Young Adult Carers: Education and Training

Chris Vince Excerpts

Thursday 23rd April 2026 Westminster Hall

[Chris Vince (Harlow) (Lab/Co-op)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered access to education and training for young adult carers.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Harris. Before I start, I want to declare that I am the chair of the all-party parliamentary group for young carers and young adult carers. Throughout my contribution, I will refer to the APPG’s recent report on removing the barriers to higher education, employment and training for young adult carers, and I thank the Carers Trust, the APPG’s secretariat, for publishing it. I also thank the vice-chair, the hon. Member for Mid Sussex (Alison Bennett), who sadly cannot be here because she is on Bench duty.

I particularly want to thank the young carers who contributed to the report—in particular, our co-chairs, Farzana, Bakoory and Danny, and also Ashleigh, Jahnavi, Sammi, Becca, Elaroop, Emma, Isla, Joanne, Lewis, Luna, Ruby, Sammie-Jo, Tariq and Zaynab, for their really important contributions. Anecdotally, if you ever find yourself on a panel of speakers with a young carer or young adult carer, I would advise going first, Mrs Harris. If you find yourself, as I did at my party’s conference this year, speaking directly after a young adult carer—in this case, Farzana—you will find that anything that you have to say absolutely lacks impact, because the young adult carer will have said something far more powerful and, in my case, far more intelligent.

As chair of the APPG, a former teacher and a young carer lead for Action for Family Carers—a charity based not only in my constituency of Harlow but across Essex—I am keen to talk about educational opportunities for young carers and young adult carers. As you will be aware, Mrs Harris—I mention this quite often—I was a secondary school teacher. Having had conversations with young carers and young adult carers, I felt it was important to focus the APPG report on the transition from school to further and higher education, training and employment. As the Minister knows, that fits nicely with the Government’s aims. I know that this falls under a different Department, but I am sure he will work with the Work and Pensions Secretary on the Alan Milburn report, which will recognise the importance of tackling people not in education, employment or training. He will recognise that a higher proportion of young carers and young adult carers are NEET, for reasons I will highlight in my speech.

What we found from the young adult carers who came to the APPG and spoke about their experiences of going into higher education is that they face a number of barriers, some of which I will come to. I was really struck by the fact that when they applied for university, they did not feel there were models—not exactly role models, but models of young carers and young adult carers going on to university—they could learn and get aspiration from. It was really interesting to hear that. Of course, young adult carers going on to university face other issues, which I hope to touch on in my speech.

The APPG’s previous inquiry into young carers, which took place in 2023, before I entered this place, heard that more than 40,000 young adult carers are caring for their loved ones for more than 50 hours per week. In our recent inquiry, we heard from 198 young carers and young adult carers, and only a quarter said they had the same access to opportunities in education—particularly higher and further education. Some 73% said they felt they were falling behind their peers in education, and 79% said caring had a huge impact on their mental health and is a key factor impacting their career plans. I will quote one particular young adult carer, who said:

“At one point, it felt like I would never be able to live my own life or make decisions that didn’t directly benefit”

the health of the person they cared for.

While I have this opportunity, I want to thank all the organisations that took part in the inquiry, such as MYTIME Young Carers in Bournemouth, Action for Family Carers in Essex, the Carers Trust, of course, and other partners. We received representations from carers in Gloucester and Sheffield, as well as in Northern Ireland, and I look forward to hearing a contribution about Northern Ireland later.

MYTIME Young Carers recognises that there is often pressure to stay at home and not access further education, training or employment. For young adult carers, distance is often a key motivating factor when choosing which university to go to, with two fifths choosing to stay at home when studying. The nature of higher and further education in this country means that that decision can have a key impact on what that young person chooses to study and on their other life chances, given that they do not have a full range of choices when it comes to university. MYTIME Young Carers also recognises the challenges young adult carers have in meeting deadlines, which is also cited in the report, as Members might expect.

I will move on to some of the report’s recommendations, and I would be grateful to hear the Minister’s thoughts on them. The first recommendation, which is key for not only young adult carers looking to access higher education, further education, employment or training but all young carers, is to improve the identification of carers. I often tell the story, from my time as a teacher, of when I was unaware that a young person in my class was a young carer until it came to parents evening; I think that that is particularly relevant and moving. That is an issue for not only secondary schools but higher and further education institutions, and it is perhaps even more of a challenge in universities, where the same relationship is not necessarily built with teachers as in schools. It is also important to improve the support for young adult carers in education.

