Baroness Hussein-Ece
Main Page: Baroness Hussein-Ece (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness Hussein-Ece's debates with the Department for Education
(7 years, 8 months ago)
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Baroness Hussein-Ece
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they have made in ensuring that children and young people who care for family members are identified and supported.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education (Lord Nash) (Con)
My Lords, we introduced changes to the Children and Families Act 2014 to ensure that local authorities identify needs and assess and support young carers. We have considered recently published research and are exploring policy avenues to help local authorities, schools and professionals to improve young carers’ identification and support. We will be setting out our vision and future plans in the cross-government carers strategy, led by the Department of Health, to be published later this year.
Baroness Hussein-Ece (LD)
I think the Minister for that response. Is he aware of any more accurate figures of the sheer numbers of children and young people who care for family members with disabilities and those with mental disabilities? Barnardo’s has estimated that it is somewhere in the region of 200,000, possibly more. Can he say whether, in the strategy that will be published, health professionals will be trained to identify children who are carers? Can he also say what is being done about 16 to 18 year-olds who are twice as likely as their peer group to not be in employment or education? What support will they get to reach their full potential?
Lord Nash
My Lords, we have supported various programmes in this regard, such as the Suffolk Family Carers programme, to raise awareness of young carers among teachers and other staff. We have focused on embedding a whole family approach to this issue and have trained school nurses to be champions for young carers. As I say, we will set out further proposals in the carers strategy. I agree entirely with the noble Baroness: although we collect some data centrally, we need to work harder to collect data and identify young carers wherever they are.