Submission to the Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister
from
The Children’s Law Centre
regarding
The Final Report of the PSI Working Group on Travellers

April 2001

I was in fact quite appalled to find in Britain on the eve of the twenty first century there are people living in such squalid conditions, conditions one expects to find only in third world countries. For some, clean drinking water and basic sanitation are not available thus endangering the health of the children living in these communities."

Sandra Mason, Chairperson of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, speaking in Belfast 1998.

Introduction

The Children’s Law Centre is a voluntary organisation that was established in 1997. It aims to help young people, their parents and professionals work with and understand the laws, which affect children. Although based in Belfast, the Centre has a Northern Ireland wide remit.

Current priority areas of work include education and training, legal advice and research, all of which have a rights based approach as their starting point. In addition to working directly with young people, much work is also carried out with adults involved in children’s lives through mechanisms such as training, involvement in conferences, inter-agency work and responses to draft government policy and legislation.

The Children’s Law Centre is founded on the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and seeks to ensure that the equality provisions of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 are upheld with specific respect to children and young people.

The Children’s Law Centre welcomes the opportunity to make this submission to OFMDFM.

Government's Obligations Under International and Domestic Law

1. Responsibility for Implementing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)

In 1991 the UK government ratified the UNCRC. This means that it agreed that children and young people up to the age of 18 have certain rights, which government and its agents would uphold.

For your information we note that in 1995 when the UK government last reported to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, grave concern was expressed by the Committee in relation to Travellers children:

"…the Committee expresses its concern at the health status of children of different socio-economic groups and those belonging to ethnic minorities…The situation of Gypsy and Traveller children is a matter of concern to the Committee, especially with regard to their access to basic services and the provision of caravan sites…the Committee recommends pro-active measures for the rights of children belonging to Gypsy and Traveller communities, including their right to education and that a sufficient number of adequately appointed caravan site for these communities be secured. " (Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, 1995).

With the devolution of power to the Northern Ireland Assembly the duty, in respect of devolved matters, to implement the UNCRC now lies with the Assembly. In 2004, when the third report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child is due, the Assembly will be asked to provide an account,, as part of an overall UK report, as to how it has progressed with the Convention’s implementation.

Article 12 of the UNCRC states that children and young people have the right to be involved in decision-making. Can OFMDFM please clarify if this consultation exercise on the

Working Group's Report has consulted directly with Traveller children?

2. Duties Under Equality Legislation

The equality provisions of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 place a duty on all public bodies to consult with people from nine different categories - age being one category. We would like to remind OFMDFM that age refers to children and young people as well as older people. We refer to our earlier question regarding consultation with children and young people.

In addition there is a duty to promote better relations between people from different racial groups. This consultation process provides an opportunity to promote better relations between the settled population and Travellers. How has this opportunity been used?

Responsibility for Implementation of Recommendations of Report

(Recommendation 1)

As this is a PSI report and PSI is part of the New TSN policy initiative, it seems logical that responsibility for monitoring the implementation of the report's recommendations should lie with the official(s) responsible for New TSN within each department and NDPB.

The same officials should also represent their respective Departments /Agencies at the forum that is referred to in Recommendation .

It would also be useful if these officials liased with the person responsible for the implementation of the Equality Scheme in each Department/NDPB as implementing the recommendations of the PSI report should help the equality agenda and vice versa. The same applied in respect of compliance with the Human Rights Act 1998.

If an inter-agency forum is established it needs to be properly resourced with support personnel who have a mandate to carry out actions, a budget etc. This forum should be not be a discussion group. Rather it should be action-orientated with specific time scales for each action. In order to properly assess progress the forum should establish base-line data as a priority action.

In terms of this group promoting research on the needs of Travellers, it might be more useful if this group encouraged the collection and collation of universal data across all departments and NDPB's on Travellers, which should be part of the New TSN and Equality strategies already.

Action-research which tests out the effectiveness of pilot programmes would also be more useful than needs analysis and mere documentation of the experiences of Travellers. There is also a need for any research programme to reflect the affect of programmes on the different constituencies within the Traveller population, e.g. women, young people, old people, men.

Recommendation 3

What is meant by local area - is this at district council level, county level, health board area or education and library board area?

Given the difficulties of inter-agency work in Northern Ireland due to lack of common geographical demarcation, it is important that the 'local area' fits into an already established service provision area.

Recommendation 4

p21/22 - see comments above regarding implementation of PSI report recommendations, New TSN and Equality Schemes.

P23 - There is also a need for in-service training for teachers, not just for those undertaking initial teacher training. Also, other professionals who may be indirectly connected to education, such as youth workers and social workers, also need such training. In addition, the Boards of Governors of schools also need anti-racist training.

Recommendation 8

Staff in DOE planning service should be required to undertake anti-racist and equality training as part of the Department's Equality Scheme Implementation.

Recommendation 9

Article 31 of the UNCRC states that children have a right to play. Play areas, should therefore be part of all accommodation, regardless of its design or lifespan.

Recommendation 10

As stated above the UN has called, six years ago, for pro-active measures in order to ensure that Traveller children's rights are realised. There is, therefore, a need to do more than ensure that health and social care staff are aware of and sensitive to the needs of Travellers - anti-racist training should be a requirement of all staff in health and social services and indeed all public bodies.

