Jan. 14 2024
Source Page: Family leave for Kinship carers: letter to UK GovernmentFound: Family leave for Kinship carers: letter to UK Government
Give carers a right to paid leave to support attendance at medical appointments
- 290 Signatures
(Estimated Final Signatures: 315 - 1 added in the past 24hrs)
Unpaid carers help provide support to elderly or disabled relatives, often preventing them from needing support of the care system and helping reduce public spending.
Found: Giving carers paid time off work to enable them to assist those they care for to attend appointments.
Nov. 25 2010
Source Page: Recognised, valued and supported: next steps for the Carers Strategy. 58 p.Found: Recognised, valued and supported: next steps for the Carers Strategy. 58 p.
Jun. 11 2008
Source Page: Carers at the heart of 21st-century families and communities. 172 p.Found: Carers at the heart of 21st-century families and communities. 172 p.
Dec. 14 2023
Source Page: Quarterly Carers Statistics for Northern Ireland (September 2023)Found: Quarterly Carers Statistics for Northern Ireland (September 2023)
Apr. 18 2024
Source Page: Understanding health outcomes of unpaid carers and unpaid care expectancy in EnglandFound: Understanding health outcomes of unpaid carers and unpaid care expectancy in England
Written Evidence Feb. 06 2024
Inquiry: Children’s social careFound: CSC0099 - Children’s social care National Union of Professional Foster Carers Written Evidence
Mar. 27 2024
Source Page: Social Security Experience Panels: Carers with English as a second languageFound: Social Security Experience Panels: Carers with English as a second language
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the number of schools that recorded zero young carers in their most recent school census return; and what steps her Department is taking to improve the identification of young carers in schools.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The most recent published census data on young carers is from January 2023, and can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2022-23.
You can find the number of young carers in each school in column JF of the school level underlying data file – see ‘School level underlying data - 2022/23 (csv, 22 Mb)’ under the heading ‘Additional supporting files’. 17,093 of the total 21,642 state-funded schools recorded no young carers. Statistics from the January 2024 school census will be published in June.
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. In 2023, 79% of schools recorded no young carers.
Young carers make an enormous contribution in caring for their loved ones. The department wants to ensure that they are supported in their education and can take advantage of opportunities beyond their caring responsibilities.
The department added young carers to the annual school census in 2023, raising the visibility of young carers in the school system and, in time, providing the department with hard evidence on both the numbers of young carers and their educational outcomes.
The department will be incorporating young carers in the school-level annual school census for independent schools from early 2024 to ensure parity with the school census, which further builds on the department’s data on young carers across the school system.
The government has published information on how and where young carers can get help and support, encouraging them to speak to someone they trust at their school or college, like a teacher or school nurse, about their caring responsibilities and how this might affect them. As set out in ‘Keeping children safe in education’, the department require Designated Safeguarding Leads to undergo training to provide them with the knowledge and skills to carry out their role, which includes having a good understanding of, and alertness to, the needs of young carers. The guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education--2.