An examination of the perceptions of different professionals regarding the barriers for children from the travelling community and the impact on children’s development

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LITERATURE REVIEW

1.0  Introduction

Perception involves the treatment accorded to a particular individual or group of individuals that is often defined by the different instances of bias. The ability of professionals to work effectively is also affected by the perception they hold, and as a result, this situation influences the way they act towards the communities they are involved with (Department of Education, 2017). These circumstances have resulted in just 2.7 per cent of children from the travelling community gaining access into the early years settings. Bhopal (2011, p.471) acknowledges that the average low attendance levels in accessing the early years services are brought about by different barriers that include, physical, psychological, financial, cultural and language and so on. It may also be that the travelling communities do not know about the availability of the services provided; nonetheless, the Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller families face more than one barrier when trying to gain access to early years services.

2.0  Barriers to travellers communities accessing early years settings

Professionals such as the children's centres support staff, the early help team, health visitors, liaison officers, and group members and so on provide different perspectives on factors that affect the access of traveller families to early years services. This argument is supported by a study conducted by Department of Education (2017) that concludes that many different factors influence the lack of traveller families’ engagement in early years settings. The barriers faced by traveller communities cannot be judged exclusively based on the characteristics of the children or services but rather on the quality and provision of the early years services. The traveller communities encounter the primary type of barriers that affect their access and involvement in early years settings (Hynes, 2011, p.128).

a.      Physical barriers

Based on arguments provided by professionals involved with travellers’ families the main reason behind the limited access to early years services can be attributed to the lack of knowledge of the availability of local services (Fensham-Smith, 2014). Majority of the individuals from the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller families have little understanding of how they could benefit from being involved in early years settings. For instance, Zuurmond (2008, p.153) conducted a review on a pilot project that was tasked with providing traveller families with the right information on the early years services. The study concluded that the majority of the traveller families (over 50 per cent) had little if any information regarding the availability of the early years settings. Besides, the physical access of these services often proves to be challenging, considering, children from traveller families depend on public transport to travel to a service. 

In the United Kingdom, Whalley, Arnold, and Orr (2013, p.100) conducted a study of early years services and recognised that physical inaccessibility affects...