were split between those that were considering leaving the UK permanently and those for whom the EU referendum result solidified their wish to stay.187 Michal Daniel of Derby Community Care told us that many Roma, himself included, were making back-up plans:

There is the feeling that no one knows what is going to happen, nothing is on the internet, so I probably should have, just in case, a back-up plan, so that if I have to leave the UK I will have somewhere to go. That is the intention other people might have as well.188

133.Some people we heard from expressed concern about future funding of Roma support projects that were previously funded by the EU and the future of the EU Roma Integration Strategy Framework and its application in a post-EU Britain.189 When asked about this in a Parliamentary Question, the Government said that:

We will continue to advance Roma integration within broader social inclusion and integration policies, and champion race equality at international level in a wide range of settings, collaborating with the Council of Europe and the United Nations.190

134.As we have already outlined, “broader social inclusion” has been ineffective in many cases. While the Government is replacing some of the funding through the Controlling Migration Fund, we nonetheless believe that the Government must commit to a comprehensive strategy, especially as leaving the EU provides the opportunity to explore ways of improving outcomes for Roma in a uniquely British way.

135.Another issue that poses additional challenges to Roma populations is the operation of the UK’s proposed EU Settlement Scheme. EU nationals who wish to remain in the UK after 30 June 2021 will need to apply for settled status.191 While this process causes anxiety among many migrant groups, the APPGs on Migration and Gypsies Travellers and Roma suggest that Roma people may be disproportionately affected because of mistrust of any registration schemes, difficulties with producing written evidence of their lives in the UK, literacy and numeracy problems and a general lack of awareness of their legal rights.192 In October 2018, the Government announced that it was testing how best to support people applying for the Settlement Scheme.193 One of the charities it is working with is the Roma Support Group to ensure that Roma needs are met. We recognise that the Government has heard the Roma community on the practical issues around the Settlement Scheme and is taking steps to address them. We await the results of this initial testing and expect the Government to publish the final evaluations and clarify how ongoing support will be provided.