That this House has considered educational opportunities for young carers.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Furniss. I am pleased to see so many hon. Members from across the House here today, and I thank them for attending. I know that some have personal stories to tell, and I look forward to hearing them.
As many hon. Members will be aware, yesterday was Young Carers Action Day. We have held a number of events in Parliament with the support of the Carers Trust. This week, young carers visited No. 10 and wrote directly to the Prime Minister to ask for his support in ensuring that young carers and young adult carers are the golden thread that goes through everything his Government do. Students from Mark Hall academy in Harlow visited Parliament, and the hon. Member for Mid Sussex (Alison Bennett) and I took part in an open-top bus trip around London, which went very well until we were unfortunately attacked by hail.
A recent report by the Carers Trust has identified a number of issues that young carers face in educational settings:
“Caring has a significant negative impact on education…Awareness, identification and recording of young carers in educational settings is still too low…Support for young carers in education is worryingly inconsistent.”
Here are a few statistics: almost half of young carers—48%—reported being bullied in the past year; more than two in five—44%—frequently struggle to study for tests or exams because of the demands of their caring situation; and almost a third of young carers are regularly late for school because of those demands. Almost one in four young carers say there is no support at all for young carers in their school, college or university.
It is estimated that there are around 2,000 young carers in Staffordshire, many of whom are hesitant to come forward for fear of disrupting their home lives. For those flying under the radar, it is even harder to get proper support. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Department for Education’s commitment to creating a more comprehensive register of young people will ensure that resources can be distributed more effectively, so that problem areas can be identified?
I thank my hon. Friend for her useful and thoughtful intervention. She is absolutely right. One of the biggest issues for young carers is identifying them. First, young carers do not recognise themselves as being young carers. Secondly, as she rightly says, some young carers are worried about coming forward, as they feel that identifying themselves as young carers would somehow make it seem as though their parents are failing them, which is absolutely not the case.
I welcome the DFE’s commitment to better identifying young carers—it is great that young carers are now part of the school census—but we have to recognise that there is much more to do. In the most recent school census, 72% of schools said that they do not have any young carers, which cannot be right. Although we have made strides in this area, there is obviously much more we need to do. I look forward to the Minister’s comments on that.
As many hon. Members will be aware, since I mention it in most of my speeches, I spent the first 15 years of my working life as a secondary school maths teacher, teaching in various schools across Essex and working with students aged 11 to 18 with a variety of abilities. I have recalled to the House many times one parents’ evening in which a student of mine arrived with both his parents, who were severely physically disabled. To my shame—this is something I have carried with me— I had no idea, until that point, that he and his older sister were young carers.
Since then, I have worked to ensure that I am more knowledgeable about young carers and young adult carers. Before my election in July, I worked for a wonderful charity in Harlow and Essex called Action for Family Carers. It provides respite care and in-school support for children and young people who care for family members and loved ones with physical and mental disabilities.
Young carers and young adult carers play a hugely important role for their families and their communities, giving to the NHS in an invaluable way. We must recognise their impact in saving money for the NHS and in helping the economy, but too often, they do not get the recognition they deserve. There is an urgent need for better identification of young carers in the education system, as many do not even realise that they are young carers until it has already impacted their lives, as my hon. Friend the Member for Stafford (Leigh Ingham) said. For them, it is just normal—caring for a family member or a loved one.
The hon. Member makes a valid and important point about schools having a young carers lead, and I am proud to say that every school in Gloucestershire has one. My constituent Christian, who I met yesterday, has been caring for his grandmother from the age of six, but it was not until he was 11 that he was identified by his school as a young carer. Does the hon. Member therefore agree that, although it is an excellent endeavour to have more leads, more still needs to be done?
As soon as the hon. Member mentioned Gloucestershire, I thought of the fantastic young carers from Gloucestershire I met yesterday. He is right that having a young carers lead is useful where a school has identified a student as a young carer, but we need to do more to identify young carers in the first place. I was previously a teacher, and teachers have a key role in identifying young carers.
There is also a lack of structured support in schools, particularly during the transitions from primary to secondary or from secondary to further education. One of our young carers told the APPG about his experience of applying to university, and how the university website did not provide any case studies that were relevant to him.
When we talk about transitions, we are not just talking about moving through stages of education; we are talking about how the caring role can change—often, sadly, for the worse. It is the responsibility of people in positions of authority to recognise that and to act. As a former teacher, I know only too well how easily young people can slip through the cracks. I am committed to changing that, which is why we need targeted training for educators to better identify young carers and to equip them with the tools to make their lives more manageable.
