Young people caring for disabled parents often without a voice

Councils are not doing enough to identify and support children and young people who help care for their parents, according to a report “Supporting young carers” published by Ofsted today.

The survey explored how effectively young carers were identified by councils and their partners and also evaluated the assessment and delivery of services for young carers and their families.

It revealed that key barriers were inconsistent joint working between councils and their partners, lack of awareness by some professionals and the reluctance of families to engage with service providers, due to fear the family may be broken up.

Seven of the eight council areas visited did not consistently consider children’s views when assessing their parents’ disabilities. Only three of the 37 young carers with disabled parents said their views had been sought or included in a parent’s assessment.

Christine Gilbert, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, said: “Councils and their partners need to work together to identify and support young carers and their families. It is unacceptable that for most young carers no assessment of their own needs was conducted by children’s social care professionals.

“However, councils and their partners acknowledge that much more can be done to identify and support young carers’ needs and the report provides examples of good joint working practices. I hope the report will help professionals to improve the support available for young carers.”

Alex Fox from The Princess Royal Trust from Carers and Jenny Frank from the Children’s Society commented on Ofsted’s report:

“This report shows that a huge amount of work still needs to be done to put the National Carers Strategy for young carers into practice, particularly in schools. So far the government has funded us to work with nine local authorities and we are beginning to see a real improvement in understanding of the educational needs of young carers within these areas. This programme now needs to be rolled out further as a matter of urgency.”

As the report stresses, many young carers services are currently under-resourced with waiting lists of children needing support. Every local authority area in the UK needs a specialist young carers service.”

Many of the young people in the survey viewed young carer support projects as essential to their well-being and valued the time they spent at the projects, especially being able to share their experiences with others in similar positions and with caring adults. A young carer said, “I was quite lonely; I didn’t know how many people were like me”. However, projects reported limited capacity in seven out of the eight council areas visited.

A key recommendation in Ofsted's report is that DCSF should work with councils to find an effective way to obtain realistic estimates of the number of young carers nationally and in each council. Councils and their partners should also consider ways to ensure children’s services, adult services and partners work together to deliver holistic assessments and services that meet the needs of the whole family.

Read the full report on Ofsted's website: Supporting Young Carers - Ofsted report

If you work with young carers, you can find information and resources on our website for professionals

Young carers can find information and support on YCNet, our website for young carers

Published: 10 June 2009