Characteristically, new Traveller children live amongst one of the most socially excluded and marginalised sections of UK society. Friends and Families of Travellers estimate that there may be as many as 50,000 new Travellers moving around or parked-up in the UK. Perhaps half of these Travellers are under 16 years old. The 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act (CJA) has further compounded their problems, due to enforced movement and harassment by authorities. New Travellers and their children are frequently treated as ‘social outcasts’ by members of the settled community. Most families have very low incomes, many are classified as homeless, there are a high proportion of single parents, and with no security on sites or stopping places, consistent education is one of their major problems. TSC exists to help these children and their parents.

The TSC has provided and developed:

• on-site education and play facilities on Traveller sites and at festivals. Fiona, Ross and Howard, all qualified teachers and Travellers, have worked for the TSC between 1990 and now. Extracts from their reports follow in the ‘work and achievements’ section. In 1997 the main teaching resource used by Howard has been a dome, whilst Liz, Ross and others are developing ‘caravan classroom’ and ‘visiting teacher’ models of provision. The TSC particularly emphasises the value of pre-school resources and work;
• special children’s camps, co-ordinated by Gwen and Lucy, where Traveller families can share learning and experience, enjoy each others’ company, discuss and provide education and recreation together;
• support and encouragement for Travellers’ own self-help and co-operative initiatives in providing on-site schools and educational/social camps;
• distance learning support for individual children. This has been organised on an individual need basis by Fiona and includes support for older children right up to GCSE level;
• Traveller use of the Nursery voucher scheme and special nursery provision through mobile resources. Michael has been co-ordinating this area of TSC work and it is anticipated that the Labour government may scrap the existing voucher scheme in the relatively near future;
• the creation of culturally-friendly resources to encourage children’s enjoyment of learning, including the ABC activity book; Gubby’s Colouring Book; ten titles in the ‘My Home’ series; forty titles in the ‘Reading’ book series and the ambitious new set of four ‘Workbooks’, with 125 pages of activities in each designed to include a balanced curriculum from English, Maths, Science, Arts and Humanities. Howard is currently compiling a book to help parents with nomadic home education – a DIY Guide;
• the collection and collation of other culture-friendly resources for distribution free to Travellers and at low-cost to staff from Traveller Education Services and others working with Traveller children. At different times, these resources have been sited in Fiona’s resources truck and in a room in Grantham which has been used as a limited library resource;
• training and information for parents, Traveller Education Services and others involved in educational provision for new Traveller children. This has involved providing training inputs and/or a TSC stall at conferences and festivals; the TSC Roadshow; organising the Insights into New Traveller Culture and volunteer training and support.

These include the Esmee Fairburn Trust; the Yapp Foundation; Hilden Charitable Fund; Telethon; National Playbus Association; Ajahma Charitable Trust; Lyndhurst Settlement; Allen Lane Foundation; the Levellers; Sainsbury Family Charitable Trust; Elmgrant Trust; Manchester Free School, Children in Need and the National Lottery Charities Board. Thanks to them all.

The level of funding received by the TSC has varied considerably from year to year. Initially it was funded almost entirely by benefit gigs and individual donations, in recent years approximately two-thirds of the income has been generated from grant applications, the other third coming from donations, subscriptions for the newsletter, sales of publications, income from training provision and special fund-raising initiatives.

TSC is grateful for current funding from the Lottery, Manchester Free School, Children in Need and the National Playbus Association.

These show a total income in the financial year of £22,981 as against £7,734 in 1995-96. £17,212 of the income came from the Lottery grant and £1000 from the Lyndhurst Trust. £1,517 was raised from the sale of publications, and £357 from Friends’ subscriptions. On the expenditure side, teachers’ salaries accounted for £10,715, which, with costs of travel, training and management adds up to £13,860. £6,118 was spent on a variety of publications; £1,307 on administration; and a total of £4,455 on the resources base, camps and grant transfer to the Friends and Families of Travellers organisation towards their Woodland Skills Training scheme.

The TSC has been in existence since 1985 and registered as a charity since 1988. (Charity registration number 327731) The charity is run by a management committee of three trustees who are the core management group. Their roles are defined as Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer. There are also ten other trustees, most of whom are Travellers. TSC operates formally on the basis of its Trust Deed. The management committee also makes use of advisors, representatives of other agencies and parents to inform its work. The trustees meet about four times a year and the management committee in between trustees’ meetings. Finally, there is a network of about 100 ‘friends’ of the TSC, who subscribe to the charity and in return receive quarterly newsletters.

At the time of compiling this report (at the end of 1997) TSC employs Fiona as part-time co-ordintor and Resource Worker, Howard as full time teacher and Alan as part-time fund-raiser. The management committee receives a small honorarium for its admin. work. It uses other small payments to assist the work of the volunteers, management committee expenses, trustees and free-lancers who help the charity. Other income is used to develop and purchase resources and cover fuel and administrative costs.

In discussing plans for fund-raising to meet the needs of the charity’s work in 1998-2000, the following list has been determined. It is not in priority order, and the ‘friends’ and trustees of the TSC are currently being invited to put forward schemes (with costings) in order to seek potential sponsors. Funding is required to develop:

• individual resource caravans for educational use which can be used as relatively cheap, flexible resource vehicles, to meet the needs of children and parents on sites;
• equipment and resources for parents to be able to effectively offer educational provision to new Traveller children;
• more teachers and playworkers (and resources) to be able to offer on-site opportunities to more families who are travelling, parked-up and at festivals during the summer months;
• the vehicle and fuel fund;
• more children’s camps for Travelling families;
• a specific, Volunteer Fund, for training and supporting volunteers;
• more Traveller culture-friendly resource materials such as handbooks, pamphlets, videos and training aids for use by children and their parents;
• a permanent resource site where materials and equipment can be stored and a library facility can be developed;
• training events for TSC and those involved in traveller education services;
• support for the Management Committee;
• the effective administration of the charity and its communications with its supporters and other interested parties.

Other possibilities under discussion include more joint working and joint initiatives with other agencies such as Friends and Families of Travellers and the Children’s Society; action research projects; and a mobile computer learning scheme.

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