I am delighted to have a fantastic school called Mark Hall Academy in my constituency, which does some fantastic work to support young carers. I would emphasise the importance of having a young carers lead in every school to support young carers not only in school itself but in any transition they make moving forward, and with careers advice.

Secondly, there is removal of financial barriers. A report has come out today that talks about the 21-hour rule, and I would be interested to hear the Minister’s views on that. I would also ask the Department for Work and Pensions to provide financial solutions so that young adult carers do not have to choose between caring and learning.

We should also improve young carers’ access to employment and training opportunities. Again, I welcome the Milburn report, but I would call for a cross-Government carers strategy to ensure that young carers and young adult carers are a key thread in everything the Government do. I would also ask the Minister and Ministers from the DWP to work with the Department of Health and Social Care to ensure that local authorities can meet their statutory obligations on transition assessments, so that they provide assessments for all young adult carers and, of course, age-appropriate support on top of that.

I would also like to talk about the importance of improving data about young adult carers. We need to be led by the data. In Essex, for example, there are 10,000 young carers and young adult carers. I suspect that the number is actually much higher, because many young carers do not necessarily recognise that they are young carers. Again, I emphasise that any reporting on NEETs should include whether people have caring responsibilities.

I feel passionately about this subject. From day one in this place, I have been determined to ensure that I continue to be a champion for young carers and young adult carers, as I was in my previous role. None of us could fail to recognise the hugely important role of young carers and young adult carers, not just in supporting their loved ones but in the wider community.

When we talk about young carers and young adult carers, many people talk about the huge economic benefits they provide. If these young people did not take on that caring responsibility, there would be a greater number of admissions to hospital and a greater cost to the NHS. I do not like to think about it like that, because that is not why young carers and young adult carers care for their loved ones; they do it for love, don’t they? Equally, we must make sure that they are supported as much as possible throughout their lives, not just at school but as they transition to higher education, training and employment.

I thank the Backbench Business Committee—I am a member of it, so I would say that—for allowing me to have this debate, and I look forward to hearing the contributions from other Members, including the shadow Minister and the Minister.

--- Later in debate ---

[Chris Vince]

I thank the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) for his powerful contribution and for recognising the sacrifice that young carers and young adult carers make. As the Minister said, he made it personal and very real for us. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Redditch (Chris Bloore) for his contribution. Some universities and higher education colleges do support young carers very well, and that is hugely important. During our APPG’s inquiry, we heard representations from Liverpool University, the Open University and others that want to get this issue right.

I thank the hon. Member for Harpenden and Berkhamsted (Victoria Collins) for recognising the unique challenges facing young adult carers. Having worked in the charity sector, I often found that although there is funding to support young carers or adult carers, that middle group is not supported. There is a big difference between a 21-year-old supporting a loved one and an older person doing so. That is an important point to make.

I thank the hon. Member for Meriden and Solihull East (Saqib Bhatti) for his kind words. He is not a bad bloke—for a Man United supporter. I recognise the genuine attempt by the previous Government to improve the data on young carers, but we need to do more to make sure that schools fill in that census properly. I think that 69% of schools still say that they do not have any young carers, which we just know is not correct. The hon. Member rightly recognised the importance of the Government working to improve that data.

I thank the Minister for his contribution. He will be finishing the marathon at least two hours quicker than me on Sunday. He correctly recognised the importance of better inclusion in schools for young adult carers and of improving the data. I welcome Ofsted—that is a rare thing for a former teacher to say—and its focus on young carers. The Minister is right that schools have a number of challenges and things they need to focus on. They cannot do everything, but making sure that it is in the Ofsted framework will ensure that schools focus on the issue.

This needs to be a cross-party and cross-Department conversation. I recognise the Minister’s comments about bursaries and maintenance grants, and appreciate his commitment to talk to Alan Milburn about his inquiry. He recognises the challenges posed by the 21-hour rule, and has endeavoured to go away and look at that. I am happy to attend any meetings he is having with anybody, because he is a very good Minister.

Finally, huge thanks to everyone who has participated in the debate. I hope that it has been productive. I am sure that we will continue to have conversations about young carers and young adult carers. I certainly intend to, and we have some positive steps to move forward with.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered access to education and training for young adult carers.