This Is The Title Slide SPOTLIGHT ON YOUNG CARERS A TUTOR TIME PRESENTATION This Is The Title Slide

WHO ARE YOUNG CARERS? “children and young people under 18 who provide regular or ongoing care and/or emotional support to a family member who is physically or mentally ill, disabled or misuses substances” A young carer is someone under 18 who looks after someone at home who is ill, disabled, has a mental health condition or addiction problem. Young carers are just young people with caring responsibilities. They look the same as everyone else but can lead very different lives! It is likely that there will be many young carers at every school. Research shows up to 1 in 12 secondary age children could be young carers

WHAT DO THEY DO? Young carers often take on practical and/or emotional caring responsibilities that would usually be expected of an adult. This is different for every young carer but can include: Practical tasks Emotional Support Physical Care Looking after siblings Personal Care Medication Management

A DAY IN THE LIFE This video (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W5wTTfK3DEo) was produced by Vinspire with The Children’s Society and shows a day in the life of a young carer compared with a student without caring responsibilities.

HOW THIS CAN AFFECT SCHOOL LIFE Tiredness/concentration Attendance/punctuality Completing homework on time Being bullied You may want to start this slide by showing this short video about the potential impacts of caring roles on young carers made by Young Carers at Kids in Peterborough: https://www.makewav.es/story/672435/title/whataretheimpactsonyouasayoungcarer Below are issues anyone at school can experience, but young carers can face extra challenges. Tiredness/concentration - Young carers responsibilities at home mean that they can often be tired in school, or distracted by worrying about a family member. Attendance and punctuality can be a problem for some young carers, there could be good reasons why they are unable to get school or arrive late, but the teachers might not understand. Homework – With many young people homework is the only ‘job’ that they have to do when they get home. With young carers, their responsibilities can put pressure on the time they have to complete homework. Bullying – Over a quarter of young carers get bullied at school – this could be for many reasons – some get bullied as they have a disabled sibling, or are unable to do social things with friends in the evenings. Key points to discuss after showing the video: Caring can affect a young person’s: • Physical health: Young carers are often severely affected by caring through the night, repeatedly lifting a heavy adult, poor diet and lack of sleep. • Emotional wellbeing: Stress, tiredness and mental ill-health are common for young carers. • Socialisation: Young carers often feel different or isolated from their peers and have limited opportunities for socialising. A quarter of young carers in the UK said they were bullied at school because of their caring role (Carers Trust, 2013). • Stable environment: Young carers can experience traumatic life changes such as bereavement, family break-up, losing income and housing, or seeing the effects of an illness or addiction on the person they care for. Aspirations and life chances : Young carers have to juggle their caring role with other responsibilities, such as school work. Young carers can also develop important life skills such as Financial skills Cooking Managing house Ability to multi-task Effective communication skills Time management Mature outlook Compassion, consideration, determination, empathy, understanding and tolerance of disability and illness can also all be acquired through a caring role.

SUPPORT FOR YOUNG CARERS SUPPORT IN SCHOOL: All schools should have a Young Carers Lead - a member of staff who knows who the YC are in the school and can help support them when needed. The young carers lead at this school is GLOUCESTERSHIRE YOUNG CARERS: offers a range of services including support groups, activities and advice to the young carers in the county. www.glosyoungcarers.org.uk Slide 6 - Top 10 Tips for supporting young carers in schools. YOUNG CARERS SAY: 1. Recognise that our responsibilities as carers can affect our education and schoolwork. 2. Ensure teachers are offered training on young carers’ issues. 3. Find out about us, our home situation,  and what we need —but please share information sensitively. 4. Don’t automatically punish us if we are late— there may be a good reason related to our caring role. 5. Bullying can be a big issue for us -having peer mentors can help. 6. Be flexible – give us more time and help to do homework or coursework. 7. Include information about young carers in PHSE lessons or hold an awareness–raising assembly. 8. Let us phone parents if we need to find out if they are OK. 9. Make sure there is a notice board where we can locate advice and support. 10. Ensure school has a named Young Carers Lead who we can talk to and who will keep in touch with Gloucestershire Young Carers.

SUPPORT FOR YOUNG CARERS Babble & MATTER Websites designed specifically for young carers https://babble.carers.org/ https://matter.carers.org/  Slides 7 contains key information about free online support for young carers. Babble and Matter   Babble and Matter are Carers Trust’s UK wide help and support services, provided directly to young and young adult carers every day of the year. Staffed by a team of qualified social, youth and community workers, they support young and young adult carers with fast, age-appropriate and confidential support through email helplines that are monitored daily and answered within 24 hours. They also offer the opportunity for young and young adult carers to discuss, comment, chat with and support one another through supervised and moderated message boards; and with live chatrooms to interact with staff, with other carers and with a variety of guest experts on subjects that matter to them. Babble Babble is for carers aged 18 and under. It focuses on fun, community and the chance to escape and be young for a while in the company of people who understand. www.babble.carers.org Email: youngcarers@carers.org Matter For carers aged 16–25 Enables young adults to post photos, update statuses, ask for help and share their thoughts and comments from wherever they are. www.youngercarersmatter.org Email: matter@carers.org N.B. You can also send off for posters promoting Babble and Matter for your school noticeboard by emailing info@carers.org.

BE YOUNG CARER AWARE We asked young carers what you could do to understand and support them: If you know someone who has a disabled or ill family member Understand how stressful that can be – and try and be a good friend to them ‘Be supportive and flexible. If you don't see them much outside school be understanding of this and don't presume they're uninterested’ ‘Don’t jump to conclusions about people – there is always more than meets the eye’