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Dates
January 2024 - June 2026
Research Team
Jenny Woodman, Claire Powell, Lauren Herlitz, Christine Farquharson, Louise McGrath-Lone, Ruth McGovern, Cassey Muir
Background
In England about 20% of young people are caring for a family member because they are unwell, disabled, or unable to cope without their support. Many young carers are not known to services; they may not think of themselves as a carer or not want to tell anyone. When caring affects a young person’s health, wellbeing or education, this meets the statutory definition of a ‘young carer’, and means the young person is entitled to support. Healthcare services and schools have a duty to help to identify young carers. Despite this, studies suggest that professionals do not often ask children or young people whether or how they look after family members with care needs. There are no agreed understanding of how much care is "too much" for a child to manage.
Aims and objectives
Our project aims to:
(1) quantify and characterise (ethnicity, deprivation, age-band) children <18 years with a Young Carers flag in their education, children’s social care and health records.
(2) understand the views of young carers, parents, and multi agency professionals about the level of care carried out by children and young people.
(3) build consensus between stakeholders on assessments of the level of care carried out by children and young people, including examples of "inappropriate" or "excessive care".
Methods
We will be doing quantitative research analysing health, social care, and school records data.
In a qualitative study we will carry out a series of workshops with young carers, parents of young carers, and professionals from health, social care and education services (e.g., GPs, school nurses, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services staff). We will work with a range of lived experience groups to ensure the study and its implications are considered sensitively and focus on issues that they consider to be important.
Policy relevance & dissemination
Ours is the first study to take a system-level view and look at recognition and response (including recording) of Young Carers across health, education, and children’s social care in England. We will regularly check in with our policy colleagues at the Department of Health and Social Care, with our parent panel and children and young people’s panel and publish findings in academic journals and non-academic formats.