Young carers: Supporting a hidden group of pupils

• Date: May 22, 2024
• Time: 14:00 – 15:00
• Cost: FOC
• Audience: Any school member of staff
• Platform: Zoom (online)

Course Outline:

78% of schools recorded in the 2023 school census that they had zero young carers in their pupil population. We know this can’t be true, even within independent schools, especially when research indicates there may be around 1 million young carers nationally. Young carers are typically a hidden group of children and young people, and may be even harder to identify within boarding school environments.

The Carers Trust and The Children’s Society are on a mission to help all schools improve their identification of young carers and ensure young carers get the crucial support they need. Research indicates that caring responsibilities hinders both attainment and attendance for children and young people. By schools identifying these pupils and putting in place better support mechanism we can help level out the playing field.

All schools are now required to record their young carers as part of the school census/school-level annual school census as of January this year. Join us for this webinar to find out more about who young carers are, why it’s important to identify young carers in your schools and how our free of charge schools programme (https://youngcarersinschools.com/) can help support your school to improve the outcomes for young carers.

Training topics will include:

• Definition of young carers
• Current research on attainment and achievement with young carers
• Impacts of caring on mental health and emotional wellbeing, social inclusion and related factors
• Young carers in independent schools
• Good practice in schools
• Young Carers in Schools Award

Learning outcomes:

• Attendees to understand who young carers are, how to identify them in their pupil populations and record this in their school census returns
• Attendees to feel confident in raising the profile of young carers in their school, both amongst pupils and staff members
• Attendees to be aware of, and have ideas about, ways in which they can improve the school experience for young carers

BOOK NOW

Speakers:

Lisa Witherden, Head of National Programmes

Lisa Witherden is Head of National Programmes at The Children’s Society, leading their national young carers, child exploitation and abuse work. Lisa has spent the last 12 years working in the charity sector working directly with, and leading children and young people’s services. Lisa also holds a PG Cert in Leadership in Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services from Kings College and has held strategic roles locally, regionally and now nationally around children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing and child exploitation.

Adem Ruggiero-Cakir, Programme Manager

Adem Ruggiero-Cakir is the Programme Manager (Education) at Carers Trust. Adem manages the Young Carers in Schools programme, a free initiative jointly run by Carers Trust and The Children’s Society that makes it as easy as possible for schools to support young carers and awards good practice. Adem joined Carers Trust in 2018 and has worked on various projects that support young and young adult carers.