Asked by: Lord Young of Cookham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the finding of the Carers Trust report Caring and classes: the education gap for young carers, published in September, that almost a quarter of young carers said there is “no support at all” for young carers in their school, college or university.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)
The department appreciates the ongoing efforts of the Carers Trust in supporting carers of all ages across the UK. Their recent report, ‘Caring and Classes: The Education Gap for Young Carers’, examines the support available to young and young adult carers in educational settings and we have noted its findings.
This government is committed to breaking down the barriers of opportunity for all young people, including young carers who provide a critical role caring for their loved ones and are all too often hidden from view.
Young carers were added to the school census in the 2022/23 academic year. This change has raised awareness and their profile and, for the first time, provided hard data on both the numbers of young carers and their education, including data cited by the Carers Trust. The last annual spring census collection had 72% of schools recording zero young carers, which is an improvement on 2023 where it was 79%.
As this is a new data collection, the department expects the quality of the data returns to improve over time as the collection becomes established. All schools, except nurseries, must send this information as part of the spring school census, though the recording and handling of the information is at the school’s discretion. We will continue to monitor the quality of data on young carers that is collected via the school register, for consideration to include in the daily data collection in the future.
Ofsted has committed to developing and consulting upon a revised schools’ inspection framework for September 2025. This will support the new school report card, which will also be in place from that time. A consultation on the framework and report card is scheduled to launch early in the new year. The department and Ofsted are engaging closely to take this forward and will consider how schools are to be assessed in future in terms of their contribution to inclusion, bearing in mind the government’s mission to ensure that all children, including young carers, can achieve and thrive at school.
The Children’s Social Care National Framework, which was issued in December 2023, is statutory guidance for local authorities. It provides clarity on the outcomes that leaders and practitioners should achieve when supporting children, young people and families, including in the identification and assessment of support for young carers. Safeguarding partners, and other relevant agencies including education, should read and engage with the National Framework as they have an important role in supportive positive outcomes and improving access to opportunities.
Asked by: Lord Young of Cookham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to list young carers separately in daily school attendance reporting in order to assess the impact of caring on school attendance.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)
The department appreciates the ongoing efforts of the Carers Trust in supporting carers of all ages across the UK. Their recent report, ‘Caring and Classes: The Education Gap for Young Carers’, examines the support available to young and young adult carers in educational settings and we have noted its findings.
This government is committed to breaking down the barriers of opportunity for all young people, including young carers who provide a critical role caring for their loved ones and are all too often hidden from view.
Young carers were added to the school census in the 2022/23 academic year. This change has raised awareness and their profile and, for the first time, provided hard data on both the numbers of young carers and their education, including data cited by the Carers Trust. The last annual spring census collection had 72% of schools recording zero young carers, which is an improvement on 2023 where it was 79%.
As this is a new data collection, the department expects the quality of the data returns to improve over time as the collection becomes established. All schools, except nurseries, must send this information as part of the spring school census, though the recording and handling of the information is at the school’s discretion. We will continue to monitor the quality of data on young carers that is collected via the school register, for consideration to include in the daily data collection in the future.
Ofsted has committed to developing and consulting upon a revised schools’ inspection framework for September 2025. This will support the new school report card, which will also be in place from that time. A consultation on the framework and report card is scheduled to launch early in the new year. The department and Ofsted are engaging closely to take this forward and will consider how schools are to be assessed in future in terms of their contribution to inclusion, bearing in mind the government’s mission to ensure that all children, including young carers, can achieve and thrive at school.
The Children’s Social Care National Framework, which was issued in December 2023, is statutory guidance for local authorities. It provides clarity on the outcomes that leaders and practitioners should achieve when supporting children, young people and families, including in the identification and assessment of support for young carers. Safeguarding partners, and other relevant agencies including education, should read and engage with the National Framework as they have an important role in supportive positive outcomes and improving access to opportunities.
Asked by: Lord Young of Cookham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following statistics published on 21 March showing that the percentage of young carers who missed at least ten per cent of school is almost twice as high as that for pupils without caring responsibilities, what steps they are taking to improve the (1) identification of, and (2) support for, young carers in schools.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
Young carers make an enormous contribution by caring for their loved ones. The department wants to ensure young carers are supported in their education and can take advantage of opportunities beyond their caring responsibilities.
The department introduced The Young Carers (Needs Assessments) Regulations in 2015. This is an assessment of needs, conducted by the local authority which must consider whether it is appropriate or excessive for the child or young person to provide care for the person in question, in light of the young carer’s needs and wishes. It also helps to determine whether the care which the young carer provides, or intends to provide, impacts on the young carer’s well-being, education and development.
The department added young carers to the annual school census in 2023 for the first time and identified 38,983 young carers, raising their visibility in the school system and allowing schools to better identify and support their young carers. This is providing the department with strong evidence on both the numbers of young carers and their educational outcomes. This also provides an annual data collection to establish long-term trends.
As this is a new data collection, the department expects the quality of the data returns to improve over time as the collection becomes established. All schools (except nursery schools) must send this information as part of the spring school census. However, the recording and handling of the information is at the school’s discretion. 79% of schools recorded no young carers in 2023.
The department recognises that absence is often a symptom of other problems. The department has a comprehensive support-first strategy to improve attendance, which includes:
The department is also building a system of family help by reforming children’s social care. The £45 million Families First for Children Pathfinder programme is testing how multi-disciplinary family help teams can improve the support that children, families and young carers receive.
Asked by: Lord Young of Cookham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government when the proposed Special Educational Needs and Disabilities NPQ course will commence.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
The department is currently developing the transition arrangements for introducing the National Professional Qualification for Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators as the new mandatory qualification for those in the role.
All arrangements, including those around the delivery and start dates, will be communicated in the coming months.
Asked by: Lord Young of Cookham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they will respond to their SEND review: right support, right place, right time consultation, which ran from 29 March 2022 to 22 July 2022.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
On 2 March the department published the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan in response to the SEND Review Green Paper. This outlines the department’s mission for the SEND and AP system to fulfil children’s potential, build trust and provide financial sustainability.