Cynulliad
Cenedlaethol Cymru | National
Assembly for Wales
Y Pwyllgor Plant, Pobl Ifanc ac Addysg | Children, Young People and
Education Committee
Blaenoriaethau ar gyfer y Pwyllgor Plant, Pobl Ifanc
ac Addysg
|
Priorities
for the Children, Young People and Education
Committee
CYPE
64
Ymateb
gan : Ymddiriedolaeth Gofalwyr Cymru
Response from : Carers Trust Wales
Carers Trust Wales is part of Carers Trust, a major charity for, with and about carers. We work to improve support, services and recognition for the 370,000 people in Wales living with the challenges of caring, unpaid, for a family member or friend who is ill, frail, disabled or has mental health or addiction problems.
Our Mission is to identify, support and involve Wales’ unpaid carers through the provision of action, help and advice.
Together with our locally-based network partners, we provide access to desperately-needed breaks, information and advice, education, training and employment opportunities – working with 20,000 carers a year in Wales. Our network partners benefit from the provision of grants, advice documents and reports to improve carers’ services. We give carers and young carers opportunities to speak to someone and make their voices heard, offline via our carers’ services and young carers’ schemes, and via our online communities.
Our Strategic aims are
Our Vision is a Caring Wales – where unpaid carers are recognised and able to get the support they need
The National Assembly for Wales’ Children, Young People and Education Committee (the Committee) was established by the Assembly on 28 June 2016 with the remit ‘to examine legislation and hold the Welsh Government to account by scrutinising its expenditure, administration and policy, encompassing (but not restricted to): the education, health and well-being of the children and young people of Wales, including their social care’.
1.
Carers Trust Wales strongly believes that the challenges faced by
young and young adult carers should be a key priority for the
Children, Young People and Education Committee
2.
A carer is anyone who cares, unpaid, for a friend or family
member who due to illness, disability, a mental health problem or
an addiction cannot cope without their support.
3.
Wales has the highest proportion of carers in the UK. Carers in
Wales are also, on average, caring for more hours a week than
carers elsewhere in the UK.
4.
Officially there are 29,000 carers under the age of 25 in Wales,
however the actual figure is likely much higher.
5.
Despite the census reporting that there are at least 11,500 young
carers in Wales, only 782 are known to social services according to
Welsh Government figures.
6. Young and young adult carers face significant challenges in accessing, achieving in and staying in education. Carers in school miss or cut short 48 days a year, and 1 in 4 have been bullied as a result of their caring role
7.
Wales needs a consistent approach to identification of young and
young adult carers in schools, work-based learning programmes,
colleges, and universities, as well as flexible policies to support
those carers.
8. Carers Trust Wales would welcome the opportunity to expand upon our points in this response with the Committee.
Question 1 – Within the remit set out above: what do you consider to be the priorities or issues that the Children, Young People and Education Committee should consider during the Fifth Assembly? |
1.1.
We strongly believe the challenges faced by young and young adult
carers should be a key priority for the Children, Young People and
Education Committee in the Fifth Assembly
1.2.
A carer is anyone who cares, unpaid, for a friend or family member
who due to illness, disability, a mental health problem or an
addiction cannot cope without their support.
1.3.
Carers Trust Wales has an extensive programme of work in place
supporting young and young adult carers, including: • Our Young Adult Carer Council which includes young adult carers from across Wales • Frequent events to improve access to university for carers, including residentials to give a taste of university life • Working with staff members at universities to improve policies and awareness of carers’ issues • Ongoing work implementing our Young Carers in Schools Programme in Wales. In one year of the programme’s implementation in England, 94% of participating schools had identified more young carers and 74% had noticed improved attendance. We are currently organising a Wales pilot.
•
Our
Time to be Heard Wales
research into the experiences of young adult
carers 1.4. Wales is a uniquely caring country, according to the 2011 census we have the highest proportion of carers in the UK. The 2011 census also found that carers in Wales care for longer on average than carers anywhere else in the UK[1].
1.5.
Carers contribute £8.1billion worth of care in Wales every
year, more than the entire Welsh NHS budget and the equivalent of
£21,892 per carer every year[2].
1.6.
According to the last census, there are 29,000 carers under the age
of 25 in Wales, including 11,500 under the age of 18. Research
suggests the true figure may be four times higher[3].
That means there are somewhere between 1 and 4 young carers in
every class. However, Welsh Government figures show only 782 young
carers are known to social services in Wales[4].
1.7.
Each year in Wales around 1,600 carers start university[5].
1.8.
Young and young adult carers face significant challenges throughout
school, college, and university, and when seeking employment 1.9. Research conducted by the University of Nottingham and commissioned by Carers Trust[6] found that:
• Young adult carers achieve on average 9 grades lower at GCSE level than those without caring responsibilities • One in four carers in school said they had been bullied as a result of their caring responsibilities • Young adult carers are four times more likely to drop out of college or university • Young adult carers are more likely to be not in education, employment, or training • Nearly half of young adult carers (45%) reported having mental health problems
•
Carers in school miss or cut short on average 48 days of school a
year, that’s nearly five school weeks
1.10. There
are a number of straight forward and affordable solutions that
would help support young and young adult carers
1.11. Identification:
implementing simple systems to identify carers in schools, colleges
and universities would mean that education providers are better
placed to get support to those who need it. It would also provide a
much clearer picture of how many carers are in education in Wales
and where they’re studying
1.12. There
are different ways to improve identification: • UCAS has committed to introducing a tick-box to identify carers starting university from 2018 • Some universities ask students at enrolment, extending this would be the most immediate way to improve identification in higher education • Many schools and local authorities in Wales use young carer ID cards, feedback from our local services and our Young Adult Carer Council suggest these IDs are effective in alleviating pressure from young carers in class and in supporting identification of young carers. We’ve been calling for young carer ID cards to be extended across Wales
•
In further education, we welcomed the amended guidance for
Education Maintenance Allowance that instructs FE providers, when
considering whether to authorise an absence, to take into account
any absences which may be a result of caring responsibilities.
However, this is dependent on the FE provider being aware of a
student’s caring responsibilities. We believe that
application forms for further education providers need to include a
question on caring responsibilities.
1.13. Support:
Support for young carers and young adult carers is inconsistent
across Wales. We are in the process of mapping support across
Wales– young carers and young adult carers have require
different from services yet many areas only provide either young
carer support or young adult carer support, not both.
1.14. Simple
steps such as having an identified carers’ champion staff
member at schools, college and universities and a named point of
contact for carers to seek support, can make a big
difference.
Similarly, incorporating carer awareness into teacher training
provision would improve identification, awareness and
support.
1.15. We
would happily elaborate on specific steps schools, colleges and
universities could take to improve support for carers. We
detail
many of the steps here.
1.16. Any
consideration of young and young adult carers’ needs must
take into account the availability of support services, the ways
these services work with health, education and social care, and the
consistency of funding of those services. 1.17. Implementation of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act: The Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 brought in important new rights for young and young adult carers, including a stronger entitlement to an assessment and a duty on local authorities to take into account transitions a young adult carer may be experiencing (ie. school to college, college to university). The feedback we have received from the Young Adult Carer Council so far suggests that these duties are not currently being fully delivered upon. We would ask the committee look …?
|
[1]http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthcaresystem/articles/2011censusanalysisunpaidcareinenglandandwales2011andcomparisonwith2001/2013-02-15
[5]This projection is based on the number of first year entrants to Welsh HE (approx. 40,000) and an estimated 4% of those students being carers (based on the findings of NUS UK research with a sample size of 14,000).