New Communities, learning disability among new communities in Coventry

7/30/2019 New Communities, learning disability among new communities in Coventry

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New

CommunitiesLearning disability among new communities in CoventryClare Wightman


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New

CommunitiesLearning disability among newcommunities in Coventry.

Clare Wightman | 2012


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Clare Wightman

Clare Wightman is Director o Grapevine. She is interestedin how we can enable people with learning disabilities to

be more ully included in their communities. Grapevine is a

partner in a national project with the Foundation or People

with Learning Disabilities, which is examining ways o

achieving inclusion or people with high support needs. She

is the author oCommunity in Personalisation and Learning

Disabilities (Tyson 2011). Clare believes that building

community with and or people is crucial to successul

advocacy.


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Contents

Background inormation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

What are the new communities in Coventry? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Countries of origin 8

Size 8

Number of young people from new communities 10

What is known of the incidence of learning disability

among young people from Coventrys new communities? 10

What do we know of the issues they face? 12


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learning disability among new communities in coventry

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Background inormation

Grapevine (Coventry and Warwickshire) is an organisationthat supports people with learning disabilities and their

carers, in the Coventry area. Its purpose is to reduce the

isolation and segregation experienced by people with

learning disabilities and their amilies, so they can lead saer

lives with greater prospects. Grapevine has a broad work

programme that includes dierent types o advocacy and

other orms o support, including support to young people

with learning disabilities rom ethnic minority communities.

For several years, Grapevine has been helping young people and their

amilies to plan or the transition rom school to adult lie. This planning

and advocacy work was extended to include support to use personal

budgets, with the help o unding rom the Equality and Human Rights

Commission during 2009-2011.

This report is written at the request o the EHRC to begin to assess the

extent o need or advocacy among young learning disabled people rom

new communities in Coventry.


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What are the new communities

in Coventry?

Countries of origin

Coventry Partnerships Community Cohesion Strategy 2010-2015 says

newer communities that have settled in Coventry in the last ten years

include Somalian, Kurdish, Aghani and Iraqi groups. There are currently

approximately 100 languages spoken in Coventry with Bengali, Polish,French, Kurdish and Panjabi being the top ve languages receiving

interpreting services.

In the experience o Coventrys Reugee Centre new community members

come rom East Arican countries such as Somalia, Zimbabwe, Congo and

Rwanda, the Middle East: Iran, Iraq (Kurds) and Aghanistan, Eastern

Europe: Lithuanian, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Romania and ormer USSR

countries. O EU migrants Poland is the main source. A key dierence noted

by the centres Director is that Polish migrants are likely to return home

but or migrants rom other areas their condence in the value o returning

home is much lower.

Coventry Friend provided a drop in service or reugees whose records

show use by people rom 33 dierent countries o origin. The largest single

groups are rom Poland and Somalia with the next largest groups Eastern

Europe and rom Middle East.

Size

The Community Cohesion Strategy 2010-2015 turns to 2001 census data

to estimate the proportion o Coventrys population that could be said

to be rom a new or newer community. The strategy uses the number

o Coventry residents listed as born outside the UK in 2001 census data.

According to that source, 13% o Coventry residents were born outside the

UK with 3.9% or 11,627 people born elsewhere in the European Union,

most rom the Republic o Ireland, although since 2001 migration will haveincreased the number o people born in other parts o the EU such as

Poland.


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ONS data in 2010 however shows just under a th o the residents in

Coventry were born outside the UK. This is a relatively high proportion

when compared with the national rate (11.8%) or the rate in the West

Midlands region (10.2%).

Estimates o the proportion o non-British nationals in Coventry show

growth rom 10% in 2004 to 15% in 2008 and a slight decline to 13.1% in

2010. Once again the proportion in Coventry is almost double the national

rate. This group may also include settled immigrants.

Another proxy used to estimate immigrant population is the fag 4 GP

registration indicator. This captures economically inactive immigrants and

dependants and relatively recent arrivals. According to these gures 2.5%

o residents who registered with a GP in Coventry in 2010 had previouslyresided outside the UK or a period longer than three months. This is more

than double the national rate and three times the regional rate. These

gures also show a steady increase since 2004.

The most recent schools census shows that proportion o children whose

rst language is other than English in Coventry is 27.7% in state unded

primary schools and 23.1% in state unded secondary schools. The schools

census also provides the ethnic composition o the pupil population.

According to this, 40% o Coventry pupils in state unded primary schools

and 35% o pupils in state unded secondary schools are recorded as not

White-British.


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Taken together, this inormation demonstrates that Coventry is likely to

have a signicant number o young migrants and or reugees.

People do not necessarily have to be recently arrived to be classed as a

member o a new community. Aghans constitute a new community inCoventry but some Aghans have been here or 10 years or more.

Number of young people from new communities

It has not been possible to uncover the number o young people rom new

communities, broadly dened in Coventry. In terms o reugee groups

among new communities the usual pattern is or men to arrive rst andamilies to ollow, i at all.

The City Councils Minority Groups Support Service collects data to show

the numbers and ethnic groupings o recently arrived pupils. The data or

2011/12 shows that the largest ethnic groupings were white other (32%),

Black Arican (21%) and White Gypsy Roma (16%). Just over hal o these

were EU citizens and only 12% were reugees and asylum seekers.

