Plans to reach even more young carers in 2015

A Plymouth project has so far helped and supported 73 young carers in Plymouth since April 2014, but many more could be left unrecognised by agencies in the city.

The Barnardo’s Young Carers Service, managed on behalf of Plymouth City Council has been running since 2012 and supports children and teenagers who have to take responsibility for cooking, cleaning, shopping and providing personal and emotional care to members of their family.

This can be due to a wide range of factors affecting their parents’ own ability to cope, including sickness, disability, mental health issues and drug or alcohol misuse.

The service works with families to make sure the children’s education and wellbeing does not suffer and provides exciting activities where they can spend time with other young carers and share their experiences.

‘A’ has been caring for his parents since he was 11 years old. He said that before he was supported by the young carers project he felt extremely isolated: “I can tell my worker from Barnardo’s how I feel and I know that she will help me. She always listens to me and is a great support to me.”

The aim this year is for the service to increase the offer to young carers. This will be done by extending the volunteer base to include help with homework, and providing mentoring and befriending support for individual children.

Barnardo’s children’s services manager Jeanie Lynch said: "We have had a really busy year supporting our young carers and their families. Young carers tell us that they really value the opportunity to have time away from their caring role to take part in fun and creative activities such as our art exhibition with Effervescent and in taking part in our drama group.

"Key to our success is that we are needs led and work to ensure that young carers voices are at the heart of our work. We have also produced a report this year in partnership with Plymouth City Council with recommendations for improved support for young carers and this is being used to inform the Plymouth Carers Strategy from 2015-18."

Councillor Sue McDonald, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Public Health, said: “We are extremely pleased that Barnardo’s has been able to reach 73 of the city’s young carers through our contract this year, but we know there are still more children out there in need of support.

“Young carers do such an incredible job of helping to look after loved-ones, but it is important that this doesn’t have a detrimental effect on their own quality of life and educational achievements.

“I’m delighted that the contract with Barnardo’s has given so many young carers the chance to be children again.”

As well as intensive one on one support the Council also runs two weekly support sessions, one for 8 to 10 year-olds and one for 11 to 16 year-olds via a youth club run in Efford by the Youth Service. The sessions aim to give young people the chance to talk to others who are in a similar situation and gives them a chance to enjoy games and activities. Taxis are provided to make sure as many young carers as possible get the chance to attend.