In addition, health and social care services should be planned and delivered in a flexible manner, recognising ethnic and cultural diversity. For instance, either by having open surgeries as opposed to appointment based and/or medical staff going to the accommodation site to run surgeries.

Recommendation 13

In relation to the Sure-Start initiative, there is a need to think beyond simplistic geographical location in terms of defining deprivation. In all of the statistical information it is clear that Travellers, as a group, and Traveller children in particular, are among the most disadvantaged and deprived in our society. Government initiatives such as Sure-Start and the Children's Fund should take this into account.

Section 4.5 Education

Given that over 90% of Traveller children leave school without any qualifications and that the government's own inspection of St Paul's school in Belfast indicated poor attendance levels, narrowly focused work and low expectations of the children from teachers it is astounding that this report does not consider "existing educational provision to be a particularly problematic area" (p33). Furthermore, the comments made in point 4.5.2 in relation to the 'progress' made in recent years completely deny the fact that Traveller children are not provided with equality of opportunity in relation to education.

While we acknowledge that some Education and Library Boards, particularly those outside Belfast, have managed to facilitate and support Traveller children in mainstream schools and that St Paul's school has now been replaced (albeit with another segregated school), the lack of educational attainment among Traveller children is a major cause for concern, particularly in relation to TSN which regards employability as a major factor in addressing social exclusion.

If only 8% of young people from one of the two larger communities in Northern Ireland managed to attain GCSEs would there not be a public outcry and a call for an investigation and for equality proofing? The statement made in relation to education in the PSI report on page 33, therefore, appears to indicate complacency and a lack of concern from statutory bodies who are responsible for upholding Traveller children's right to education.

Recommendation 14

We would remind OFMDFM that segregation on the basis of race is illegal under the Race Relations Order 1997 and that the current approach to primary school education in west Belfast is unsatisfactory. Furthermore, it is unacceptable that a school which was deemed unfit for children from the settled community is now being used to accommodate children from the Travelling community. Regardless of the fact that the Department of Education state that St Mary's school is open to all, the perception from those within and outside of the Travelling community is that it is a Travellers' school. Hoping that the settled population will eventually send their children to St Mary's seems to be a reverse way of promoting integration. Additionally, while St Mary's is perceived as a school for Travellers, it may lead to Traveller children being turned away from other primary schools in west Belfast.

Likewise, the provision of on-site nursery education, would be segregated and is therefore illegal. Onsite provision will not address integration needs, nor will it challenge prejudice.

Has OFMDFM considered whether such provision is compliant with S75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998? Is there equality of provision for Traveller children in other schools in Northern Ireland?

Recommendation 15

In addition to the DE and ELBs establishing pupil transfer records for nomadic Traveller children, there should be some mechanism that when a Traveller child transfers schools, the capitation grant is also transferred to the new school.

Point 4.5.6 and Recommendation 18

Where is the evidence to support the statement relating to racist bullying being a reason for non-attendance at school?

One of the main reasons for the non-attendance of children from the settled population at school is condoned absenteeism - condoned by parents. The DENI inspectorate report into St Paul's identified an attendance rate of only 44%. Yet this school contained only Traveller children so it is unlikely that racist bullying was the cause for over half of its pupils being absent. It is possible that non-attendance at school by Traveller children is for the same reason as that of settled children. However, regardless of the reason what needs to happen is that the Education Welfare Service needs to take non-attendance of Traveller children as seriously as it does that of settled children and that the child's right to education is realised.

Recommendation 20

As previously stated, segregation on the basis of race is illegal. The DE should therefore cease to provide CCMS with funding for St Mary's, which should be closed without delay.

Recommendation 21

There is a need to have more liaison with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Training and Employment in order that more vocational courses can be followed by children from all communities in Northern Ireland.

Recommendation 28

If a Traveller's Legal Rights Worker post is established it is important that this person is completely independent of government.

Recommendation 30

All police personnel should be required to undergo anti-racist and equality training.

Point 4.8 (pgs 46-48)

Given the high levels of prejudice against Travellers in the workplace, there is a need to work with employers' organisations and Trade Unions in order to educate workers about the Travelling community. In addition, schools, the careers service and employers should develop a work experience strategy for Traveller young people in order that both they and employees have their horizons widened.

Recommendation 32

The youth service also need to develop anti-racist work within the informal education curriculum.

Concluding Remarks

Next year the Children's Law Centre and Save the Children hope to be present at the examination of the UK government by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. It would good indeed to be able to report that since devolution there has been real progress in terms of the equality of treatment of Travellers in Northern Ireland. To date there is no evidence to suggest that the Committee's recommendations in 1995 have been taken into account, much less acted upon. With devolution comes both the challenge and opportunity to ensure that locally accountable government and local departments can make a difference. The PSI initiative is just one way to do that. However, the recommendations of the report need to be stronger and action is required now if Traveller children are to be cherished equals in the new Northern Ireland.

I enclose a copy of the UNCRC and a summary copy of Getting it Right? for your information. Should you require any further information or if you have any queries in relation to this please do not hesitate to contact Children’s Law Centre, Philip House, 123-137 York St, Belfast, BT15 1AB. Telephone 028 90 245704. E-mail info@childrenslawcentre.org