To discuss strategies and resources for receiving new communities into the area.
Minutes:
Sue Grogan, Chair, New Arrivals Strategy Group, Ellen Collier, Principal Education Welfare Officer and Bijal Stapleford, Education Welfare Officer attended the meeting to provide an insight to the work of the New Arrivals Strategy Group, and in particular the issues around the Roma community.
It was reported that a workshop event had been held in 2009 that had involved a number of agencies and local voluntary agencies and the outcomes of the event had identified the very complex needs of the Roma community.
Bijal stated that the various problems had been looked at closely and an attempt had been made to tackle these in a strategic way. A large number of Roma families resided in streets off Evington Park Road and Spinney Hills park area as well as the area around Gipsy Lane.
Bijal stated that the Roma people were eligible to be in this country but under European Union legislation passed in 2004 they are not eligible for housing, hence they are living in areas where there are high levels of privately let dwellings. A lot of the Roma adults were working for Employment Agencies and ‘gang masters’. This leads to a number of problems with the claiming of benefits as they will be required to be in employment for 11 out of 12 months each year.
Bijal stated that, in conjunction with the Police, funding was being sought to provide basic ESOL language training for the Roma community. Further work was underway to try and get the Roma community into using local Community facilities but this was an area of work that was taking longer than anticipated following the outcome of Health and Safety checks.
Ellen Collier stated that she was tackling the issue of getting Roma children into school. Each school had it’s own Education Welfare Officer and, in conjunction with local Police, patrols were undertaken in term time to speak to children found that were of school age. If these children were not on a school roll then work was being undertaken to get them put on. Members of the public were being urged to contact Education Welfare should they regularly see children on the streets. Education Welfare also had legal powers to issue notices to parents who persistently allow children to be absent from school. The aim was to make all parents aware of their responsibilities. It was stated that whilst the reasons were clear it would not be acceptable to see any of these parents going to court when the underlying reasons were known.
Bijal stated that revisions to the current Entry Pack were being made to encompass different languages, this had arisen from the New Arrivals Strategy Group.
A member of the public stated that he was aware that Roma children in the Evington Road areahad experienced difficulties in getting school places and then had been sent to Babington Community College, but had not been offered assistance with bus fares. Bijal stated that a lot of Roma children were choosing Babington as a school because they had friends that went there. To qualify for free bus travel the respective families had to be in receipt of Family Tax Credits, Roma families were not eligble for Family Tax Credits. Education Welfare would be able however to work with schools, families and pupils to try and address the transport needs to/from school.
In concluding it was stated that it was apparent that there were a number of issues around the Roma community that needed to be discussed in greater detail and that as part of the bigger picture certain discretion was needed. A further issue raised was that of the Roma community being able to access Doctor’s surgeries, this was proving difficult at the moment. Feedback was sought on these issues.
RESOLVED:
i) that the information be noted and that feedback on the issues raised around the offering of discretions and of access to Doctor’s surgeries be sought.
ii) that further discussion around the Roma community be scheduled for a future meeting.