November 2022 Newsletter - Young Carers

In this update

Autumn Booster Vaccination for Young Carers and Young Adult Carers
Carers Rights Day
Young Carer of the Year Nomination
What we want you to know about being a young carer
Barnardo's Young Carers Service
Annual SEND Survey
Young Carer Indicator added to School Census
Improving the health and well-being of young carers through sport
Share your stories with us
Useful links

Welcome to our latest newsletter, which we hope you find useful and informative. If there's a colleague or another provider in your network that you think would like to receive the newsletter, please feel free to forward it onto them.

Please let us know if you have anything you would like us to share or publicise in a future issue.

Autumn Booster Vaccination for Young Carers and Young Adult Carers

If you are a carer for a friend or family member with a disability or illness, you are eligible for an autumn COVID-19 booster vaccination. Getting vaccinated helps to protect yourself and the person that you care for.

The Caring for Carers team is here to help if you would like to get your vaccine but are unable to leave the person you care for, or are facing any other struggles. You can call 01752 201890 for advice and more information about how they can support you.

Carers Rights Day

Barnardo's Young Carers Service and Plymouth City Council's Community Youth Service will be co-working the stall at the Carer's Right Day event on 25 November at The Crowne Plaza Hotel.

The stall holders will also be encouraging and supporting young carers aged 16-17 to attend the COVID-19 outreach vaccine clinic at Honicknowle Youth Centre on 29 November.

Information on services for young carers will be available such as Barnardo's offer to schools including awareness raising and assessment training. Staff will also be available to answer questions.

Young Carer of the Year Nomination

One of Plymouth's Young Carers has been nominated for the Young Carer of the Year Award.

They were all carefully chosen by the judging panel: journalist Liam O'Dell, influencer Shelby Lynch, BBC broadcaster Mark Lane, blogger Georgia Vine and Sense's chief executive Richard Kramer.

What we want you to know about being a young carer

West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership have launched a series of six films which explore the impact of how young carers feel about caring in a bid to raise awareness of young carers across the region for health and care professionals. The films have been created with young carers and have pioneered a trauma-informed approach to the filmmaking process. This approach places the well-being of the young person at the centre of the filmmaking process and aims to make the process as open and collaborative as possible.
Many young carers face inequalities as a result of their caring responsibilities which may result in an impact on their well-being and social opportunities and even lower academic attainment than their peers.

Barnardo's Young Carers Service

Summer Programme 2022

As a service, we offered a variety of workshops and activities for young carers this summer. It has been a very busy and fun-filled summer for us. Young people have enjoyed themselves and offered some positive feedback about their experiences.

Annual SEND Survey

Your voice is important!

Plymouth Parent Carer Voice (PPCV) is working hard with Plymouth City Council (PCC) to make sure that your voice is heard strategically in the shaping of services across SEND 0-25 sector.

PPCV and PCC are asking for your input into the first of what will be a yearly survey into the central services that you and your child / young person use. We are asking for feedback based on the period between 1 January to 31 October 2022 (unless otherwise stated).

Take part in the survey and have your say

Young Carer Indicator added to School Census

The following update has been published on the GOV.UK website.

All schools (except nurseries) can send us this information in the spring census only.

The young carer indicator identifies, for those children on the roll for spring census day, whether they have been identified as a young carer and if so, by whom.

Section 17ZA of the Children Act 1989 says a young carer is a person under 18 who provides or intends to provide care for another person (which isn't a contract or voluntary work).

Young carers carry immense responsibility in providing care and support at home, but their own needs may remain 'hidden' from the wider view. The increased pressures young carers have faced due to the pandemic have further highlighted the need to improve formal identification of this cohort in schools, understand their needs and provide early help as outlined in statutory guidance on keeping children safe in education.

Working together to safeguard children also outlines how school and college staff should be particularly alert to the potential need for early help for students who have taken on caring responsibilities.

Schools record the information using the following codes. Only one of the values will apply to each pupil and a school's MIS should provide a default value of N - not declared.

Code Young carer indicator

N Not declared

P Identified as a young carer by parent or guardian

S Identified as a young carer by school - including where the pupil self declares

More information regarding young carers will be made available soon.