Version Number: 1.0

BRIEFING REPORT – Health and Adult Social Care and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee

Date of Meeting:	03 December 2020

Report Title:	Gypsy and Traveller Report: We’re Still Here

Portfolio Holder:

Author:	Dawn Taylor: Cheshire and Warrington Traveller Team Manager

Senior Officer:	<Jill Broomhall: Director of Adult Social Care>

Introduction and Policy Context

The ‘We’re Still Here’ (launched in April 2020 amid the pandemic) report is a follow up research to ‘Here to Stay’, research, completed in 2006, into the needs and preferences of the Gypsy/Traveller communities in Cheshire, Halton and Warrington.

The research from the report will be used to help formulate future policies and services, particularly the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA). Health and Wellbeing boards have a duty to produce a JSNA, identifying both health and social care needs, how they are met and opportunities for improvement. The first report in 2006, has been used by previous JSNA’s as the only local evidence base around Gypsy/Traveller communities within Cheshire. Informing service providers of the needs of Gypsy/Traveller communities. It was however outdated and in need of updating. The purpose of this briefing is to provide an overview of the content of the report and the key findings.

Background

In 2006, Cheshire, Halton & Warrington Race and Equality Centre (CHAWREC) commissioned a piece of research to establish an evidence base to demonstrate the need for and aid the development of a Gypsy/Travellers network across Cheshire. The research was innovative and participative, engaging people from the Gypsy/Traveller communities from the start. The work was co-designed, co-conducted, co-produced and co-presented. The result was the ‘Here To Stay: An Exploratory Study into the Needs and Preferences of Gypsy/Traveller communities in Cheshire, Halton & Warrington.’

Through the Cheshire Strategic Partnership, it was agreed to fund an updated research project, in partnership with CHAWREC and Irish Community Care. All the Cheshire authorities, through their Public Health departments, Cheshire Police and contributions from the John Moores Foundation and the Big Lottery funded the research.

‘We’re Still Here’ began gathering information through a consultation process with Gypsy and Travellers in February 2018. Data was collected over a 10-month period September 2018 to July 2019. The guiding principle of the research was to fully engage with the communities by employing members of those communities. A consultant was commissioned to train the community-based researchers to design and conduct the research into the needs of their communities.

There was a hope/expectation that the data could be compared to the previous research.

Briefing Information

The principles and methodology used in the first research were highly successful and were duplicated in the second project; engaging community members to carry out the research, enabling community members to be involved at every stage, encouraging ownership and empowering the communities.

The research initially struggled to attract community researches and those willing to complete the research, for a variety of reasons;

Lack of trust in sharing personal information even with other community members

The impact of death, grief, illness and the increase in suicides within the communities. One suicide impacting on 97 adults and nearly 200 children in the Cheshire subregion.

Originally it was hoped that the same people who had been interviewed in the 2006 research could be interviewed again. This was not possible as many had died, moved on and or no longer wanted to be involved. The interviews were carried out on both private and public sites, encampments, housing and special events put on to engage the communities. The sample was made up of;

125 people: 46 men and 79 women

Aged between 16 and 83

Across all four Cheshire authorities (46% from Cheshire West area)

A good mix of domicile type, ethnicity and belief

This time the questionnaire contained topics that previously were taboo in the communities, these covered issues around;

Domestic abuse

Family breakdown

Alcohol and drug misuse

Suicide

The biggest changes in the recent research were;

Lower levels of literacy were found in the second report

Ethnic mix had changed with 61% being Travellers this time round (14% in 2006)

An increase of 30% in those experiencing unfair treatment compared to 2006. Also, an increase of 40% in those experiencing abuse in 2018.

20% increase in those still travelling compared with 2006.

The research suggests a series of 13 recommendations which cover a variety of issues and I have put them under 3 headings;

Training: empowering members of the communities to deliver training for example to, mental health teams, GPs and health workers, so they have a better understanding of the culture. In a hope this will influence how services are set up and give more targeted help that the communities would accept. This would give recognition of the strengths of the Gypsy/Traveller communities, as well as positive community empowerment and inclusion; ‘nothing about us, without us!’ It was also suggested that another good medium would be short films with real people talking about their experiences, as this would be particularly hard hitting.

Hate Crime/discrimination: a dedicated hotline for reporting for the Gypsy/Traveller communities – there is already one nationally, but the northwest is not linked in – Report Racism GRT. Looking at how social media has been used to bully and propagate racial hatred, for example local face book pages used when an unauthorised development or encampment is set up. Gypsies and Travellers feel unsupported and that no one cares about what is happening to them. This causes great mental distress to the communities and we need to look at how to build resilience. Within this we need community cohesion work, services and local communities receiving appropriate training and anti-discriminatory messages clearly publicised throughout Cheshire.

Trust: a very important commodity with any community and it is clear from the research that the work of Irish Community Care carries out is built on trust with the communities. The service (only in Cheshire West currently) needs to be sustained and expanded to cover the whole of Cheshire. It is important austerity does not negatively affect the communities further. Many need mainstream services but there is a lack of trusted navigators. This needs to be repaired, we need to engage the communities through events, consultations and projects that interest them.

Implications

The research has captured some new information about the Gypsy/Traveller communities currently residing in Cheshire and will greatly help any future JSNA and new service development. These communities are often referred to as ‘hard to reach’ We’re Still Here proves this wrong, its more about who is asking and trusted relationships.

The only financial implication will be if the council move forward with plans to contract a support service from Irish Community Care.