This term refers to a growing community of people from a range of cultural and social backgrounds that have taken up a nomadic way of life over the last 40 years. The reasons that non-traditional Travellers take to the road are usually the result of economic, social or personal pressures.
In order to restrict the travelling patterns of New Travellers, such as large convoys gathering for music festivals, the 1994 Criminal Justice & Public Order Act was brought in and this criminalised unauthorised camping by all Travellers.
There are only small numbers of New Traveller children entering mainstream education as often their parents have chosen an alternative lifestyle and wish to educate their children themselves.