The third International Young Carers Conference is fast approaching – it is being held from Monday 3 to Thursday 6 May.
We are proud to have been selected to present at this event which includes speakers such as leading expert on young carers Prof Saul Becker and national young carers lead, for The Children’s Society, Helen Leadbitter.
Young carers – children and young people who provide care for a relative or friend with long-lasting limitations (chronic illness, disability, frailty or addiction) – are too often invisible and their needs for support are not met.
The programme which is being held virtually due to COVID-19, will be attended by researchers, practitioners, young carers and policymakers, coming from more than 20 countries, including Japan, Canada, United States, India, Kenya and East Africa.
On Tuesday 4 May our head of carer services, Andy McGowan, will be presenting on our work breaking down the barriers to identifying the youngest young carers.
Andy will be speaking about our resource pack and animation for schools for early years foundation stage and key stage 1. This includes activities designed by staff who work with young carers and this age group and a mixture of resources that school staff can pick and choose from including. stories, classroom activities, poems, colouring sheets, songs.
There is also a short, animated version of the story and life-size cut-outs our team use when they deliver assemblies.
Andy said, “Since we launched the resource in January 2020 we have linked in with more than 100 schools to enable them to benefit from using it. With the resource and animation, we have raised awareness with nearly 3,000 children, as well as with the staff in those schools.
“All the primary school staff taking part in the awareness-raising reported increased confidence in identifying and supporting young carers.
“We are really pleased to be able to talk more about this resource and the importance of identifying and supporting young carers as part of the International Young Carers Conference.”
If you would like to find out more about the support we have available for schools please see caringtogether.org/professionals/schools-colleges-universities
Feedback we have have includes, “I think the Carer Friendly Tick awareness session was amazing for staff, one video in particular was very powerful and definitely gave the staff tools to identify and support young carers.”
“The children loved their assemblies, they were fun and interactive and the children were given time to ask questions, no matter how crazy the question was.”
“The sessions gave staff tips on what to look out for when identifying, we already have two more young carers who have been identified and are as we speak in the process of joining the young carer scheme”
“Thank you so much for the training, very thought provoking and people are already asking about the Carer Friendly Tick and what they can do.”
