by Peter Unwin
I qualified as a social worker 49 years ago and have worked in a number of local authority and third sector settings in posts ranging from Assistant Director to front line social worker. For the past 25 years I have taught and researched social work at the University of Worcester, where I am currently Principal Lecturer in social work. I have been a foster carer, the chair of foster panels and am currently a member of the Central England Adoption Panel.
Much of my recent research has been in the field of Gypsy, Roma, and Travellers where I have built
up a wealth of knowledge and contacts. I am also a member of the Romani and Traveller Social Work Association which exists to change discriminatory attitudes and practices within social work and other professions regarding these oppressed communities. The issue of kinship care within Gypsy, Roma, and Travellers communities has become increasingly raised as another area where equality of opportunity principles are not applied, due largely to discrimination on behalf of professionals and their organisations.
Statistics are spurious across Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller health and welfare outcomes but it is well accepted that their outcomes in terms of health and social care are the worst of any ethnic minority in the UK (Unwin and Hulmes, 2025). The work of Allen and Ryding (2018) and Allen and Hamnett (2022) are testimony to the disproportionate numbers of children from Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller families being taken into state care. I can confidently state that the knowledge base held by professionals about lifestyles, norms and child-rearing in these communities is at an extremely low level. Furthermore the reality that there are only a handful of foster carers across the UK from Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller backgrounds means that, unlike the case with all other ethnic minorities, the choice of an ethnically matched foster placement is virtually non-existent. Thus, children from Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities who come into state care are doubly traumatised by not only being taken from their families but are then subjected to being brought up in an alien culture: Recent quotes from Irish Travellers in an English County who had been fostered out-of-culture include:
‘I was encouraged to hide as a person; this had a huge impact on the rest of my life’
‘I felt I had this double identity – “not Traveller enough” for my own community and too
“Travellerified” for non-Travellers’
‘I would talk to myself in my own language and got sent to a psychiatrist for what was my
way of coping and holding on to my culture.
The mental health outcomes, educational outcomes and involvement in the criminal justice system for young people with state care backgrounds and are known to be particularly high, the instability in foster care placements contributing to such a deplorable state of affairs. Kinship foster care has been the preferred option for children in need of care in recent decades and there is general agreement in the research field that kinship placements provide children with more stability and a sense of identity through to adult life. Kinship care can offer a route to permanence – 96% of kinship carers who responded to McGrath and Ashley’s (2021) State of the Nation survey believed their currently placed children would be living with them permanently. A special guardianship review identified that kinship care had a low rate of disruption and offered much greater levels of stability for children than non-kinship foster care.
A UK-wide review of kinship care by Wellard et al. (2017) found that :
- Kinship care provided high levels of stability, with 72% of young people living continuously in the kinship home until adulthood.
- Relationships with carers were generally close, with 84% of young people identifying their carer or carer’s partner as the person they were closest to during their teenage years.
- Sibling relationships were important, with 68% entering kinship care with at least one sibling.
- Teenage years were marked by emotional and behavioural challenges, including low self-esteem, anxiety, anger, truancy, and school exclusion.
- Educational outcomes were better than care leavers but worse than the general population. 37% achieved the national GCSE target, compared to 12% of care leavers.
- 16% attended university, compared to 6% of care leavers.
- 28% were NEET (not in education, employment, or training), lower than care leavers (41%) but higher than the general population (15%).
- Mental health outcomes were similar to care leavers, with 22% having probable mental health disorders.
A core theme to emerge from the above study was the continuity and stability offered by kinship care as a result of the care provided by the kinship carers and their extended family. However this option is rarely offered to Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller children mainly because of prejudice on the behalf of assessing social workers and their organisations. These social workers will attend equality and diversity training, but it is very unlikely that this training will have included Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller issues and hence their insight into these communities are primarily shaped by mainstream press and social media representations of them being dangerous and feckless people. There are certainly elements of the Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities that accord to such stereotypes, but the vast majority are decent family-centred people whose ways of life have increasingly been taken away from them in the modern world. The disappearance of traditional trades and the lack of suitable accommodation and schooling has impoverished many families and there are very few organisations in the UK set up to support these communities.
