However, the network of TESSs that had been developed and their ability to lobby and promote Traveller education, together with the influence and support of Her Majesty’s (HM) Inspectors of Schools and sympathetic civil servants, created a growing body of pressure on Conservative and then Labour governments to be more proactive in the sphere of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller education. Such overtures were in tune with strands of policy that characterised the Labour administration post 1997, specifically ‘education, education, education’ (Blair, 1996) and ‘joined-up government’ (Bentley and Gurumurthy, 1999), both of which had a significant impact on education provision for Gypsies, Roma and Travellers(P)