Community profiling
Assessing the housing needs of Gypsies/ Travellers in Falkirk
Introduction
Community profiling involves building up a picture of the nature, needs and experiences of a community. It is an essential step to ensuring that services and activities meet the needs of all communities.
But, it can be quite challenging. It can be particularly difficult if you are trying to find out about communities which are very small in your area. Or when very little research has been done previously.
This is the story of how we explored the housing needs of Gypsies/ Travellers in Falkirk. It highlights what we did, and what we learned along the way. We hope our experiences can help others doing the same kind of work.
About this document This guide is based on the experiences of ODS Consulting undertaking research for Communities Scotland and Falkirk Council. |
Defining the Gypsy/ Traveller community
Before we began to think about housing needs, we needed to define what we meant by the Gypsy/ Traveller community.
The Scottish Executive promotes the use of terminology which recognises the social and cultural differences between traveller communities in Scotland. It suggests the use of three main terms:
§ Gypsy/ Traveller – referring to all travelling communities who see travelling as an aspect of their cultural/ ethnic identity.
§ Occupational Traveller – people who define themselves in terms of their businesses – such as fairground travellers
§ New Traveller – people who advocate alternative life-styles
In this study, we focused particularly on the housing needs of Gypsies/ Travellers – people who saw travelling as part of their cultural identity. This was done as part of a wider piece of work, focusing on the housing needs of all minority ethnic communities in the Falkirk area.
Gathering statistical information
The size of the Gypsy/ Traveller community
Before we began exploring the housing needs of Gypsies/ Travellers in Falkirk, we needed to gain an understanding of the size and profile of the population.
For many communities, the 2001 Census is a useful starting point for statistical information. But unfortunately, the Census did not include Gypsies/Travellers as a separate ethnic group. This means that it is quite difficult to gather baseline information about the size and profile of the Gypsy/ Traveller community.
But this is slowly changing. The categories for the 2011 Census are currently being developed and tested. In 2006, a draft Census form was tested. This included Gypsy/ Traveller as an ethnic group.
To find out more about the 2011 Census arrangements, go to the General Register Office for Scotland site at: |
The twice yearly count
At the moment, the best national source of statistical information about the Gypsy/ Traveller population is the Scottish Executive Social Research Unit. They carry out a count of the Gypsy/Traveller population in Scotland twice each year. Analysis of this count is provided at a local authority level.
The counts take place in January and July. This is to take account of potentially different movement patterns of communities in the summer and winter months. The counts record the number of households:
§ At Council sites
§ At privately owned sites
§ In reported encampments in unauthorised locations
The count is very useful in providing a starting point for understanding the size of the Gypsy/ Traveller community in your area. But importantly, it does not include everyone who sees travelling as part of their cultural identity. Many people could be staying in other housing situations in your area, and still see travelling as important to their culture.
The Social Research Unit recognises that accurately counting households who are travelling and not settled on local authority sites is an ‘inexact science’. In the past, some Gypsy/ Traveller representatives have expressed concern that the counts may underestimate the size of the Gypsy/ Traveller community.
Using the twice yearly count
The results of each count are available on the Scottish Executive’s website. Normally, the results are published about 6 months after the count has been done. The results from July 2006 (count number 10) are available at:
www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/01/17102316/8
Previous results are also available online. The easiest way of finding these is searching for ‘Gypsies/ Travellers in Scotland: the twice yearly count’, using an external search engine.
When using the count information, it is important to remember that the population in different areas can fluctuate from year to year, and between summer and winter. To help with this, the count gives average population over the last three seasonal counts to provide a picture of the population in winter and summer.
A range of useful information is contained within the count:
§ Background to the Gypsy/ Traveller community in Scotland
§ Number, capacity and occupancy of Council and privately owned sites
§ More detailed information on households in Council sites, including duration of tenancy, age structure and demand for pitches
§ Households on unauthorised encampments
§ Information from previous counts
Gathering information locally
The information we gathered from the twice yearly count was useful. But to get a real feel for the profile of the Gypsy/ Traveller community in Falkirk, we wanted to also gather some information locally.
Falkirk Council employs a Travelling Persons’ Officer, based at the local authority Gypsy/ Traveller site. This Officer conducts rigorous monitoring of resident numbers and was able to provide more up to date information than the last published count.
But we weren’t able to gather quantitative information about the wider use of services by the Gypsy/ Traveller community at a local level. Service providers in the area did not include Gypsies/ Travellers in their equalities monitoring systems. This is not surprising, since it is only very recently that consideration has been given nationwide to including Gypsy/ Travellers as an ethnic group.
This meant there was no existing information on the needs and experiences of Gypsies/ Travellers in Falkirk. For example, we couldn’t tell how many Gypsy/ Travellers had applied for or been allocated Council housing. So we had to rely on speaking to people, and gathering their perceptions and views.
