Young Carers Action Day is taking place on Wednesday 15 March 2023. The theme of this year’s event is to ‘Make Time for Young Carers’.
Too often the invaluable contributions that young and young adult carers make to their communities go unrecognised.
‘Make Time for Young Carers’ highlights two things that are really important for young and young adult carers:
1, The need for professionals and responsible adults to make more time to listen to young and young adult carers explain the challenges they face, to better understand the support young and young adult carers actually need.
2. Once they understand the sort of support that’s required, responsible adults then need to make time to put that support in place.
Carers Trust has produced a template council motion that can be moved on your council – to promote young carers action day and raise awareness and support for young carers.
A full toolkit of resources for Young Carers Action Day from Carers Trust can be downloaded here.
The template Carers Trust council motion is below:
Council notes:
- Each year Carers Trust organises Young Carers Action Day (YCAD) to raise public awareness of the challenges faced by young people because of their caring role, and to campaign for greater support for young and young adult carers to meet their needs.
- Young Carers Action Day is 15 March 2023 and this year’s theme is ‘Make Time for Young Carers’.
- Estimates suggest that as many as one in five schoolchildren could be young carers (University of Nottingham 2018), with this number increasing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Caring for someone can be very isolating, worrying, and stressful. For young and young adult carers, this can negatively impact on their experiences and outcomes in education, having a lasting effect on their life chances.
Council resolves:
- To commend the young and young adult carers across our Local Authority.
- To promote YCAD on an annual basis.
- To promote and work with local care organisations.
- To write to the Government calling on them to ensure that young carers are actively identified and provided with the support they need.
- To write to the local Members of Parliament and ask them to join the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Young Carers and Young Adult Carers.
You can search for local carers organisations in your area using The Carers Trust online tool here. You may wish to mention them in the Council motion to highlight the local work they do.