Other professionals can help, too. Action for Family Carers, for example, ran a project to reach out to GPs. It seems nonsensical that when a parent visits a doctor’s surgery with an acute medical condition, the question of their children’s caring responsibility is not even broached.
To support young carers, there should be a dedicated point of contact in education—a trusted person in authority who students can approach to discuss any caring responsibilities that might affect their studies. Whether it is about missing a deadline or arriving late to class, having one person to communicate with would ensure that the right people are informed and the student’s needs are met. This simple addition could make a world of difference, and there are some great examples of schools that do just that, but it is not universal. There should be mandatory training for teachers, so that they can all help with the task of identifying young carers.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Furniss. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Chris Vince) for raising this important issue. I know it is a passion close to his heart, and he knows it is a passion close to mine too, as a parent of a young carer—I will come to that in due course.
Fewer than 1% of pupils are young carers, but it is important to remember that there will be many more we are unaware of who do not receive the support that they desperately need. Too often, the sacrifices and hard work of young carers go unnoticed and unsupported. Many children will be unaware of the burden their peers face as young carers. Many young carers will feel as if their friends are unable to relate to their home life and the extra pressures they experience outside the school gates. Again, that is something that I know, very close to home.
I pay tribute to the all-party parliamentary group for young carers and young adult carers. Its inquiry in the last Parliament, whose report was published in November 2023, found that young carers are struggling to balance their education with their caring responsibilities. Young carers are at risk of poor attendance, low attainment and more challenging experiences in education settings, such as bullying or social isolation. Young carers told the inquiry that they find it challenging to ask for help with their education at home and do not want to add extra stress to their family members, who are often also undertaking caring responsibilities.
There is no doubt that pupils’ school experiences, both inside and outside the classroom, are fundamental in shaping their first steps into the workplace. Evidence to the inquiry highlighted how issues with attendance, attainment and experiences in educational settings have a distinct effect on the likelihood of young carers pursuing or continuing their studies beyond 18, as my hon. Friend the Member for Harlow mentioned. It also affects young carers’ and young adult carers’ ability to enter and remain in employment, as well as their experiences in the workplace.
It is a privilege to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Furniss. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Chris Vince) for securing this important debate. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to drop into his young carers event, which did an excellent job at increasing awareness. For example, it shared key findings, such as the fact that fewer than half of teachers agree that their school provides the support that young carers need.
In a previous job I had in the NHS, I used to meet young carers from time to time, and they always really impressed me in how they dealt with multiple issues. I highlight the work of a great group of young carers who are part of North Ayrshire Young Carers, which is a local group in North Ayrshire that helps young carers meet each other, organise fun activities and have a break together—letting young people be young people. Services for young carers often offer a range of support for anything a young carer might need, from walking groups and group stress management to guidance on how to apply for financial support if required.
The group reports that young carers say year on year that education is one of the biggest barriers that they face, and young carers feel that teachers do not understand their caring responsibilities, as we heard earlier. The Scottish Government estimated that there are at least 44,000 young carers in Scotland, and that 29,000 of them are under 16.
Young carers can have a range of extra responsibilities, as we all know, whether that means giving medication, looking after their other siblings, or providing emotional and physical care for the adults. Many young carers rely on local groups such as North Ayrshire Young Carers, not only for time out and breaks but for one-to-one advice and information on how to access funding and school support. There is still so much more that can be done to support young carers in the classroom: we can help educational practitioners to identify them, and help groups of young carers to continue their education by moving into further or higher education.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Furniss.
I thank the hon. Member for Harlow (Chris Vince) for securing this important debate. It is fair to say that he has timed it well following Young Carers Action Day, which, as he mentioned, we both enjoyed yesterday, despite the hail on the open-top bus. What struck me about that trip around central London, talking to carers like Holly and Olly, is just how strong they have to be, because they have no choice. I find that humbling. Every time I talk to young carers, it is deeply humbling to realise what they are contending with at home, what they are managing to achieve at school and how they hold all that together.
It is absolutely right that we should do more to try to support them and to put the framework in place, through all the arms of government, to ensure that they can achieve their potential and feel that they are not letting down their families at the same time. Something that comes through loud and clear is that sense of guilt. I was talking to Holly about deciding whether to go to university, and she felt incredibly guilty about leaving her mum and her sister, who she cares for. But she went ahead and did it. She got into Oxford, and she is in her final year studying French and linguistics. She is an incredible young woman, and I think she will go far in life.
