Ground breaking new research by Carers Trust shows the shocking impact of caring unpaid for a family member or friend on young adults in their education and when looking for work.
The first large-scale survey of carers aged 14-25 shines a light on the lives of some of the 375,000 young adults in the UK, young people who pick up the pieces when their families with care needs are left without adequate support.
Key findings are that young adult carers:
- Miss or cut short multiple days of school, college, university or work each year because of their caring role.
- Have higher rates of poor mental and physical health than the average young person.
- Rarely receive the assessments they are entitled to, with only 22% of those surveyed receiving a formal assessment of their needs by the local authority.
Carers Trust is recommending that:
The Government should provide sufficient funding and monitoring of the implementation of the Care Act 2014 and Children and Families Act 2014.
- Young adult carers and their families should receive appropriate assessments and the care needs of the whole family should be met.
- Young adult carers should not be unduly relied on to provide care.
- The Government should include young adult carers in additional financial support programmes, such as Pupil Premium, the 16–19 Bursary Fund and the criteria for university access agreements so that young adult carers are identified and given the support to do well in their education.
- The NHS and local government should support a national network of young adult carer services to improve young adult carers’ wellbeing, ensuring their rights to assessment and support are respected. This is also necessary so that their views are represented within local and national decision making.
- Careers guidance, training and employability programmes should recognise young adult carers as a vulnerable group and provide sufficient information for them to plan for training and/or employment
More info from the CarersTrust
Report: Time to be heard
BBC news report: Carers ‘more likely’ to drop out of college or university
