The aim of the team is to address inequalities of achievement and access to education by Gypsy and Traveller children. The team’s advice and support provided to schools is additional to any support to which all pupils are entitled. Team priorities include meeting the needs of highly mobile pupils to secure access and attendance at school, transfer to secondary school and maintenance of attendance at secondary school.

Traveller Team staff include:

• a team manager
• an outreach manager
• advisory teachers
• teachers
• teaching assistants (TAs)
• Home-School Liaison Officers (HSLOs)
• a part-time adult basic skills worker
• a Youth and Community Development Worker

Advisory teachers work with groups of schools across a geographical area while school focused teachers and TAs are allocated to work in specific schools.

Home-school liaison officers work with schools, parents and young people to support attendance and parental involvement in school activities or parent-teacher discussions. They work across a range of schools, within a given area.

The team has strong links to the Cambridgeshire Traveller Implementation Group, a partnership which works to improve Travellers’ access to all public services.

Although the main focus is on statutory education, the team also works with pre-school settings, with Further Education, Adult and Community Learning and the Youth Service as well as the voluntary sector.