St. Michael’s VA Junior School in Norwich is the latest school to be awarded Caring Together’s Carer Friendly Tick Award (Education), in recognition of their work to identify and support carers. The school has seen its accreditation renewed and has once again met the standards for the Carer Friendly Tick Award.
Helen Mc Carney, head of St Michael’s VA Junior School said, “Our school works hard to support young carers, and gaining this award is recognition of the support that we know can make a positive difference to our young people.
“Raising awareness through school in training for all staff and running events has ensured that we are doing everything we can to support young carers and their families.”
Andy McGowan, head of carer services at Caring Together, said: “We know that young carers found it particularly hard during the COVID-19 pandemic. They told us that their education and mental health had been negatively impacted during the various lockdowns and restrictions. Schools and colleges taking the initiative to identify and support their pupils who are young carers is hugely important and makes a real difference.
“Therefore, we are very pleased to see St Michael’s VA Junior School having their work to identify and support young carers once again recognised by the Carer Friendly Tick Award. We want to congratulate them on this and to thank them for the work that they are doing which brings real benefits to young carers and their families.”
Caring Together works to help raise the awareness of carers in the community with health, social care and education professionals, and employers.
The Carer Friendly Tick Award was originally developed for education by young carers from Caring Together’s Norfolk Young Carers Forum (NYCF) project. The success of this meant the awards have been rolled out across Norfolk, Peterborough and Cambridgeshire to now include community, health and employer awards.
These recognise the valuable work done in identifying and supporting carers carried out by each type of organisations. The Carer Friendly Tick is a set of standards which were designed with carers, and which are assessed entirely by carers.
For more information about the Carer Friendly Tick Award please visit caringtogether.org/carer-friendly-tick or email [email protected]
