Gypsy/Travellers (Ministerial Working Group on)

Overview

The group's remit is to drive forward cross-government actions which will improve the lives of Scottish Gypsy/Traveller communities. Each Minister will identify further actions to take the work forward in their portfolio.

Critical to this will be the alignment of other strategies/policy areas including (but not limited to):

• Respect for All: the national approach to anti-bullying for Scotland's children and young people
• A Fairer Scotland Action Plan
• Race Equality Framework for Scotland
• Race Equality Action Plan
• 2018 Year of Young People
• guidance for local authorities on managing unauthorised camping by gypsy/travellers in Scotland
• guidance on improving gypsy/traveller sites

The Ministerial Working Group will:

• work to address inequalities experienced by the Gypsy/Traveller communities in:

  • housing
  • education
  • health
  • employment
  • any cross-cutting issues, i.e. community cohesion

• consider how to improve engagement with Scotland's Gypsy/Traveller community and their participation influencing and shaping policy

• engage in dialogue with key organisations working with Gypsy/Travellers and establish a mechanism to ensure continued engagement with stakeholders and members of the community
• follow up on the Equal Opportunities Committee reports: Gypsy/Travellers and Care 2012 and Where Gypsy/Travellers Live 2013 to examine what progress has been made
• oversee the Gypsy/Traveller activities that are included in the Race Equality Action Plan, to ensure they are taken forward
• explore further the potential of involving young Gypsy/Travellers in the Year of Young People
• consider further steps to tackle discriminatory portrayals of the community by the media

Progress so far

The first meeting of the group took place in January 2018, and the second meeting is scheduled for May 2018. Two further meetings will take place in late 2018.

A report will be published in early 2019 setting out the group's achievements and progress in implementing the priorities for action it identifies during the course of 2018.

Members

• Cabinet Secretary for Communities, Social Security and Equalities (Chair)
• Minister for Childcare and Early Years
• Minister for Local Government and Housing
• Minister for Public Health and Sport
• Minister for Employability and Training

External stakeholders

External experts may be invited to attend specific meetings to provide detailed insight into their specialist areas.

Secretariat

Secretariat for the Group will be provided by the Equality Unit.

Publications