Agenda item

The report will propose the deletion of the Gypsy, Roma and Travellers Education  team (equivalent of 3 members of staff).

The Committee had considered proposals to close the Gypsy, Roma & Traveller Education Team at their meeting on the 22 March. This was a non statutory service affected by the budget savings required by the directorate and Council.  The service had been operating for many years and was valued for its contributions to the Traveller, Gypsy Roma communities.  The service provided advice, guidance, training and support to Children Centres, schools and colleagues and undertook casework with children and their families. The Committee were informed that over recent years much good work had been done to equip, the settings outlined above, to meet the needs of Travellers and Gypsy Roma children. At the meeting in March the Committee had asked the service to complete a consultation exercise, in an appropriate format, in order to engage with the users and obtain their views on this unit closure. The consultation exercise had subsequently been carried out in April and May and had involved sending out 424 copies of letters to families that had been translated into Bulgarian, Romanian and Polish and distributed via the Ethnic Minority Achievement Co-ordinators in 42 schools. There were 90 letters sent to families whose children were waiting for a schools place or had recently joined a school. The letters were sent to Children’s Centres where there were service users from these communities.  Some letters were further followed up with telephone contacts. The Committee were informed that no written responses were received from users. There were two meetings organised in Wood Green Library for families from the Gypsy Roma and Traveller communities to attend.  Two families attended with translators present to provide their views on the closure of the service. The Committee noted that these families were very positive about the support they got from the service and spoke about the assistance they received with filling forms, accessing services, and enrolling their children in school. The Committee were advised that, although this was seen as helpful by the users, this was not part of the specification of this unit. This type of assistance could be provided by other voluntary sector providers in the borough. The Committee were assured that there were existing settings to meet the needs and responsibilities of this group and therefore were asked to agree the closure of this unit.

Concern was expressed by the Committee on the methods of communications used by the service for the consultation exercise. Letters had been sent to the Gypsy, Roma families when there was knowledge by the service that literacy was an issue. In the introduction to the report the Committee had been advised that letters had been followed up with telephone contact, however the details from this communication were not included in the report. In response to these concerns, the Deputy  Director for Children’s Networks, advised that the  Gypsy, Roma, Travellers Education team had completed  follow up  work on the consultation  documents by going out and visiting the families and using  the sources of contacts known to them to meet with the families.

There was reference to the Equality Impact Assessment findings which indicated that the average attendance at school of children from the Traveller, Gypsy and Roma communities was 83%. This was lower compared to the national average attendance of 94% and possibly highlighted an issue of integration. Understanding was sought on how this issue would be tackled with the deletion of this team?  The Committee were advised that the Children’s Service recognised that attendance at school would be an issue for children and young people from these communities and they would continue to be considered as a priority .All attendance issues were dealt with by the Education Welfare team. It was noted that the statutory responsibility for ensuring attendance, integration at school and meeting any special need of this ethnic minority group lay with schools and not the local authority. The Chair advised that the Children’s Service would continue to receive Special Education funding   and he would speak to the Lead Member for Children and Young People about ensuring that some of these resources were made available to this group of young people.

 Further to Member questions, the Chair asked the Employee side to put forward their deputation in relation to this item. Andrea Holden addressed the Committee, on behalf of the Employee side, and asked that the recommendations be dismissed and the unit remain in place. She pointed to the engagement with the community which was not   taken forward in an appropriate communication format. The location of the consultation meeting was also not appropriate or convenient for the traveller or Gypsy Roma families hence the low turnout.  The Committee were advised that the issues around communicating with these communities was  highlighted by staff working in the Gypsy ,Traveller and Roma Education team and were taken on board. There was a need to resolve how the existing work of this unit would be taken forward and consider whether there was a real saving to be made as there would be increased translation costs resulting from the displacement of the member of staff from Roma Gypsy dissent. The deputation further asked that the unit not be closed but merged into the Children’s service. In response to these assertions the Deputy Director of Children’s Networks advised the Committee that there were robust plans in place to take on the work of the unit.  The claim that there had not been engagement with the team on the consultation methods was disputed as the manager of the Gypsy Roma and Traveller Education team was involved in the meetings discussing the consultation exercise format. It was accepted that there had been challenges faced with engaging with the community but the consultation needed to be completed within the resources available to the service.   Members were assured, in terms of safeguarding duties, that these were carried out by the Children services social care colleagues where there was staff assigned for contact with these communities.  The Committee were advised that if this saving was not completed a consequential saving would need to be made elsewhere in the service.

 In conclusion to the discussion, the Chair asked members to consider the function of the Committee which was to make decision on staffing matters. It was important to note that the policy decision on the closure of this unit had in essence already been made through the Cabinet and the agreed Council budget reductions.  The Chair advised that he would ensure that the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People was aware of the improvements required to the attendance levels of children and young people from the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities due to the wider problems this could lead to. He would further ask the Cabinet Member for this particular group of children and young people to be considered as priority for access to available special needs resources. The Chair would further communicate the concerns of the Committee about deleting this service and would ask if there were alternative resources available to fund this service.

RESOLVED

1. That it be noted the formal consultation with staff and trades unions on these proposals began on the 20^th January 2011 and was concluded on 10^th March.

2. That the comments received from staff and trades unions and the management response to these set out in Appendix 5 be noted.

3. That the outcome of the consultation with service users as set out in Appendix 6 be noted.

4. That the proposed reduction in staff as set out in the consultation document (appendix 1) be agreed. This decision took into account the outcome of the staff and service user consultations and gave due regard to the Council’s public sector equalities duties.

5. That the dissent of Cllr Whyte, Wilson and Bloch to the above resolutions be noted.