Being a Young Carer
Young carers are children and young people who help to look after someone living with a health inequality who needs their support. They might be the sole carer or the main carer, or they could be part of a team that helps to support someone. The person they provide care for is a friend or family member who, due to illness, disability, a mental health problem or a substance misuse issue, finds it difficult to cope without the young carer’s support.
What responsibilities could a young carer have?
Young carers have responsibilities for providing help to the person they care for, such as:
- Practical help like cleaning, cooking, laundry, paying bills, and collecting prescriptions.
- Physical support like lifting and moving; and shopping for food.
Personal care like assisting in bathing, washing, dressing, feeding, and administering medication. - Emotional support like listening, comforting, and coping with mood changes.
- Sibling care like helping with dressing, cooking meals, homework help, and taking to school.
How to know if someone is a young carer
Every young carer situation is unique, and this can make it difficult for a child who give care to be identified and supported.
Sometimes it is clear to see that there is a caring role, and sometimes it is not. Sometimes a caring role is constant, and sometimes it is not. Sometimes a child will see themselves as a carer, and sometimes they will not. There are countless situations where a child can find themselves in a caring role and having to take on caring responsibilities.
For the team at Sefton Carers Centre, the amount of time spent caring each day and the type of care that is being provided are not the most important aspects of carer identity. What matters most to the carers centre, when thinking about young carers, is that a child is doing things or behaving in ways that support the cared for person’s health and wellbeing.
How Sefton Carers Centre helps young carers
The Sefton Carers Centre Young Carers support service is a small and ambitious team that is dedicated to empowering our borough’s young carers and young adult carers and supporting their future aspirations.
The service works with young carers directly and for young carers championing their cause. Young carers who are registered with the carers centre are supported according to their own wishes and needs. When young carers are in need of more support, they will offer more support, when young carers are coping better, they will take a step back.
The team at Sefton Carers centre keep in touch with all young carers via check-in messages with parents, and are also connected directly with many older young carers on their own phones. Regular updates about our service are shared with all parents of registered young carers.
Some registered young carers access one-to-one support in school with a programme of sessions to help them deal with challenges they are facing. Sessions are planned when a need arises, and they are stepped back when a young carer’s situation improves.
Some young carers access the Sefton Carers Centre's weekly young carers drop-in groups, which alternate between Crosby and Southport. The groups are open to all registered school-age young carers, and they offer a mixture of empowerment support and fun breaks from caring.
Some young carers access respite activities with the service during the school holidays to take a break from looking after their cared for person. The team at the carers centre offer a mixed and varied programme to appeal to all ages and interests, and activities are always funded by us and our supporters. We work with all young carers and families individually to offer the most appropriate support we can proportionate to their caring role.
How we reach Young Carers
Sefton Carers Centre continually works in the background as champions of the young carers cause in Sefton to improve opportunities and outcomes for our caregiving youth.
The carers centre work in partnership with schools across Sefton, supporting schools to do more to identify and support young carers. They deliver awareness presentations to pupils in primary and secondary schools, and facilitate young carer training sessions for school staff.
The service works with health and social care professionals, community organisations and others to improve awareness and understanding of young carers and their needs.
How to make a referral
To engage with the service, young carers must be registered with the carers centre.
Young carers can be referred by anybody – parents, other family members, professionals, or young people themselves. To make a referral visit the Sefton Carers Centre website
If you are thinking about referring a child or young person to the carers centre, contact them on 0151 288 6060 or by email for an informal conversation about the support they offer.
Before making a referral, the following points should be considered:
- Is the young person aged between 5 and 17?
- Does the young person and/or the person they care for live in Sefton?
- Does the young person have caring responsibilities?
- Has the young person been spoken with about being referred as a young carer?
- Has parental consent been given for the referral to be made?
- Does the person in need of care have an illness, a disability, a mental health problem or a substance misuse issue?
When a referral is received by the team at the carers centre, the process to action the referral is as follows:
- New referral received and allocated to a staff member
- Contact made with referrer and parent
- Introductory meeting with the young person arranged, normally taking place in school
- Discussion of the young person’s caring role and their needs
- Explanation of our services and the work we do with and for young carers in Sefton
- Discussion of the introductory meeting with staff team and actions agreed
- Referrer, family and young person informed of outcome
- If agreed, young person will be registered as a young carer and can access support
- If not eligible, other support options will be discussed