Travelers’ School Charity Newsletter Summer 2004

Telegraph Hill News

Planning Permission has been refused at Telegraph Hill Travellers’ Site in Devon near Exeter. There were two main reasons highlighted;
1) Complaints about residents walking in the surrounding woodlands.
2) Local people complained about the unsightly appearance of the site as it was.

As one resident explained “the site just got bigger and bigger and no one took any action to ask people to go somewhere else”. The rubbish became a problem and people couldn't afford to hire the skips needed as they cost £100 each.

When the Council decided to evict 'the woods' because there were so many people living there they said that they would allocate accommodation but this turned out to be in a dip 3 metres away from the A380! Gypsy and Traveller Liaison Officer Peter Blayney said, “A private security firm were to manage the site and it was seen as a European 'test case'”. As these offers from the Council are unsatisfactory for Health Reasons there seems to be issues that need addressing. Is it possible that we can buy our own land and fight planning legislation from a higher standpoint? Are Chelmsford and Woodside going to put us off that option too? What are the choices? Buy land and fight later or wait for an unsatisfactory offer from people who don't understand what it's like to be moved on forever. We need support to find a path between the two, to work with planning guidelines and save us all time and money.

Devon Consortium Traveller Education Service assesses pupils without parental permission

Travellers who recently returned to England after a trip abroad felt their rights to have been ignored. Their children were assessed without their consent by the Traveller Education Service using a book called, “See what I can do”. The parents were only informed about the 1:1 session after the event and when the book was sent home from school it was considered extremely unsuitable.

The School had made no attempt to discuss the assessment with the family beforehand, meet the advisors concerned or study the material to be used. In consultation the material was felt to be intrusive to family life and highly inappropriate. Copies of the book are available from;

Devon Consortium Traveller Education Service
DCC Southern Divisional Office,
Redworth House,
Ashburton Road,
Totnes TQ9 5JZ

Tel; 01392 386811

Please ask for a copy of the book and let them know what you think about it, otherwise nothing will change.

Computer Classroom Project Phase 3

Computer Classroom Training Events. Two training sessions were held in March, one in Yorkshire and one in Wales. Both events were very successful and overall 8 adults and 15 children took part. The childcare facilities are a little ‘weather permitting’ at this time of year but egg painting, yoga, solar toy kits and picnics are still popular indoors! Fortunately most older travelling children arrive with bikes and we could practice some digital photography whilst they 'take air'. (This involves standing in the cold and taking photos of them doing jumps over carefully laid obstacles!) The training programmes covered the following; calculating power use of appliances power potential of PV's correct use of batteries and measuring equipment (multi-meters and hydrometers) testing old batteries    calculating wire gauges

Unfortunately weather conditions prevented wind power training, we hope to cover this at a later date in the summer.

We are now working on a renewable energy information book, which will accompany the training events and can be kept by trainees for future reference.
Other aspects of computer use, processing digital images and web page applications will also be covered in more detail over the coming months.

This aspect of the computer classroom project is the final phase where we hope, after supportive training, people will feel confident to take on TSC equipment and use it for the educational benefit of children and young people in their own local communities.

Please contact the TSC now if you would like to have training in order to support IT for children on sites in the UK.

The Government intends to put the details of every child in the country on to a database and allow every agency with which a family comes into contact, to share information about that family. There does not need to be any suggestion that a child is at risk of harm. All children will have their own file on the database.

No family will know what information is being shared – or even that it is happening. Clause 8(7)(23(7) for Wales) of the Bill abolishes patient or client confidentiality, overturning Common Law to do so.

What kind of database?

The Government has said that databases would be created at local level. BUT Clause 8(1)(or 23(1) for Wales) of the Bill allows the Secretary of State to establish any kind of system he chooses even one central, national database, whenever he chooses.

What information will be shared?

Anything that gives ‘cause for concern’ to someone in the information-sharing network. Not just signs of abuse. The Government has suggested that poor SATs results or low birth-weight would be a ‘cause for concern’. If a parent visited the doctor because they were depressed or wanted help to get their drinking under control, this could be entered on their child’s data file. Poverty is a risk factor.

