The APPG for Young Carers and Young Adult Carers , supported by Carers Trust, have shared their first ever Parliamentary inquiry report focused on the life opportunities of young carers and young adult carers.
The inquiry uncovered alarming evidence showing around 15,000 children, including 3,000 aged just five to nine, spend 50 hours or more a week looking after family members because of illness, disability or addiction.
Evidence to the inquiry has highlighted how there are likely to be one million young carers in the UK and the time they spend caring can lead to them falling behind at school and damage their life opportunities.
This inquiry heard how some young carers are being left to cope alone for 10 years before being identified, while evidence to the inquiry showed the average waiting time for young carers to get identified for support is three years.
Key Findings
- Identification of young carers and young adult carers needs to improve on a national scale. Evidence submitted by Carers Trust found that it took an average of 3 years for young carers to be linked to any support, with some caring for more than 10 years before being identified.
- BBC and the University of Nottingham suggest that 10% of all pupils will provide high or very high levels of care – equating to at least 2 young carers in every class.
- The COVIDA Social Mobility and Opportunities study reported that 13% of all pupils surveyed had caring responsibilities.
- Access to support: There is a significant regional variation in the provision of support for young carers and young adult carers. Evidence highlighted that access to support is a ‘postcode lottery’ for young carers and young adult carers.
- Evidence raised concerns about the lack of measures to ensure legal duties relating to young and young adult carers are being met. Some young carer services are so stretched that they are reluctant to raise further awareness of young carers.
- Education: Young carers and young adult carers experience distinct challenges in their attendance, attainment and experiences within education settings. Research by MYTIME found that young carers in their local pilot programme miss an average of 27 school days per academic year.
- Further and higher education: Research submitted by Rebecca Lacey found that young adult carers are substantially (38%) less likely to achieve a university degree than their peers without a caring role. Furthermore, the likelihood of obtaining a university degree decreases with the number of hours spent caring per week. Those caring for four hours per week are 47% less likely to have a university degree qualification, while those caring for 35h or more a week are 86% less likely to have a degree qualification. Furthermore, the L&W Institute found those with caring responsibilities are 5 times more likely to drop out of college than their peers without a caring role.
- Employment: Young carers and young adult carers are less likely to be employed than their peers without a caring role. This is particularly true for those who provide more hours of care per week. Our (Youth Employment UK) Youth Voice Census found that 32.9% of young people with caring responsibilities surveyed were currently not in education, employment or training (NEET) compared to 5.3% of those who were not carers. Furthermore, it also found that 40% of registered carers and 31.3% of unregistered carers had spent over 18 months being NEET.
- Health and wellbeing: Young people with caring responsibilities have a higher prevalence of self-harm (25%) than non-carers (17%). Furthermore, of those who self-harm, young carers were more than twice as likely to do so in an attempt to take their own life compared to their peers without a caring role (17% compared to 7%). An NHS study found that young carers and young adult carers have a higher prevalence of anxiety and depression (13%) than non-carers (8%).
- Participation in social and leisure activities: The Survey of Adult Carers in England found that 19% of young adult carers said they have little social contact with people and feel isolated. In a survey by Carers Trust, 40% of young carers and young adult carers said that caring ‘always’ or ‘usually’ affects how much time they can spend with their friends.
- Finances: In a Carers Trust survey, 32% of young carers and young adult carers said they either ‘always’ or ‘usually’ face additional costs because they are a carer. 57% said that they are either ‘always’ or ‘usually’ worrying about the cost of living and things becoming more expensive.
Recommendations
- National Careers Strategy: A cross-government National Careers Strategy with a dedicated section and resourced action plan relating to young carers and young adult carers. This should focus on: training and dedicated staff within education, workplace and health settings, such as mental health. These professionals should have a strategic responsibility and oversight for identifying and implementing appropriate support for young carers and student carers; access to a dedicated range of support for young carers, young adult carers and their families in every local authority; and improving access to financial support for all young carers.
- The Government should commission an independent ten-year review of the difference the Children and Families Act 2014 and Care Act 2014 have made for unpaid carers, including young and young adult carers. The Department for Education and Department of Health and Social Care should use the findings of this review to inform new practice guidance relating to young carers and the two pieces of legislation.
- The Government should work with young carers and young adult carers to set out its immediate plans to improve early identification, increase access to support for young carers and reduce the numbers providing inappropriate or excessive levels of care.
- The Government should formally support the development and implementation of the first UK-wide Covenant for Young Carers and Young Adult Carers.
