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Section 2: Ideals and Realities: A Precursor to the 1999 Report

Introduction

2.1 The need to provide sites where Travellers could live legally was recognised some thirty years ago as a stepping stone to enabling Travellers to achieve equality within the wider Scottish community. The first detailed study of Travellers in Scotland, their problems and needs, was published in 1971. Its concluding chapter highlighted some of the key issues:

'.......If urgent action is not taken the problems will grow both for the Travellers themselves and for the local authorities in whose areas they will continue to camp'.

'Individual local authorities often fear that if they take a lead in providing for Travellers they will be inundated with families from all over Scotland. The evidence suggests that this is unlikely and that Travellers will retain links with their home areas even if this means having to live under difficult conditions. An authority may regard the cost of solving the problems in its area as high but account has to be taken of the cost of continued friction between Travellers and settled communities. Although the return from the provision of sites in terms of rents alone is unlikely to equal the costs of running or of developing the sites, the presence of well run authorised sites can bring considerable savings in the hidden costs of the time and resources of police and other local authority staff who, until now have been coping with Travellers in other ways........'.

'Much change must, of course, come from the Travellers themselves if they are to have houses or authorised sites and are to gain acceptance on equal terms with the rest of the population, but it cannot be expected that all change should be one-sided. A far greater tolerance towards the Travellers and recognition of the circumstances under which they have had to live is needed not only on the part of local authorities but also the settled community as a whole. A few local authorities have already made considerable efforts, often in the face of strong local opposition but overall action is now an urgent necessity. The successful development of sites can do a great deal to allay the often irrational fears of the house-dweller. The press and other news media can help by providing accurate and unbiased information, particularly about successes rather than about failures. Some failure in the early stages is likely; to attempt nothing would be a far greater and more lasting failure'.

2.2 The first Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on Scotland's Travelling People was appointed in the summer of 1971. As that Committee comes to the end of its ninth term and assesses not just its own progress but also the achievements and failures of its predecessors, it is important to understand the thinking and the ideals underlying the original policy framework. It is also necessary to assess the circumstances within which successive Committees have operated and the extent to which the picture has changed over the years.

Identifying the Need

2.3 Problems of finding places to stay for any length of time have always been a feature of Traveller life. In the past these were generally accepted. 'Moving-on' by landowners or local police or environmental health officials was not too frequent and, if Travellers were moved, there were usually alternative places to which they could go.

2.4 Stopping places became increasingly difficult to find in the early post-war years. The Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960 had a particularly negative effect, in significantly reducing the number of even those substandard places which Travellers formerly had been able to use. Moving-on became very frequent in some areas, while throughout Britain sites formerly used by Travellers were being closed to them either by physical or social barriers. Even sites originally established by Travellers many years earlier had become holiday or residential caravan sites to which they were now denied access.

2.5 In England and Wales the Caravan Sites Act 1968 placed an obligation on local authorities to provide proper sites for Travellers resorting to their areas. However, this Act did not extend to Scotland. While systematic information on the scale of the presence of Travellers in Scotland and their way of life was lacking, increasing difficulties were becoming evident. A need for action to ease their plight in Scotland began to be recognised by the Scottish Office.

2.6 At the beginning of 1969 the Scottish Office commissioned a national count of Travellers in Scotland. The initial count in March 1969, together with its summer equivalent in August of the same year formed the basis for a fuller study of Travellers, their lifestyles, difficulties and needs. The results of this study set out possible ways forward (Gentleman and Swift, 1971).

The 1971 Study Conclusions

2.7 The 1971 study, the basis for what has happened since, concluded that there was no single solution to Travellers' problems, nor were they likely to be solved within a short time. The underlying aim of the suggested solutions was 'to create an environment within which it is possible for the Travellers to achieve equality of status with the settled community. This means that they must be enabled not only to earn a satisfactory living by those means which they have at their command, but also to take an equal part in the life of the community at large'.

2.8 Two phases of change were identified. In the short-term, provision of places where Travellers could legally live, whether in houses or in caravans on authorised sites, was seen as 'of greatest urgency and necessitates immediate action if a major increase in the existing problems is to be prevented'. The second, longer-term, phase was to resolve the economic, educational and social problems keeping Travellers apart from the life of the rest of the community.