There are a few concerns with regard to

Ø      The Government’s proposals breach children’s rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which gives each person the right to ‘respect for his private and family life’.

 Ø      They also breach Article 16 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which says that ‘no child shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy, family, home or correspondence’.

 Ø      If information about family members is shared, that is a breach of their Article 8 rights, too.

 If these proposals become law, there will be no such thing as a private family life any longer. The very essence of the right to privacy will have been extinguished.

What happens to a child who is in danger if the child database fails? 

Databases are only as accurate as the person keying in the information, and errors are inevitable. For example, in 2000 an audit of Metropolitan Police records held on the Police National Computer revealed that 85% of files contained errors, four-fifths of which were considered serious; some were libelous.

What happens when errors build up on the child database?

Computers can be hacked. They can be stolen. Those with access to information can use it corruptly or pass it on to others. Not all ‘professionals’ are trustworthy, and recently the Criminal Records Bureau admitted that its checks were limited. On the same day that the Bill was published, Humberside's Chief Constable admitted that checks couldn’t be relied on. Far from protecting vulnerable children, we believe that a child database could put all of our children at risk.

What happens if the wrong person gains access to information about a child?

If children and parents know that every time they ask for help, they risk attracting unwanted attention and having their privacy invaded, it is likely that they will keep their problems to themselves until they simply cannot cope, rather than seeking advice at an early stage. What are the implications for child protection if parents are too scared to seek help for depression, stress-related drinking or domestic violence before their problems are critical?

What about a child who wants help with a drug problem, or a teenaged girl who fears she is pregnant? Are they more, or less, likely to confide in a GP or youth worker if they know their confidence might be broken?

If every trivial concern is flagged, there will be constant alerts on the system.

How will children in urgent need of protection be noticed in a forest of flags about truancy and SATs results?

Caseloads will inevitably increase as unnecessary cases come to the attention of social services. We already have a huge shortage of social workers and teachers. How will they cope with the extra workload? It seems more than likely that they will become very dependent on the computer system.

Who is responsible when the computer system breaks down?

Ultimately, a computer cannot go round to a house and help a child who is distressed or in danger. Only a human being can do that. Currently we are short of thousands of social workers. Our child protection system needs proper funding and more staff.

For more information goto:

http://www.arch-ed.org

Administrator vacancy

The successful applicant will be employed to work 16 hours per week helping to stabilize and strengthen the TSC so that it can develop and sustain long-term capacity providing benefits to children and young people whose parents are of a nomadic habit of life.

You will be responsible for administrative duties and responsibilities, which include;
· Management of Tax and National Insurance for Employees
· Publishing Annual Accounts and Reports
· Maintaining records and a knowledge of all Charity projects
· Dealing with enquiries from the general public
· Fundraising for Charity running costs
· Collecting news items for the Newsletter Editor

The salary for 12 months will be £3,900

Applicants should please apply in writing to;

TSC Secretary
Crossways Cottage
Madley
Herefordshire
HR2 9LZ

Deadline for Applications August 1st 2004.

BWB's Trial Moorings Code An Independent Consultation by Mrs H. Luff MSc

The document is worthy of better binding, as it is easy to read, informative and honest in its proud efficiency. Please contact hannah@groundswell.org.uk  for details of how to receive a copy for yourself of her collation of the views expressed by boaters on the canals of Britain in response to the British Waterway's Trial Moorings Code.

For an interesting and informative read

of the latest enquiry into Gypsy and Traveller sites find ODPM publication HC 633-11. Possibly this is the 20th central government research, consultation, policy and guidance document since the introduction of the Criminal Justice & Public Order Act 1994

The TSC’s contribution is ev.33.

There are some very interesting contributions, for example East Northants Council Memorandum particularly 3.4 and 4.1 forward thinking and revealing a positive attitude towards the needs of families in particular.

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