Roma community workers in Bradford say there has been a rise in the number of Roma children subject to care proceedings, but they may not be visible in official data, because parents fear discrimination if they identify themselves as Roma or Gypsy.
Care cases we observed during a family court reporting pilot at Leeds Family Court showed some Roma families were in acute financial difficulty, and their children were living in homes without adequate food or heating.
Most Roma families in Bradford are originally from Eastern Europe, and settled after 2004 when citizens of new EU states were allowed to move to the UK.