2.9 The report emphasised that if concerted action was taken immediately, considerable progress could be made within a single generation, though it was likely to spread over two or three. Success in the second phase also would be dependent upon action in the first.

The Scottish Office Response

2.10 In light of the study's report recommendations for both progress on the immediate accommodation need and longer-term improvements in access to other facilities and developments in education, the Scottish Office developed its Traveller policies in 1971. These were aimed at enabling Travellers both to maintain their traditional lifestyle and culture where they wished to but also to enjoy equality of access to benefits of education, health and other services open to the settled community.

2.11 The two-strand approach announced in March 1971 (SDD Circular 9/1971) noted that solutions to the problem should be feasible without new legislation. The Circular also emphasised that 'if a start was made promptly on the range of solutions set out in Chapter 10 of the report, a general improvement in the Travellers' conditions of life should be possible without excessive cost and before the problems grow still further'. It was further stressed that it was 'The Secretary of State's hope that local authorities will now embark on a programme of positive action on the lines set out in the report'.

2.12 Legislative differences between England and Wales and Scotland meant that it was unlikely that the solution adopted south of the border (Caravan Sites Act 1968) would be extended to Scotland but at the same time such a need was not envisaged in Scotland in 1967.

2.13 Alternative approaches were therefore necessary. Local authorities in Scotland professed willingness to provide sites but emphasised the financial burden of so doing. To encourage site development the 1971 SDD Circular announced that the Scottish Office would make available grants of 75% of the capital costs.

2.14 The Committee notes the enlightened nature of the Scottish approach, particularly since at that time no equivalent grant scheme was offered in England and Wales, where site provision was dependent only upon the obligations set out in the 1968 Act. It also notes that a system of grants similar to those offered in Scotland was subsequently introduced in England and Wales in 1976 in the light of recommendations in the Cripps Report (Cripps, 1976).

2.15 The second strand of the 1971 policy was the establishment of 'a small advisory committee.......'. The first Committee's remit was as follows....

'To keep the whole situation relating to "Scotland's Travelling People" under review over a three-year period, in particular to provide a bridge between the Travellers and the settled community with a view to achieving greater tolerance and understanding of each other's point of view, and in general to act as a focal point for the further consideration of the welfare of Travellers'.

This initial remit was broad, recognising the need for involvement in many aspects of Traveller life and in the interplay between Travellers and the settled community.

2.16 Looking back through earlier Committee reports, there is significant continuity in the core remits. The full remits for the Advisory Committee's nine terms are given in Appendix B. The various elements within the remits for each Committee are shown in tabular form in Figure 1 to illustrate the continuity of particular themes over the years.

2.17 The remit for the Committee's second term was generally similar but with a greater emphasis on the role which needed to be played by local authorities. This was further re-emphasised in the third Committee's remit when significant progress on site provision was expected to be achieved. Here too there was a specific reference to the entitlement of Travellers to equality of access to various forms of services, on the same basis as the settled community. The remit narrowed in the early 1980s, concentrating on site matters, as with the introduction of the 100% grant this was then seen as the principal area of concern. It was only with the remit for the sixth term, covering the turn of the 1980s/90s, that the range of issues to be addressed began to broaden again with specific reference to education and health needs. Once again the succeeding seventh and eighth terms followed very similar wording but the most significant difference was the appearance of the need to identify guidance 'on any aspect relating to Travelling People' and either 'to review and update existing published guidance' or 'to recommend how that need might best be met'.

2.18 In this context it should also be noted that in England and Wales there was a recommendation in the Cripps Report (Cripps 1976) for an Advisory Committee for England and Wales along the lines of the Scottish model, though this recommendation was never acted upon.

Realities and Constraints

2.19 A number of factors have to be taken into account in assessing the extent to which the lifestyle of Travellers in Scotland has changed over the past twenty eight years. Some of these are considered further in other parts of this report but the more general ones are discussed here.

The Role of the Advisory Committee

2.20 Since 1971, the Committee has been solely an Advisory body, never one with executive power. Its role has been to....

• assess what has been happening throughout Scotland in terms of need and the extent to which there has been provision to meet it;
• advocate the development of permanent sites;
• persuade local authorities and other service providers to take appropriate action;
• assist individual authorities in selection of suitable locations for proposed sites;
• formulate guidance on good practice in site design and management; and
• advise Scottish Ministers as required and, in particular on pitch targets;

but NEVER....

