Step 9

The Young Carers School Operational Lead should:

• Ensure assessments are carried out promptly once a pupil has been identified as a young carer and with a view to identifying the types of support, interventions and/or flexibilities required to meet their needs. This should include taking into account pupil attainment, progress and attendance data and speaking with the young carer and/or their family about the types of support available. Assessments could be carried out by a relevant staff member within the school or by other agencies if deemed more appropriate. For a reminder about the types of support young carers may need see Step 6, Tool 1: Checklist of support young carers may need.
• Secure appropriate consent from the family for information to be shared with other staff and/or agencies delivering relevant support. Schools may wish to use existing information sharing consent forms for this purpose and/or use Step 9, Tool 1: Exemplar information consent sharing form.
• Ensure the pupil knows how and when they will be able to access and talk to a member of staff about their caring role in a confidential setting.
• Engage relevant school staff to ensure effective delivery of targeted interventions to meet the needs of the pupil.
• Engage relevant staff to implement appropriate flexibilities, for example access to phones at break/lunchtime to reduce any worry young carers may have about a family member.
• Ensure relevant teaching staff know that the pupil is a young carer and how to meet their needs within their role. For a reminder about how teaching staff can support young carers to enjoy and achieve at school see Step 7, Tool 3: How school staff can support young carers.

• Refer the young carer to external agencies, working inside and outside school. For example, the school nurse and the local young carers service.

• Ensure assessments gather a range of evidence about the level of the young carers’ caring responsibilities and the impact of caring on their ability to enjoy and achieve at school – perhaps through use of:
  – Step 9, Tool 2: The multidimensional assessment of caring activities (MACA);
  – Step 9, Tool 3: The positive and negative outcomes of caring (PANOC);
  – Step 9, Tool 4: Wellbeing questionnaire;
  – Step 9, Tool 5: Staff observation checklist.
• Identify whether the pupil is at risk of not being in education, employment or training (NEET) between the ages of 16 and 18.
• Ask the pupil’s family about any barriers they may have in accessing the school and its communications.
• Develop an individual pupil plan and/or provision map to record quantitative/qualitative data from assessments, set out what interventions, support and/or flexibilities will be delivered to the pupil and set a formal review date.
• Establish multi-agency working where appropriate, for example with the school nurse, local young carers service, and social care – using existing local processes such as the Team Around the Child/Family or a Whole Family Approach, and ensuring there is a lead professional in place.
• Implement procedures, where appropriate, to support young carers to participate post-16 and/or transition to adulthood at 18.
• Where appropriate, refer the family for a whole family assessment to help ensure parents/disabled siblings gain the support they need in order to prevent or reduce the pupil’s caring role (where the pupil has been identified by a feeder school/other agency, the Young Carers School Operational Lead may wish to check whether a referral has already been made).
• Ensure the timely review of pupil plans/provision maps. In doing so:
  • – The same assessment tools should be used as in the pupil’s original assessment. This will enable the effectiveness of the provision to be monitored in a robust manner.
  • – Views of staff/other agencies delivering the targeted interventions should be taken into account.
  • – Parental views about the pupil’s wellbeing and barriers to education should be gathered and taken into account.
• The Young Carers School Operational Lead should also ensure that the school reviews the impact of any action taken to reduce/remove barriers the family identified in accessing the school and its communications.