Children as young as three are providing care to their family, friends, or neighbours.

According to the Office for National Statistics there were 120,000 young carers in England and 8,200 in Wales but this is recognised as being significantly underestimated due to a lack of education, identification and stigma. Some estimate as many as one million children under the age of 17 are young carers. There is a growing recognition of the impact of caring in early childhood, but disparity in support across the country, coupled with no guidance on the minimum age to provide support.

This blog highlights why young carers must be identified earlier, supported consistently and how nurses and communities can help make that happen.
Nursing is a safety - critical profession: identifying and supporting young carers demonstrates safe and effective nursing care, upholding the Principles of Nursing through holistic assessment and person-centred practice. Our professional standards mean this includes safeguarding: caring responsibilities can mask unmet need, increase vulnerability, and should prompt professional curiosity and appropriate escalation when concerns are identified.

What the law says about young carers

Under the Children and Families Act 2014 and the Care Act 2014, a young carer is defined as a person under 18 who provides unpaid care. This care can be for a family member, friend, or another individual with a disability, illness, or addiction. Both Acts require local authorities to assess whether these responsibilities are inappropriate or are affecting the child’s wellbeing. This is usually done through a Young Carer Assessment, completed by the local authority, or commissioned from the voluntary sector.

Impact of being a young carer

Young Carers raise important concerns in relation to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child which states all children have the right to education, health, protection and opportunities for rest and leisure.

Young carers say caring can be rewarding - but without the right support and advice can impact their health and wellbeing. Young Carers face many health inequalities including higher numbers with a long-term physical and/or mental health condition, yet many report feeling invisible and unrecognised. Education can be impacted too with higher rates of school absence, lower educational attainment than their peers who are not young carers and more likely to have fewer chances to engage with further education or employment as a result.

Young carers also experience barriers to maintaining friendships with evidence showing up to 9 in 10 young carers under 24 experience social isolation linked to their role.

Caring can be lonely.

What can nurses and communities do?

Considering a whole family approach to support children and young people in the context of their own family identifies individual needs of young carers and the impact of responsibilities on the whole family. Adopting a holistic approach ensures individualised support is provided and inappropriate care avoided.

Carers Week is an annual event to raise awareness of carers of all ages including Young Carers and this year’s theme is Building Carer Friendly Communities:

• Highlighting community support can make a lasting difference.
• To make support for carers a normal part of everyday life for carers so they feel recognised and valued.
• Encouraging individuals, businesses, companies to create carer friendly spaces

Nurses are the most trusted professional, working across the life course in all settings. Multiple opportunities exist including at home, work, education, health, custodial or social care settings to identify and support young carers:

• assessing a child with a suspected fracture in the Emergency Department
• a teenager enquiring about contraception at a School Nurse Drop in
• a child having their asthma review at a General Practice Nurse clinic
• a child accompanying their older sibling to the Enuresis clinic
• teenager interpreting for a relative at a Mental Health Assessment Clinic.

Across all fields of practice there are opportunities and young carers sadly share these are too often missed, leading to young carers feeling unseen and unheard. It takes an average of three years to be identified and supported as a young carer and for some as long as ten years. Childhood unsupported, vulnerable, and even when vulnerabilities identified, potentially facing a “postcode lottery” of access to support.

Support should be integrated into health, education and social care policy and guidance and this differs across the four nations of the United Kingdom. Nurses can and do have an impact on young carers and future blogs will display the difference nurses are making.

Carers Week – take action!

This Carers Week you can get involved, find out what support is available in your local area for young carers, download and share resources in your workplace and exercise professional curiosity and do not be afraid to ask. A simple gesture asking, “how are you?” could change someone’s life.

With over 500,00 RCN members we can make a difference!

https://www.carersweek.org/planning-your-carers-week/resources-and-downloads/

5 actions you can take

1. In age-appropriate language ask routinely: “How are you?” “Do you help look after someone at home?”.
2. Recognise and record: note the caring role in the assessment and ensure it is visible to the wider team (within local policy).
3. Assess impact and risk: consider physical/mental health, school attendance, sleep, and whether this raises safeguarding concerns—use professional curiosity and escalate appropriately.
4. Signpost: share local and national support (young carers services, school/college support, voluntary sector, Carers Week resources).
5. Refer and follow up: support access to a Young Carer Assessment and agree a plan (who will do what by when), checking progress at the next contact.