• be able to control or implement proposals.

2.21 The roles which the Committee has been empowered to perform have all been very important, particularly as an interface between central, local government, the Traveller community and the voluntary sector. At the same time they can engender frustration, both at the inability to move site provision forward more speedily, particularly in the case of uncooperative local authorities, and in seeing little action being taken on formal and carefully considered recommendations made in successive end-of-term reports.

Who Took Responsibility for Travellers ?

2.22 One factor which has sometimes constrained progress on Traveller matters over the years has been the changes in local authority structures and uncertainty as to which part of an authority should, or was prepared, to accept responsibility for Travellers. In the twenty eight years of the Committee's existence there have been two complete rounds of local government re-organisation. The first in 1975 with the establishment of Regional and District Councils, and the second in 1996 with the return to Unitary Authorities. The first of these had the greatest impact as far as Traveller matters were concerned, since it placed Housing as a District responsibility, while Social Work, also at the time seen as having an important role with Travellers, was a Regional function. This resulted in a degree of functional conflict between these two tiers at that time.

2.23 While Travellers needs span a number of local authority departmental roles, the Committee experienced some early difficulty in deciding where the lead responsibility for Traveller issues should most effectively lie. By the time of the second Committee, Social Work Departments were seen as the most appropriate and 'community-based' agency. This was reflected in recommendations in the second report (Appendix C - Recommendations 60 and 61). The need for co-operation between a variety of local authority departments and other agencies was also stressed in the third report (Appendix C - Recommendations 62-64 and 67) and reiterated in the fourth report (Appendix C - Recommendation 68).

2.24 In light of the impending changes both to the grant scheme and the establishment of the Scottish Parliament, the eighth Committee emphasised the potential role which CoSLA might play in the future (Appendix C - Recommendation 65).

2.25 However, the Committee feels that despite some of its predecessors' recommendations (Appendix C - Recommendations 66, 69 and 70), staff with a specific responsibility for Traveller matters have been rare, except in one or two authorities.

The 'Housed' Traveller

2.26 In terms of working towards provision of accommodation for Travellers in Scotland, the responsibility of the Advisory Committee, throughout its life, has been primarily for those Travellers who wish to retain their traditional mobile lifestyle, i.e. to live in caravans (the former traditional tent-dwelling has virtually disappeared over the past thirty years).

2.27 At the same time the Committee has recognised the existence of a much larger group of Travellers who, for whatever reason, have occupied houses, some permanently, others for an extended period, and yet others for short-term expediency. No reliable assessment of the scale of housed Traveller population in Scotland has ever been made and indeed the Committee would question the practicality of so doing. One very rough estimate of c20,000 throughout Scotland was suggested in the late 1950s (Rehfisch, 1958) though it was specified that this included semi-sedentary and sedentary people who identified themselves with the Travellers and some of whom left their houses in summer to take up a temporary mobile life. Despite its uncertainty, in practice this figure has subsequently been taken as the basis for a number of other frequently quoted estimates of housed Travellers, probably compounding any inaccuracies in the process.

2.28 In the 1969 Traveller census, house-holds were asked about preferences for continuing to travel or settling in one place. Six out of ten said they wanted to settle permanently. Of the others, more or less equal proportions either wanted to continue travelling full time or continue travelling in the summer and settle in the winter. Of those wanting to settle either permanently or just in the winter, more than three out of four expressed a preference to settle permanently in a house, with about one in seven wanting to settle on a proper caravan site, and under one in ten wanting to be in a house for the winter only.

2.29 Given the increasingly difficult living conditions to which they had been subjected, coupled with the lack of any experience of what a properly developed Traveller caravan site could be like, it is probably not surprising that housing was seen as the answer. It must also be remembered that traditionally there had been a tendency for Travellers in Scotland to move into one or other of the forms of house dwelling, which might be open to them (though not generally council housing) to a much greater extent than in England and Wales, either during the winter or sometimes for longer periods as a response to family circumstances. Nevertheless, these expressed preferences still left a substantial number of Traveller families for whom proper sites were likely to be the answer.

Figure 1 - Remits for Advisory Committee Terms (Grouped by subject areas)

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