Supporting Young Carers

This Young Carers Awareness Day (an annual event, led by Carers Trust) we are celebrating the fantastic work Sutton Young Carers Service are doing to promote the mental health and emotional wellbeing of Young Carers through Passport, one of our Skills for Life programmes.

Thanks to generous funding from The 7stars Foundation, we were delighted to train the Sutton Young Carers team in November 2019 and they have recently begun implementing the programme.

Melanie Walles, Sutton Young Carers Service Manager, shares their experience so far:

“We are offering Partnership for Children’s Passport programme to Young Carers who are caring for a family member with an illness, disability, mental illness or who are misusing substances. Some of the Young Carers attending are caring for more than one family member. For example, one Young Carer aged 12 helps care for their mum who has mental ill health, Dad who has physical disabilities and two siblings with learning disabilities. From research and our experience, transition is a time when Young Carers begin to develop their own mental health needs, most commonly anxiety and worry as they try to manage their caring role with the increased pressure of secondary school education.

We believe that Passport will help to develop resilience in these Young Carers to help them navigate this very difficult time. Having access to a mental health promotion programme of this standard is rare for children unless they have entered the social care or mental health system. We are delighted to be able to offer it as part of an Early Help intervention as we know that it will prevent some Young Carers from reaching the threshold for statutory involvement.

The lead up to programme delivery and all our interactions with Partnership for Children have been very positive and has added to the motivation and morale of staff. We are delighted to have been offered this opportunity and look forward to reporting on the increase it has had on the physical and mental health, educational attainment and social and relationship outcomes for Young Carers. Thank you for such a great opportunity!”.

Other Young Carer Services interested in implementing Skills for Life mental health promotion programmes should contact: Liz.bowles@partnershipforchildren.org.uk

For more information about Young Carers Awareness Day visit The Carers Trust Website: carers.org.