Helping schools be ready for young carers being added to the school census
From spring 2023, young carers are for the first time going to be included on the school census return. This will provide a much better picture of the number of young carers in schools, but also presents opportunities to use this data to monitor attendance and attainment of young carers.
Who are young carers?
A young carer is someone under the age of 18 who looks after someone who has a disability, illness, mental health condition, or drug or alcohol addiction. As well as those caring for parents, they may also look after brothers, sisters or elderly relatives too. Research suggests that 10% of all children are providing high or very high levels of care. Locally it is estimated that there will be one or two young carers in every class.
