Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer, for calling me to speak in this debate on the impact on Gypsy, Roma and Traveller and minority ethnic children of merging former specialist grants into the education improvement grant. I am a member of the committee, so I’ve been able to take part in this inquiry. I’m going to concentrate my remarks on Gypsy, Roma and Traveller education, as I chair the cross-party group here in the Assembly.

Incidentally, we’ve just had a cross-party group here this lunchtime where we had children from the Gypsy and Traveller community from all over Wales, including Pembrokeshire and Torfaen, questioning the Cabinet Secretary for children and social cohesion, Carl Sargeant, about the availability of sites, about why Gypsies and Travellers are moved on and lots of very challenging questions. I think any of you who would’ve heard those young people doing those questions would know what huge potential those children have. It’s obviously our duty to ensure that they reach their potential.

At the time the grants were merged to become education improvement grants, members of that group did lobby strongly against this move, as I did myself, and my view, after taking part in this inquiry, is that it was the wrong way to go. I’m glad the Government has accepted the proposal that it should be reviewed, although of course, it has rejected, as the previous two speakers have said, the way this came about—by looking at the way the equality impact assessments were carried out—that has been rejected. Because there was strong evidence given to us that they didn’t feel that equality impact assessments had been properly carried out and we do learn a lot by looking back and seeing how things happen. So, I know that that has been rejected, but I wondered if the Cabinet Secretary could take that on board—that maybe a mistake was made here.

I was actually shocked by some of the evidence that was brought forward and I was mainly shocked by the lack of knowledge of what was actually happening in this particular area. Individuals who worked at the grass roots were passionate and they were knowledgeable about their work; people who had direct experience of working with the groups of children we were looking at—they felt very strongly that things were not going in the right direction. But the wider bodies I felt had much less knowledge and much less commitment to knowing what was actually happening. I know the wider bodies—I think the consortia, which the chair of the committee referred to—I know this is one tiny bit of their work, but if we’re going to be a fair society and if this Assembly is going to deliver for all, we have just got to look at this bit. I have to say, as I say, I was shocked that their knowledge was so poor.

It also appeared that there were no monitoring mechanisms in place to see what had been the effect of the change, and I know that the Government has said that it will agree to review the monitoring arrangements, but I think we absolutely need reassurance that this will be a meaningful review. What does it mean: ‘Yes, we will look at it again—look and see what the monitoring arrangements are like’? There has to be a specific commitment to see that that actually happens, so how will they review and how much of a priority will that be?

The last point I want to make, really, is that recommendation 14 proposes that the Travelling Ahead project, ‘Good Practice in Education: Peer Research Project’—that the Government should take forward its recommendation. The Government does agree in principle and does say it will publish it on certain websites. I really feel that there is evidence in this peer review that people need to know about. I’ve been looking at some of the recommendations in the peer review and some of these are very important. The children said, ‘We need a Gypsy teacher’. So, we need role models and we know that Gypsies do achieve very highly in many roles and the public don’t often know about that. And then, ‘I won’t be going to camp next year, because mum and dad say the school is too far away and they don’t want me to go on the bus on my own; Mum thinks I will see and learn bad things’. So, I think it’s important to understand the community background of the children that is as a result of care for the children.

And on the final three points, they said they have three top tips for schools on how to work with Gypsy and Traveller pupils. Number one is: ‘be aware of our culture’, and I think that’s got a long way to go, but that’s very important. ‘Be aware of our differences with the settled community’, and as our Chair said, one size does not fit all. We’ve got to be aware of the differences that are there. And thirdly: ‘flexible education and part-time attendance options for all pupils around Wales’, which, again, I think is something that perhaps the Cabinet Secretary could respond on.