Push for change in law to support young carers

Calls are growing for every school to have a dedicated young carer lead - a member of staff who can identify pupils caring for family members and make sure they get the support they need.

A petition calling for the role to become a legal requirement was started by Mid-Dorset and North Poole MP Vikki Slade, working with MYTIME Young Carers.

The proposal would require the government to introduce legislation making every school in England appoint a Young Carers Champion.

The Department for Education has declined to comment on the petition.

The Oxfordshire-based charity Be Free Young Carers is backing the call.

Its head of fundraising, Hannah Waugh, said: "Young carers face massive challenges. Having a dedicated lead would help them thrive and succeed."

Young carers can take on significant responsibilities at home and many may not be identified by their school, meaning they can miss out on support they are entitled to.

Kacey Musson, 19, from Oxfordshire has been caring for her mum since she was three years old.

"I cared for my mum because she had a chronic migraine disorder and mental health problems," she said.

Musson said having someone at school who understood what she was dealing with would have made a big difference.

"When I hit secondary school, there was one young carer lead but he was the only one there so there wasn't a lot [of support] so it was a struggle," she said.

"There was a lot to juggle with home, especially when GCSEs came around. My mum was a ticking time bomb so anything could trigger a migraine so I would think 'yes I can do some revision' but the stress of waiting for my mum's head to explode and become a migraine was more important to me than revision.

"Having more support around would have been really good because it would mean I'd have had someone who I could just go to… that would have made a big difference."

For many schools, a young carer lead does not exist. It means teachers without the necessary training are stepping up to help plug the gap.

Rosie Emmerson is a teacher at Wallingford School and volunteered to become her school's young carer lead because there was not a designated person in place.

She said: "It's become my favourite part of the job, looking after these young people and championing them as much as possible by organising trips, fun things for them to do so they can just be them and not wear their caring hat… every school should be doing this.

"When you start seeing them enjoying school because we've helped lift some of the pressure with homework deadlines or they know they don't have to explain to every teacher why they're really tired, it makes it that little bit easier for them."

Slade said getting the law changed was the next step to ensure children were getting the support they needed.

"Young carers have so many barriers to level the playing field," she said.

"We need the government to pick up the change possibly through the new education bill… we've started a petition, and I want to get it up to 10,000 signatures so we can get it into parliament."

Having a named member of staff could give children someone they can turn to and help schools better understand what they are dealing with, said Waugh.

She added: "We see a real mix of some schools who do have young carer leads in place and others who don't have that and have never considered they might have young carers so there's a real need for this to be in place and for it to be a meaningful role."

Krista Cartlidge, CEO of MYTIME Young Carers, said: "Signing the petition to put a young carer lead in every school will make a real tangible difference to young carers up and down the county and we need to do everything we can, so their caring role doesn't cost them their education."