Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the Race Disparity Audit's finding that pupils from Gypsy, Roma, or Irish Traveller backgrounds have the lowest educational attainment out of all ethnic groups in the UK, whether they intend to re-introduce funding for Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month.

The department welcomes the work of third sector groups in developing and promoting Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month and we are supportive of schools’ involvement. Schools have an important role to play in celebrating the history and culture of all their pupils and are best placed to decide whether to participate in specific events.

The government is committed to ensuring that all pupils, regardless of background, can reach their full potential. Through the pupil premium we continue to provide additional annual funding of nearly £2.5 billion. This will help schools improve the progress and attainment of their disadvantaged pupils. High proportions of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils are eligible for and will benefit from this support.

The department continues to work with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government on their 2018/19 pilot programme to improve the social integration of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. In March 2018, we launched a review of exclusions which will explore why certain pupil groups, including Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils, are over-represented in exclusions statistics. In addition, as part of the Careers Strategy, Gypsy, Roma and Traveller youth will be a target group for a pilot testing ways of providing careers guidance to vulnerable groups.