Young Carers Action Day – 15th March 2023

Taking Action on Isolation

Young Carers Action Day 2023 (formerly known as Young Carers Awareness Day) is taking place on 15th March 2023 and the theme is Make Time for Young Carers.  They have lots of free resources to help you get involved; you can use the resources as they are or add your own logo to them.

Carers Trust is a major charity for, with and about carers. They work to improve support, services and recognition for anyone living with the challenges of caring, unpaid, for a family member or friend who is ill, frail, disabled or has mental health or addiction problems. Their vision is that unpaid carers count and can access the help they need to live their lives.

What's Young Carers Action Day about?

Young Carers Action Day is an annual event, organised each year by Carers Trust.

It’s a day for raising public awareness of young carers and young adult carers, the pressures and challenges they face, and the incredible contribution they make by caring for their family members and friends.

It is also a day to call for more action to support young and young adult carers and give them the extra bit of help they need to live full and healthy lives.

The day attracts widespread participation and public attention. Each year Carers Trust secures widespread coverage of the day in both national and regional TV, radio and print media.

Young Carers Action Day also attracts huge social media engagement with young and young adult carers all over the UK, sharing images, messages and other content like video, blogs and art. In the last few years #YoungCarersActionDay has trended on Twitter!

Being a young carer can have a big impact on education and future opportunities:

• It can affect a young person’s health, social life and self-confidence.
• Many young carers struggle to juggle their education and caring which can cause pressure and stress.
• 27% of young carers (aged 11–15) miss school or experience educational difficulties (40% where children care for a relative with drug or alcohol problems) (Dearden, C, Becker, S, 2004).
• A quarter of young carers said they were bullied at school because of their caring role (Sempik, J & Becker, S, 2013).
• They are more likely than the national average not to be in education, employment or training (NEET) between 16 and 19 (The Children’s Society, 2013).
• They have significantly lower educational attainment – the equivalent of nine grades lower at GCSE level (The Children’s Society, 2013).

Early identification and support at school is crucial in helping young carers these challenges. Simple measures, such as flexible homework deadlines, exceptions to mobile phone policies, a Carer Passport Scheme, or career advice which takes the skills developed through caring into consideration, can have a hugely positive impact. Formal assessment by a Local Authority, facilitated through a local young carers service, can safeguard young carers from taking on unreasonable care responsibilities and identification at school can be a step towards this.

First steps to support young carers in your school

If you would like to start identifying and supporting young carers in your school, you can get in contact with your local carers service to find out what support they can offer you and the young carers at your school: click here.

LGfL Resources

We have our Mental Health and Wellbeing portal; the resource (see screenshot below) is intended to support schools to develop a positive culture and talk about “mental wealth”. The videos explore the range of unique training opportunities offered to the LGfL community to support schools wherever they are currently on their journey regarding mental health and wellbeing for both staff and pupils. If you are a member of staff working in a school please take a look at the resource and consider how you can support young carers to tackle any isolation they feel.