Step 9

Supporting Young Carers in Schools

Step 9

Identifying, Assessing and Supporting Young Carers and their Families

Resource title: Supporting young Carers in School
Published: 2022 Author: Carers Trust

Each time the school identifies a pupil as a young carer, the Young Carers School Operational Lead should ensure a number of key actions are taken to:
  • Assess the needs of this pupil and of their family.
  • Secure consent for information to be shared.
  • Establish the involvement of staff and other professionals to plan and implement support.
  • Develop and agree pupil plans/provision maps.
  • Deliver support.
  • Monitor and review impact on the young carer and their family.
It is vital that these actions are carried out for the pupil’s needs to be assessed and met effectively by the school.

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.

Don’t forget

Some young carers say they do not want information that they are a carer to be shared with their teachers and/or other school staff. To help ensure that young carers feel comfortable with this information being shared it will be important for the Young Carers School Operational Lead to implement each of the steps set out in this Step- by-step Guide. Doing so will help ensure schools create a whole school ethos where young carers feel safe and respected by staff, pupils and the wider school community.

To move beyond the basics, to meet the needs of the young carer more effectively, the Young Carers School Operational Lead should also:
  • Refer the young carer to external agencies, working inside and outside school. For example, the school nurse and the local young carers service.

Don’t forget

A pupil’s and family’s situation may change rapidly and ongoing formal and informal monitoring is therefore important.
To achieve best practice for young carers, the Young Carers School Operational Lead should also:
  • 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:
  • 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:
      1. – 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.
      1. – Views of staff/other agencies delivering the targeted interventions should be taken into account.
      1. – 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.

Don’t forget

If staff delivering support are concerned that the pupil’s situation has changed and/or they require additional support, they should seek opportunities to remind the pupil they can speak with a staff member, for example approaching the pupil at the end of a lesson. In doing so, staff should respect the privacy of the pupil and ensure they do not approach or discuss the pupil’s caring role in front of their peers. Any concerns should be raised with the Young Carers School Operational Lead.