As the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for care and carers, when I speak to young carers—and old carers— I feel very fortunate indeed. It is always a privilege to hear their stories. I am always reminded about how much more there is to do to support them. They make extraordinary sacrifices for their loved ones, but, as we have heard from hon. Members, they quite often do so to the detriment of their education and their futures.
In the 2022-23 school year, young carers missed an average of 23 days of school, compared with just 14 days for children without caring responsibilities. Perhaps even more concerning is that 39% of young carers in secondary school were considered persistently absent, meaning they missed at least 10% of school days. Those high levels of absenteeism are alarming, and the consequences are hugely damaging. Research shows a clear link between school absence and academic performance. Only 40% of absent pupils achieve their expected standards in reading, writing and maths at the end of key stage 2, compared with 65% of all pupils nationally. For young carers, the gap only widens as they move further through their education, and they fall further and further behind. They are 37% less likely to achieve high A-level grades and 38% less likely to obtain a university degree than their peers. If they care for a loved one for more than 35 hours a week, they are an astonishing 86% less likely to graduate from university.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Furniss. I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Harlow (Chris Vince) for securing the debate, for his very good speech and also for the work he has done in support of young carers over the years. It was good to hear about that. I also pay tribute to other hon. Members who have spoken today and brought a wealth of insight to our debate, particularly the hon. Member for Bexleyheath and Crayford (Daniel Francis). He and I serve on a certain Bill Committee and I feel I am getting to know his family very well. The more I hear of them, the more I like them. I pay enormous tribute to him and his family for what they do in often very difficult circumstances and I am grateful to him for what he said.
I particularly pay tribute to young carers across our country. As the hon. Member for Mid Sussex (Alison Bennett) has just said, it is absolutely inspiring and humbling when we hear the testimonies of the unsung, often unacknowledged work—even by themselves, as she says—that they do. It is always great to have the opportunity to hear about them and from them. If any of the young people in the Gallery today are young carers, I pay tribute to them and thank them for what they do. I hope they feel that they are being properly acknowledged in Parliament today.
As we have heard, it is not just the additional responsibility and the weight of caring for a family member or relative that is all-consuming for young people. It is the sacrifices that come with that. For young carers, it often means missing out on social plans with their friends, not being able to commit to extracurricular activities outside the school day, and too often having to miss school in order to fulfil their duty as a carer. We have heard that point made.
The Carers Trust surveyed over 1,000 young carers and the results were saddening. A key finding was that almost a third of young carers reported that they always or usually struggle to balance their caring responsibilities with school, college or university work. We understand that there are 54,000 young carers in England and Wales, and their overall absence rate is 12%, compared with just 7% for pupils who are not young carers. That means that a young carer misses more than one school day per fortnight on average. This commonly leads to persistent absence: 39% of young carers were persistently absent in 2022-23, compared with 21% of those who are not young carers. That is twice as many. The impact is undeniable, not only on the educational attainment and opportunities of young carers, but on their sense of being included in the school community, which is so important.
It struck me as the hon. Member was speaking that an advantage of the proposal is that it would incentivise schools to identify carers. One of the problems we have spoken about this afternoon is the fact that many schools say they have no young carers. Does he agree that it would provide that incentive?
The hon. Lady is absolutely right: it would be a helpful incentive to identify young carers among the school population. I will come in a moment to further support that schools need to do that work.
As has been mentioned, there are bursaries, introduced by the last Government, to help with the costs of education, such as travel and books, childcare and residential costs when required. In the 2023-24 academic year, more than £160 million of bursary funding was allocated to institutions to help disadvantaged 16 to 19-year-olds with the cost of taking part in education. I recognise the hon. Lady’s point that those bursaries can come quite late in a child’s education, and that it would be good to be more proactive. It might well be that more work can be done to ensure that children and their families get the opportunity to apply for the bursaries, and to encourage schools to support them to apply earlier on, because I bet loads of families do not know that these bursary opportunities exist.
Another programme introduced by the last Government, in 2014, was the Young Carers in Schools programme, which addresses the need to ensure that schools do more to identify young carers and increase their engagement in school. The programme set out 10 key steps to help schools to identify and support young carers. Each step provides key practical tools that can be adapted to support the individual school. The hon. Lady made the point that provision can be quite patchy across the country, and I dare say she is right. Again, national schemes are great, but only in so far as they are properly applied, uniformly, to the best possible standard. I hope that the Department is working on ensuring that there is greater coverage of that useful programme.
The Young Carers in Schools award allows schools to gain recognition for their success in supporting young carers. I would be interested to hear from the Minister to what extent that programme has been successful. It also enables schools to share good practice. My understanding is that its impact is positive: 94% of schools said in response to a survey that their staff were more likely to know what to do if they identified a young carer and how to support them. That sounds improbably good, and it might be that that is a somewhat superficial response; nevertheless, it is encouraging to hear that schools are positive about that programme. There is also encouraging evidence about the impact on young carers themselves.
