Gypsy and Traveller Policy and Systems Change
Unequal outcomes are often recorded as community problems rather than evidence that systems are failing.
Proud Gypsy Traveller CIC brings ethnic Gypsy and Traveller evidence directly into policy, commissioning and public decision-making.
We identify what is happening, explain why it is happening and challenge the organisations with the power to change it.
Policy is never only words
Policy determines who can access a lawful home, whose ethnicity is recorded, whether children feel safe in school and whether services understand the people they are meant to support.
Technical language can hide those human consequences.
PGT connects policy decisions with lived reality. We ensure that decision-makers understand not only what a policy says, but what it does to people.
From individual experience to structural evidence
When the same problem appears across different families, services or areas, it is no longer reasonable to describe it as an isolated incident.
Our advocacy, welfare reporting and community research allow us to identify repeating patterns.
We use that evidence to show where:
- Policies create unequal consequences
- Services are inaccessible or culturally unsafe
- Accommodation need is being ignored
- Discrimination is being treated as misunderstanding
- Consultation is happening too late
- Community knowledge is excluded from decisions
- Institutions are measuring activity instead of change
We do not remove the emotion from people’s experiences to make them sound more professional. We combine those experiences with clear evidence and practical analysis.
What we can deliver
PGT can provide:
- Policy briefings and evidence papers
- Consultation responses
- Community evidence submissions
- Policy and practice reviews
- Equality-focused analysis
- Recommendations and action plans
- Facilitated discussions with communities
- Presentations to decision-makers
- Campaign strategy and public communications
- Support to make consultations more accessible
We can work independently or alongside community organisations, researchers, public bodies and specialist professionals.
Policy work in practice
In 2026, PGT submitted evidence to the government’s consultation on reform of the National Planning Policy Framework.
Our response drew on welfare reporting with families across England. It showed how the shortage of authorised sites contributes to overcrowding, roadside living, enforcement and repeated displacement.
It also demonstrated that planning insecurity affects education, health, disability, safeguarding and family support.
The evidence made a simple point: the planning system cannot keep managing the consequences of site shortages through enforcement while refusing to address the shortage itself.
That is how PGT approaches policy—starting with people’s experiences, identifying the structural pattern and directing responsibility towards those with the power to act.
Areas of work
Our policy interests include:
- Planning and culturally appropriate accommodation
- Health inequalities and mental health
- Education and children’s rights
- Racism and institutional discrimination
- Community safety and policing
- Ethnic monitoring and data
- Heritage, identity and cultural protection
- Public-service access and commissioning
Our priorities are shaped by what communities tell us, not simply by what is currently attracting funding.
Bring us in before decisions are made
A consultation cannot repair a policy that has already been written behind closed doors.
If an organisation genuinely wants Gypsy and Traveller involvement, community voices must be present while priorities, budgets and proposals can still change.
PGT will not provide community endorsement for a predetermined decision.
We will work with organisations that are prepared to listen, share influence and respond honestly when the evidence is uncomfortable.
Commission policy work
We work with local and national government, health services, universities, funders, charities and other organisations.
Tell us:
- What policy or decision is being considered
- Who will be affected
- What stage the work has reached
- How community evidence will influence the outcome
- What budget and timescale are available
If you want policy that works in practice, involve the people who will live with its consequences.
If your work involves people, it almost certainly involves Gypsy and Traveller people—even if your data does not show it. That means you should be working with us.