Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made a comparative assessment of the (a) educational attainment and (b) progression of young carers with their peers in Wiltshire.

The department does not have data on the proportion of young carers in Wiltshire who have received an assessment of their needs in the last 12 months. However, being a young carer was identified as a factor at end of assessment in 253 episodes of need in Wiltshire in the year ending 31 March 2024.

Services for young carers are monitored through the inspection of local authorities. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is assessing how well local authorities in England are delivering their duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014, including those relating to young carers. CQC has published their assessment of Wiltshire Council, rating them Good. It reports that there were no delays in wait times for young unpaid carers needs assessments and that the young unpaid carers offer was well established with robust oversight from senior leaders. Further, Ofsted’s inspection of Wiltshire’s Children’s Services in September 2023 found the overall service to be Outstanding.

The department is aiming to publish national key stage 2 and key stage 4 data for young carers for the first time later this year. Subject to data quality, this will allow comparison of young carers progress and attainment with their peers at local authority level.