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I have visited several schools in my Harlow constituency that do a great job of supporting young carers, and I pay special tribute to Mark Hall academy, which allowed me to meet and talk to its young carers club. I also pay tribute to Purford Green and Holy Cross primary schools for their great work in identifying young carers, and to the many other schools across Essex where I have previously worked.
Some, but not all, schools do great work to identify young carers and have a designated young carers lead. It is vital that all teachers have knowledge of young carers and young adult carers, so my first ask of the Minister is to make training on young carers a mandatory part of teacher training.
It is important that schools have a designated young carers lead. Having spoken to young carers in my previous job and as chair of the all-party parliamentary group for young carers and young adult carers, I know how much anxiety is caused by having to tell at least five different teachers why they are late or have not done their homework. One young carer recently told me that he feels embarrassed to tell people, and that he has to ask peers to keep the noise down in the school library because, for him, it is the only quiet place where he can get his studies done. He does not have that option at home.
Finally, transition periods, especially from primary to secondary school and on to college or university, are tough enough for everyone but even more so for young carers without support. As young carers highlighted to the all-party group, the leap to university feels unattainable due to the lack of provision. We know that a number of young carers do not go to university because they are concerned about leaving those they care for behind, and when they do go, they choose universities that are close to home, which potentially limits their options.
Education should provide hope and opportunity for all, regardless of background or circumstance. Resources must be in place for those facing disadvantage, ensuring that those challenges do not become insurmountable barriers. It is important that young carers have the opportunity to be children as well.
The recent report “Caring and classes: the education gap for young carers”, published by the Carers Trust, found that almost half of young carers at secondary school in England were persistently absent in 2022-23, which means that they missed at least 10% of their education. That is equivalent to one day off school every fortnight, and because they are missing school due to their caring responsibilities, it can be difficult for teachers to recognise when a pupil is struggling and to identify the support and help they need. I therefore welcome the work of the Young Carers in Schools programme, run by the Carers Trust and the Children’s Society. The programme helps schools to support young carers by ensuring that they attend and by helping to improve their wellbeing.
More importantly, the programme provides schools and teachers with a comprehensive guide to identifying young carers. As a result of the programme, 94% of the schools involved said that staff were more likely to know what to do if they identified a young carer, and 94% had a better understanding of the support required by young carers. I hope that with the combined support of teachers, schools, parents and carers, young carers will be able to reach their full educational potential, and I commend the organisations, charities and schools that support young carers throughout their childhood, both inside and outside school.
I want to mention two other matters. First, I was lucky recently to attend the Bromley Rotary club’s youth awards in my neighbouring borough, which is in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Beckenham and Penge (Liam Conlon). The awards recognised 36 people from 17 schools for their outstanding contributions to the community. I was hugely impressed that the majority of those young people received awards because they are young carers—they care for family members and in many cases also raise money for local charities associated with their family member’s disability. I know my hon. Friend the Member for Beckenham and Penge would welcome it if I paid tribute to those awards, which started 10 years ago with only four schools participating. They have now grown, with 20 schools participating.
Lastly, closer to home, I am the parent of twins who are 11. My eldest daughter has cerebral palsy and a range of very complex disabilities. Her twin—two minutes younger—is the carer in many respects, because they have that doting twin bond. During covid they were six and their mum was undergoing chemotherapy, so it was a very intense period for my youngest daughter. Her sister needed full-time care support and no carers were allowed in the house. She dealt with that admirably. My daughter is lucky, as my hon. Friend the Member for Harlow said. We got by, and she was certainly my No. 2 during that period in keeping things going in the house. We got through it, and her secondary school, where she started last September, recognises carers—it recognises the contribution that she makes and the support that she may sometimes need.
Particularly with twins, the issues become more predominant as they get older; my daughter has a sister who speaks 12 words, while she speaks about 20,000, frankly. As the gap between them gets bigger, there is still the doting bond, and the feeling of, “That is my twin, and I will be there most probably forever to support them,”—even after I’ve gone. Being a young carer is so important to her life, so I see that situation first hand.
I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Harlow for his work as chair of the all-party parliamentary group for young carers, and for securing the debate. It is a subject very close to both of our hearts, as he knows. I look forward to hearing the Minister’s response.
