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This chapter reviews the interaction between local authority services and Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) community with a primary focus on Elective Home Education (EHE). A small-scale case study is presented, based around semi-structured interviews with members of the GRT community and educational professionals in order to identify factors influencing the uptake of EHE within the GRT community. Analysis of the primary qualitative and secondary quantitative data suggests that Learning Mentors have had some impact upon the uptake of education and there appears to have been fewer referrals to the Children Missing Education (CME) team. However, the GRT community seems entrenched in its view of not accepting formal school education as appropriate for its teenage members, particularly young women. The GRT community is considered a patriarchal society, with women having culturally defined roles from an early age. The cultural value placed upon education often limits access to educational opportunities for most secondary aged GRT young people and this historical attitude is likely to continue through future generations.

This study indicates the need for further research in several areas; alternative educational provision for GRT young people, the need for a more flexible approach to education by schools, the inclusion of GRT parents in their children's education and the involvement of more agencies to offer support to the GRT community.

Late in 2010 the Social Emotional and Behavioural Association (SEBDA), based in the United Kingdom, held an international conference at Keble College, Oxford. The theme was ‘Transforming Troubled Lives’ and 160 delegates arrived from countries around the globe. Around 50 per cent of those attending presented papers. Some of the presentations were short, others longer, some very practically based and others more theoretically focused. A range of papers has already been published in SEBDA's international journal Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties (volume 16, issue 3). The chapters in this volume draw upon other presentations given at the conference, which we, as editors, felt were representative of the good practice, provision and policy to be found amongst professionals working both to transform the sometimes troubled lives of children and young people and to ensure that these students are included in educational settings.