Early Years Outreach Practice: Supporting yearly years practitioners working with Gypsy, Roma and Traveler families

This document is aimed at anyone working outreach with children from Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities. Its purpose is to share and reflect the work, knowledge and ideas of practitioners nationally. It draws on the experiences and understanding of practitioners currently working in rural and urban locations, within Traveller Education Support Service (TESS) teams and in Sure Start Children Centres. There has also been a growth of outreach work with Roma families arriving from Eastern Europe, but practice in this area of work remains limited. The information and ideas contained in this document may be transferable to practice with other families currently excluded from early years services.

Practice will always vary and should do if it is to respond properly to the unique needs of a particular locality, community or individual. Therefore, this document does not aim to provide final answers or definitive statements, but rather to provide a basis for reflection on current outreach work in order to support the consistent monitoring of the intention, reasons, quality, and effectiveness of what practitioners do. It is hoped that the document will also serve those practitioners in aspects of their work focused on capacity-building in, and training provided to, mainstream early years services.