Many young carers report feeling stressed, lonely or tired, and they feel they are missing out on time with their friends or things at school. It is important that we do all we can here in Westminster to support young carers in education to combat that situation. I am delighted to see the debate taking place and highlighting what needs to be done to ensure that young carers get the right support as well as the educational opportunities that they deserve. I look forward to hearing other Members’ contributions.
Although some support is available in the form of discretionary bursaries for further education, it often comes far too late down the line, when the damage has already been done. The young carers school programme, run by the Carers Trust and the Children’s Society, is an essential initiative that works to reduce barriers by training local authorities and carers’ services. That is making a difference, but I hope that most Members agree that it is not enough.
Carers, teachers and local authorities all agree that support for young carers is lacking, particularly when it comes to understanding and identifying them in the first place, even before we get into looking at what their needs are. I hear time and again from carers that the lack of recognition is perhaps the most fundamental problem they face—not only recognition of them by others but realising in themselves that they count as a carer and that the support they provide is above and beyond what is normal. Too often when we talk to young carers they say, “I was just helping out my sister at school. She was having a meltdown and the teachers called me. I did not realise I was a carer.”
Although the previous Government committed to developing training modules for educators to better spot young carers, charities and schools, as we all know, are stretched far too thin to ensure consistent coverage across all schools. A key theme that came up on the open-top bus tour yesterday was how different parts of the country have a very different offer for young carers. I firmly believe that young carers deserve more. No child should be forced to choose between their future and helping their family. The previous Government left young carers behind, struggling with school absences, lack of support and barriers to higher education.
On top of that we layer the impacts of the pandemic, and, as the hon. Member for Bexleyheath and Crayford (Daniel Francis) said, that put extra pressure on his family. I commend him for what he has said this afternoon and for everything that he and his daughter do to help the family.
We must ensure that young carers are recognised, supported and given the same opportunities as their peers. The Government have a real opportunity to do the right thing. Schools must play a more proactive role in identifying young carers, which is why I back our Liberal Democrat policy that requires every school to have an appointed, dedicated young carers lead. Meanwhile, higher education must be put within reach of young carers. To make that a reality, my Liberal Democrat colleagues and I believe we need to introduce a young carers pupil premium with targeted funding to support schools in offering academic and pastoral help for student carers. As with so many things, we must identify early and support early. This helps carers and it helps society as a whole, stopping problems before they have even begun and saving money in the process.
My Liberal Democrat colleagues and I believe that young carers deserve better. With the right support, they can thrive in education, achieve their ambitions and build bright futures, all while continuing to provide the support that they need and want to provide for their loved ones. It is time to give young carers the recognition and opportunities that they deserve.
I was saddened to read in the survey that 28% of young carers report that they either never had, or did not often have, someone at school, college or university who understood that they were an unpaid carer. An even higher rate—40%—said that they never got, or did not often get, help from their school, college or university, so even when it is acknowledged that they have caring responsibilities, many of them do not feel that they get any support from their institution.
As hon. Members have said, there is no doubt that more support needs to be instilled in schools, local authorities and communities. A point was made about the record of the last Government. I do not want to go too much into defensive mode, because I very much acknowledge the points made by the hon. Member for Mid Sussex—she is clearly speaking the truth on behalf of young carers, as other hon. Members have—but in government, we were determined that all young carers should receive the support they need to succeed in all stages of education. The pupil premium, which was introduced under the last Government in 2011, gave schools in England additional funding to improve outcomes for children facing disadvantages. It has supported the roll-out of support for many young carers.
I take the hon. Lady’s point—she may well be right—that it would be appropriate to have a targeted pupil premium for young carers, by making them automatically eligible for the pupil premium, and I would be interested in the Minister’s view. I understand that 60% of young carers are eligible for the pupil premium at the moment—that speaks to the disadvantage that many of them face—but it might be appropriate to be more targeted and specific about their eligibility.
On higher education, there is depressing research, cited by the hon. Member for Mid Sussex, that shows that young carers are significantly less likely to graduate than young people without caring responsibilities. I understand that the Office for Students launched an equality of opportunity risk register, which identified 12 sector-wide risks that may affect a student’s opportunity to access and succeed in higher education. It made reference to young carers in six of those key sector risks, so there is obviously recognition of the extent to which caring responsibilities can impact on one’s opportunities in higher education.
More needs to be done to set out how education providers will improve equality of opportunity for students from disadvantaged backgrounds so that they succeed and progress in higher education and onwards. There is clearly more to do to ensure that all young carers get the support they need to succeed. I urge the Minister to engage with young carers—I am sure she is doing so—schools and local authorities to identify what additional support young carers need, to ensure true equality of opportunity for every pupil.