Come to us in a peaceful way: Improving experiences of Roma families with children’s services in England

Executive summary

Purpose

In recent years, concerns have emerged regarding the overrepresentation and treatment of Roma families within children’s services in England. In response, Law for Life, Anglia Ruskin University and Lancaster University collaborated on an interdisciplinary and mixed-method study. This research, which directly involved Roma families, community groups working with Roma, legal professionals, and social workers, aimed to explore Roma families' experiences with children’s services and identify systemic barriers and  opportunities for improvement. Active participation of Roma families and community advocates was essential, and their voices and perspectives informed every stage of the research process, laying the groundwork for more effective and equitable service provision.

Key findings

• Evidence suggests an increased involvement of Roma children with children’s services, highlighting the need for better data disaggregation to understand the scope of this issue.
• Major contributing factors: Discrimination, economic hardship, and cultural misunderstandings significantly affect Roma families' interactions with children’s services.
• Barriers to effective engagement: These include deep-seated mistrust and fear of authorities, lack of cultural competence within children’s services, communication challenges and low legal capability.
• Enabling factors for effective interaction: These include community-based social work, relational trust building, cultural competency and legal empowerment of Roma communities.  

Recommendations for improvement

• Enhanced data collection: To better understand the proportionality of Roma family involvement with children’s services, data collection needs to be more culturally sensitive and adequately disaggregated.
• Inclusion strategies: Developing a Roma Inclusion Strategy is crucial to address the pervasive issues of discrimination, poverty, and social exclusion faced by Roma communities.
• Cultural competence within children’s services: Training for social work professionals on Roma culture and social contexts, including alertness to the impacts of intergenerational trauma, is essential to fostering more effective and empathetic service delivery.
• Community engagement and education: Strengthening collaboration with Roma communities as increasing public legal education can empower Roma families and enhance their understanding and engagement with children’s services.

Limitations

While constrained by a small sample size and limited duration, the research initiates a vital debate on the systemic barriers Roma families face when in contact with children’s services. Despite these limitations, our findings are crucial for setting the stage for further research and sustained dialogue.

Conclusion

Our study underlines the pressing need for a more inclusive and culturally sensitive approach to the delivery of child protection services to Roma families in England. By addressing the unique challenges faced by this community and enhancing the cultural competence of children’s services, we can improve outcomes for Roma children and families. This document not only highlights systemic issues but also serves as a call to action for policymakers, practitioners, and community leaders to work collaboratively towards a fairer and more effective child protection system, emphasising the urgency of the situation and the need for immediate action.

We would like to thank the Tudor Trust, the internal research funding programmes at Lancaster University (Faculty of Arts and Science) and Anglia Ruskin University (Safe and Inclusive Communities), for funding this research.

Please forward any queries to Dragica Felja at dada.felja@lawforlife.org.uk