When a Gypsy, Roma, or Traveller family is brave enough to put their name forward as a potential kinship placement they come up against a very bureaucratic process of assessment, one that is increasingly designed to protect the assessing organisation rather than promote the best interests of a child. The core tenet of the Children Act 1989 is that the welfare of the child is paramount and its principle of ‘least intervention’ is best served by making any necessary placement within extended family . That same legislation also encourages authorities to work in partnership with families and to help children feel a sense of stability, belonging, and self-worth, yet assessors will turn recommendations into regulations e.g. about space in the accommodation being offered / about sharing bedrooms (which is the norm for many Gypsy, Roma and Traveller young children) and about ability to safeguard any placed children in line with their care plan, especially when emotions run deep e.g. regarding contact rules.
There should always be flexibility in the interpretation of guidelines and regulations and authentic professional judgement should be child-focused, not just in the here-and-now but also in looking to the future. One can only imagine the trauma and mental health impact of growing up in a different culture to one’s own and , in the case of Gypsies, Roma, and Travellers, constantly only seeing your community ridiculed and hated on an everyday basis. Even if a kinship placement breaks down, there will be great solace for a child looking back on their lives, in knowing that their family wanted them.
These above views are not anecdotal but stem from my own research projects and from the sources listed below. All children deemed to be in need of care outside of their immediate family should always be given the opportunity to live with extended kin or friends. It is very rare that a Gypsy, Roma, or Traveller family steps up to offer such a resource, mainly through a lack of understanding of ‘the system’ and because they expect to meet a wall of discrimination. This situation must change and those making such life-changing decisions should always seek assurance that prospective families coming forward as kinship carers are given equal opportunity to prove themselves as good and safe carers. Furthermore, their social work assessors must be individuals who have professional understanding and insight into the norms and mores of the particular Gypsy, Roma, or Traveller community in which their assessment is taking place.
I urge all those of you who read this ‘think piece’ to take the issues above back to your workplaces and ensure that you are part of an organisation which treats kinship issues within Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities in the same way as with all other ethnicities. If this is not the case, then please do something about it, maybe starting with sharing the above with your colleagues and managers.
For further info. Please contact the Romani and Traveller Social Work Association through this
website or via Dr Peter Unwin – p.unwin@worc.ac.uk
Further Sources
Allen , D., and The Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller Association (2022) Understanding the Welfare
Impact of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.
good_practice_guide_july_2022_final.pdf
Allen, D. and Hamnett, V. (2022) Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Children in Child Welfare Services in
England. The British Journal of Social Work. 52(7): 3904–3922.
Allen, D., and Hulmes, A. (2021). Aversive Racism and Child Protection Practice with Gypsy, Roma
and Traveller Children and Families. Seen and Heard, 31(2) 44-67.
Allen, D. and Riding, S. (2018) The Fragility of Professional Competence: A Preliminary Account of
Child Protection Practice with Romani and Traveller Children. Budapest: European Roma Rights
Centre.
Harwin, J.& Simmonds, J. (2020) Special Guardianship-A Review of the Evidence
https://www.nuffieldfjo.org.uk/resource/special-guardianship-a-review-of-the-evidence
Mc Grath,P. & Ashley, L. (2021) Kinship Annual Survey https://kinship.org.uk/kinship-annual-survey-
2021/
Unwin, P., & Hulmes, A. (2025). Inequalities in mental health services for Romani and Travellers:
time for social work to step up?. Critical and Radical Social
Work from https://doi.org/10.1332/20498608Y2025D000000075
Wellard, S. et al. (2017) Growing up in Kinship Care https://kinship.org.uk/report/growing-up-in-
kinship-care-experiences-as-adolescents-and-outcomes-in-young-adulthood/