Gypsy, Roma and Traveller e-learning course

If you would like to access this e-learning training, please email us at: hw_wellbeingrecoverycollege@comfirst.org.uk and we will share the links.

This package was co-produced by the University of Worcester; Worcestershire County Council; The Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller Social Work Association; Gypsy and Traveller Empowerment (GATE) and Worcestershire Children First. 

You may wish to offer this package as part of your organisational commitment to equality and diversity.

The 4 modules are short (approx. 15 mins) each and can be taken individually or all in one session. They are focused on social work and community members’ lived experience within the Worcestershire context but the messages about cultural insights and best practice translate elsewhere in social work and related professions.

Modules are:

• 1. Overview and History
• 2. Challenges
• 3. Social Care
• 4. Resources

Our research in recent years has highlighted how little training exists regarding Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities and we hope that this basic package will lead to further debate and an improvement in practice. Currently, disproportionate numbers of children from Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities are coming into care and issues both of mental health and disability are not being addressed as they are in other ethnic minorities.

The formation of the Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller Social Work Association (now the Romani and Traveller Social Work Association) in 2019 marked a turning point in social work in that members of the profession with Gypsy, Roma and Traveller backgrounds came forward, determined to change professional practice and to work alongside communities in terms of mutual education. The Association are happy to supplement the above training package by offering further advanced / specialised training and consultancy, and we are always looking for new social worker members from Romani and Traveller heritages.