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Press release: Children who care for their disabled parents are often unidentified, unsupported and without a voice

Councils are not doing enough to identify and support young people who help to care for their parents, according to a survey of eight council areas and 50 young carers published by Ofsted today.

The survey report, Supporting young carers, found that inconsistent joint working between councils and their partners, lack of awareness by some professionals, and families’ reluctance to engage with service providers are among the key barriers in identifying and supporting young carers.

Where families were reluctant to engage with services this was because they feared that their parenting capacity would be questioned and the family would be broken up. Young carers with parents that misuse substances or had mental health issues were the most difficult to identify. Parents with substance abuse problems were often reluctant to accept that their children were fulfilling a caring role.

Seven of the eight council areas visited did not consistently consider children’s views when assessing their parents’ disabilities. Only three of the 37 young carers with disabled parents said their views had been sought or included in a parent’s assessment.

Christine Gilbert, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, said: “Councils and their partners need to work together to identify and support young carers and their families. It is unacceptable that for most young carers no assessment of their own needs was conducted by children’s social care professionals.

'However, councils and their partners acknowledge that much more can be done to identify and support young carers’ needs and the report provides examples of good joint working practices. I hope the report will help professionals to improve the support available for young carers.'

The report found young carers were accepting of their caring role. They saw it as part of normal life and felt their role brought them greater closeness to their parents than their peers. They also said their experience helped them deal with the practicalities of life at an early age.

However, young carers identified concerns relating to school and college. Older children said they were frequently late or absent and had problems getting coursework completed on time. Of the 28 young carers at school asked, 19 said that their schools were aware of their caring responsibilities, but nine had not told the school. A young carer said, 'Sometimes I am late for school – they don’t remember I’m a young carer. Just put up with the detention.'

The report does highlight examples of effective practice in supporting young carers. Young carer support projects offered a wide range of services to young carers. Many of the young people viewed the projects as essential to their well-being and valued the time they spent at the projects, especially being able to share their experiences with others in similar positions and with caring adults. A young carer said, 'I was quite lonely; I didn’t know how many people were like me.'

However, projects reported limited capacity in seven out of the eight council areas visited. Six of the 12 projects in those areas had waiting lists. In the worst case, 117 young carers were waiting between six and eight months to access the service.

The report recommends that DCSF should work with councils to find an effective way to obtain realistic estimates of the number of young carers nationally and in each council. Councils and their partners should also consider ways to ensure children’s services, adult services and partners work together to deliver holistic assessments and services that meet the needs of the whole family.

Notes For Editors

1. Supporting young carers report can be on the Ofsted website at www.ofsted.gov.uk/publications/080252.

2. The small scale survey drew evidence from visits to eight councils in November and December 2008. Inspectors met with 50 young carers aged between seven and 20 years (37 of whom were caring for disabled parents and 13 for siblings), representatives from 12 support projects representing nine voluntary agencies and representatives from children’s and adult social care and health services.

3. The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) regulates and inspects registered childcare and children's social care, including adoption and fostering agencies, residential schools, family centres and homes for children. It also inspects all state maintained schools, non-association independent schools, pupil referral units, further education, initial teacher education, and publicly funded adult skills and employment-based training, the Children and Family Courts Advisory Service (Cafcass), and the overall level of services for children in local authority areas.

4. Media can contact the Ofsted Press Office through 020 7421 6899 or via Ofsted's enquiry line 08456 404040 between 8.30am - 6.30pm Monday - Friday. Out of these hours, during evenings and weekends, the duty press officer can be reached on 07919 057359.

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