As Abbey, aged three, and Tilley, two, busily fill in their colouring books, Liz Smith describes how life for her young family has changed over the past two years. "Before the learning bus started visiting the site, my six-year-old daughter Lacey never left my side," she says. "Now she is enjoying school and is much more independent. My two youngest also love being read to on the bus. Their lives are certainly richer."
The Smiths are one of 16 families living on the Corbriggs Traveller site in Winsick, Derbyshire, who have benefited from a project aimed at providing better education and health for parents and pre-school children in the Traveller community.
The project grew out of the Traveller and Gypsy Network Forum, which comprises Derbyshire Gypsy Liaison Group, the county council's Traveller needs working group, plus funding agencies such as the local Sure Start scheme and local primary care trusts. It followed research at Sheffield University about inequalities facing Travellers in education and health.
One of the first initiatives was weekly visits to the site by the Big Blue Bus, with families offered health checks and invited to register with the local GP. "Compared with other ethnic minority groups, Travellers' health needs are more severe," says Jill Langley, project manager with North-East Derbyshire Sure Start. "And conveying to some of the parents the benefits, for example, of healthy eating, blood pressure checks and immunisation against MMR wasn't always easy."
As part of the project's healthy living network, the site also features a new outdoor play area, and Sure Start employs sports development staff who organise football coaching sessions.
The top deck of the Big Blue Bus is a creche where children are read stories, sing songs and enjoy play activities that prepare them for the local nursery. The other bus, which visits Corbriggs twice weekly, allows parents and children to learn and play together. The success of this learning bus can be gauged by the progression of children from the nursery to the local primary school.
Joanne Robinson, family support coordinator with the council's early years and childcare service, overcame initial resistance from Corbriggs's residents about identifying and tackling inequality issues by listening to what they had to say.
"Given the reputation of Travellers, particularly in some of the tabloids, we weren't sure what the council's motives were," says Traveller resident and Gypsy Network Forum member, Jim Burnside. "At first we wondered why would anyone want to help us. But when I suggested a new play area for the children, their response couldn't have been more encouraging. From then on, we were involved in all the decision-making, including having the buses visit the site. Our input was total, as we'd been promised."
It is this involvement that participants believe has made the project, now running for two years, so successful that it has won the integrating care and early learning category of the Sure Start Partners in Excellence award.
Burnside has three grandchildren in school and one in nursery. "It's essential that they learn to read and write," he says. His wife, Dorothy, adds: "They are getting an education that we never had."
