This package was co-produced by the University of Worcester; Worcestershire County Council; The Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller Social Work Association; Gypsy and Traveller Empowerment (GATE) and Worcestershire Children First. Funding for this work came from the DfE via the West Midlands Social Work Teaching Partnership. You may wish to offer this package as part of your organisational commitment to equality and diversity. The modules are short (approx. 15 mins) each and can be taken individually or all in one session. They are focused on social work and community members’ lived experience within the Worcestershire context but the messages about cultural insights and best practice translate elsewhere in social work and related professions. Modules are - 1. Overview and History 2. Challenges 3. Social Care 4. Resources.

 

Our research in recent years has highlighted how little training exists regarding Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities and we hope that this basic package will lead to further debate and an improvement in practice. Currently, disproportionate numbers of children from Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities are coming into care and issues both of mental health and disability are not being addressed as they are in other ethnic minorities.

 

The formation of the Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller Social Work Association (now the Romani and Traveller Social Work Association) in 2019 marked a turning point in social work in that members of the profession with Gypsy, Roma and Traveller backgrounds came forward, determined to change professional practice and to work alongside communities in terms of mutual education. The Association are happy to supplement the above training package by offering further advanced / specialised training and consultancy, and we are always looking for new social worker members from Romani and Traveller heritages.

 

On the legal side of things, the course is copyrighted by Worcestershire County Council and should not be altered in any way apart from your organisation possibly ‘topping‘ and ‘tailing’ it with additional content particularly relevant to your own settings. The package is for educational purposes only and must not be sold or used for any commercial undertakings. All intellectual property rights relating to the package remain with Worcestershire County Council or its Partners or Content Providers.

What we do ask is that , if you do use the package, then please either send me some detail about how you see it having changed practice/ policy, and please bear with me contacting you at yearly intervals over the next two years to ask about any such impact. If you are aware of other organisations which would benefit from receiving a copy of the package, please let Dr Peter Unwin, Principal Lecturer in Social Work at University of Worcester know at p.unwin@worc.ac.uk .

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https://lttu.uk/External/GypsyRomaTraveller/Lesson1

https://lttu.uk/External/GypsyRomaTraveller/Lesson2

https://lttu.uk/External/GypsyRomaTraveller/Lesson3

https://lttu.uk/External/GypsyRomaTraveller/Lesson4

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