Education and Skills Bill

I begin by paying tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, for his tireless work to raise awareness of the issues facing Gypsy, Roma and other Traveller communities, especially in his role as president of the Advisory Council for the Education of Romany and Other Travellers. I have been glad to meet him on several occasions to discuss its work and to participate with him in celebratory activities that mark the very good educational work and high levels of attainment of many young people in those communities. I wrote at some length last week to Richard Solly of the Traveller Law Reform Project, dealing with a number of the specific issues that the noble Lord has raised. I see that I failed to copy the letter to him, but I will copy it to Members of the Committee, and will place a copy of it in the Library of the House, so that it is made available. Some of the issues raised by the noble Lord about the need to provide adequate services to promote participation and proper advice and guidance, and not to take action about compulsion where there are reasonable excuses for non-attendance, have been covered in our previous debates. All of those parts of the Bill, which I have described at some length earlier in Committee, will also apply to young people in the categories to which the noble Lord referred. I think that that goes some way towards meeting his points about compulsion being inappropriately applied in respect of the Traveller communities. However, let me say little more about the work that we have been doing to boost educational provision for and attainment by the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. First, as the noble Lord said, a good proportion of local authorities maintain a Traveller education support service. As he said, I have written to all local authorities to urge them to ensure that their provision is good in that area. Secondly, the Gypsy. Roma and Traveller achievement programme, one of a number of targeted programmes offered by the national primary and secondary strategies, was launched in 2006 and aims to improve the quality of provision, rates of attendance and standards of behaviour and thus raise attainment for Gypsy, Rome and Traveller pupils. Forty-seven schools in 12 local authorities are currently involved in that programme and a further 40 schools in 10 new local authorities will join the programme in the autumn of this year. Thirdly, in February 2008 we published, The Inclusion of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Children and Young People. This document offers practical advice to local authorities, schools, pupils and parents on how to raise attainment among Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils. Fourthly, since 2004 we have funded the e-learning and mobility programme, which has provided e-supported distance learning and home access to highly mobile Traveller pupils. Currently there are three strands to the programme. Strand A provides key stage 3 and 4 pupils with laptops and mobile internet access and a range of learning materials. Pupils involved in strand A are able to keep in close contact with their teachers and peers. Ongoing evaluation of the programme has shown that pupil motivation increases, achievement is improved and pupils reintegrate far more easily when they return to school. Strand B, which began in September 2006, is a web-based learning environment for key stage 4 pupils who have disengaged from education—which is often the case in the Traveller communities. Although in its early stages, this strand has proved very encouraging and the majority of the initial participants have gained successful results in the first level of a wider key skills GCSE. Work is currently underway to develop a third strand, which will deliver a robust learning agreement, a training programme for parents in the effective support of distance learning, together with guidance and support on the overall provision, supervision and monitoring of distance learning. Currently 50 local authorities are involved in strands A and B of the programme, providing direct support to almost 1,000 pupils. Applications for involvement in strand C indicate that a further 1,700 pupils will benefit from the programme. I therefore hope that I have illustrated that we are doing much to support the education of pupils from the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, but we accept that much more needs to be done by us and by local authorities. We continue to work with representatives of these communities to assess what else needs to be done to improve the education of pupils from these communities. This includes the education of pupils beyond the age of 16. As I said in my letter to Richard Solly, officials from my department are working to set up a group drawn from these communities that will meet to discuss ongoing and future education policy and to ensure that specific challenges that may be encountered by Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils in these areas are addressed. It is envisaged that this group will meet twice yearly and will work to inform policy so that ascription and attainment among these pupils will be raised. It will also seek to institutionalise the kind of regular discussions that the noble Lord and I have had in recent years which have led to worthwhile improvements, although it is important that these improvements are embedded in the normal machinery of my department and local authorities.