There are 10 school aged asylum seekers in Coventry today. MGSS report

a drop in the number o unaccompanied teenagers. The rising trend rom2001 o pupils who are reugees and asylum seekers appeared to have

plateau-ed since 2008/9

What is known of the incidence of learning

disability among young people from Coventrys

new communities?

Data held by city councils Minority Groups Support Service in relation to

new communities does not include inormation related to special needs/

learning disabilities unless parents/guardians have alerted an MGSS

Settlement Ocer during the course o the pre-school admission meeting.

Where that does occur inormation is passed to the Special Educational

Needs Team. Many special needs disabilities, particularly those not readily

recognised in the country o origin, will not be identied by a UK school

until the child has been in attendance or a reasonable period o time.

The data held by the Special Educational Needs team is the best indicator


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o incidence. Schools data is collected according to ethnicity and or

language spoken not country o origin, nor recency o arrival.

Inormation provided by the data team at the Children Learning and Young

Peoples Partnership (CLYP) based on the DE school census o 2010 shows

highest incidence among three ethnicities: Pakistani, Somali and Polish.

329 children rom a Pakistani background were statemented or at School

Action Plus stage. 103 o these have a moderate learning disability and a

urther 20 have a severe learning disability. Their ethnicity though does

not necessarily indicate that they are members o a new community. The

next largest ethnic grouping is Polish. O 53 pupils in this category 17 have

a moderate learning disability and 11 a severe learning disability. O 45

Somali pupils 16 had a moderate learning disability and 9 had a severe

learning disability. MGSS reports that the numbers o Somali pupils hasallen in 2011-12 however.

Most pupil numbers in remaining groups with a learning disability were

less than10 with two exceptions. O 25 Arabic and 30 Tamil pupils 11 each

were moderately learning disabled and 2 each had a severe learning

disability.


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Inormation provided by the data team at the Children Learning and Young

Peoples Partnership (CLYP) based on the DE school census o 2012 shows

a dierent picture. The highest incidence o moderate learning disability

is Black Arican (119) closely ollowed by Pakistani (118), other white (56

23 o whom speak Polish) and then Gypsy Roma (19). Among those with

a severe learning disability the largest groups are Pakistani (26) and Black

Arican (18) and or proound and multiple the same groups dominate

Black Arican (16) and Pakistani (13)

What do we know of the issues they face?

The new communities our project have worked with are: Creole, Somali and

Romani. We ound amilies acing the same barriers to service take up as

established BME groups plus specic attitude barriers around their culture,

country o origin, as well as the impact o signicant poverty and inequality.

In particular, the Roma, mainly clustered in the Hillelds and Foleshill

areas o the city, are experiencing signicant inequality. There is concern

that many o these amilies are living in extreme poverty, in substandard

and overcrowded housing and not accessing health care. All benets or

a signicant number o the Czech Slovak Roma community within theCity were stopped causing emergency destitution. Also, at the same time,

there was an increase in the number o reported hate crimes against the

communities as a whole and an undercurrent o community tension.

MGSS Data of Gypsy Roma Students in Coventry Schools

Date Gypsy/Roma students

2006 192007 72

2008 103

2009 178

2010 208

2011 220

The table above shows the year on year increase in the number o pupils

that ascribe as Gypsy Roma in Coventry schools. It is not known how manyo these young people have a learning disability.


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In 2008, Coventry Law Centre commissioned the Centre or Rights, Equality

and Diversity at the University o Warwick to undertake some research

entitled Barriers to seeking advice: New Communities in Coventry and

their experiences o rontline advice services. This research showed

that many people in new communities do not access mainstream advice

services.

Grapevines All means all project also ound that mainstream support,

advice and advocacy services were not reaching those rom new

communities.

As we became a known and trusted ace and engagement deepened, we

oten had to work with the whole amily and its issues not simply the young

person with a learning disability. We have provided extensive support to

advocate at meetings, given guidance on rights and entitlements as well

as specic language support or a range o needs which have included

registering a new born child, accessing housing advice and services, support

to make and keep hospital appointments and help to engage with school,

and communicate with support agencies. Families seemed to preer to have

a single worker with multiple skills or roles to multiple workers with single

roles.

What would help amilies and young people with a learning disability get

the help they need?

Coventrys settlement ocers employed through

MGSS can be a source o timely reerral with the

person or amilys written consent. They can also

provide some support and acilitation to connect

with a amily.

MGSS has a ull-time Roma speaking teacher,

a ull-time Roma outreach worker as well as

two part-time Roma outreach workers and amultilingual education assistant.

Many amilies, especially those with the most

complex issues like those rom new communities,

need help with additional things like benets,

translation, understanding documents, housing

support, advice on education and reerrals to city

council departments.

Families tend to preer to get this help romone source (a trusted worker) rather than

rom several. In the absence o other trusted


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or appropriate services it may be down to a single worker to help with

whatever problems are presented. It is not enough to simply signpost. We

have had to be able to address these other areas o unmet need.

Our experience suggests two things would help:

the time and fexibility to get to the root o complex problems and the

opportunity to develop trusted relationships

more networked delivery in other words agencies connecting services

into a single oering which is seamless to the recipient and plays to each

agencies strengths


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Grapevine, 123 Upper Spon Street

Spon End, Coventry, CV1 3BQ

Tel: 024 7663 1040

Email: admin@grapevinecoventry

andwarwickshirecouk

Web: wwwgrapevinecovandwarksorg

Twitter: @grapevinecov

Facebook: Grapevine Cov and Warks

New Communities, learning disability among new communities in Coventry

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