1. Supporting young carers
in our school
GOOD MORNING!!!!
Today’s assembly is really important –I’m going to be telling you about young carers because this week it’s National Carers Week. Being a young carer is something we’re really keen to help people with at this school so, after you’ve listened if you think you might be a young carer or you know someone else who is, please do come and talk to us so we can find out what you need to make life easier.

2. Who are ‘Young Carers’?
So, first of all, a question...who is a ‘young carer’? Has anyone got any ideas?

3. Who are young carers?
A ‘Young Carer’ is a name that some people use for a
young person who looks after, or helps to look after,
someone in their family who:
has a long term physical illness (an illness that affects their body)
has a mental illness (an illness that affects their feelings and behaviour)
has a disability
has a drug or alcohol problem.
A ‘Young Carer’ is a name that means children or young people who looks after, or helps to look after, someone in their family – this might be your mum, dad, brothers, sisters, grandparents or other family members. Sometimes young carers are helping more than one person in their family.
One of the reasons that they need to give that extra help might be because that person has a long term physical illness–things like cancer, or epilepsy, or pain conditions, or lots of other kinds of illnesses that don’t go away.
Other young carers care for family members who have mental illness. Mental health issues can include conditions like depression or anxiety, schizophrenia , bi-polar disorder, and many others. These kind of illnesses affect how people feel or behave, so people might be very sad a lot of the time, or feel too tired to get out of bed. They might feel very worried and nervous all the time and this stops them doing things or their moods might change a lot or they might see things or hear things that aren’t there. This isn’t something that people talk about very much but actually it affects lots and lots of families and it is OK to ask for help about this.
For other young carers, they’re helping family members who have a learning or physical disability, which affects how they move or communicate or behave.
Sometimes its because someone in their family is using drugs or alcohol and this affects how they manage day-to-day, which means young carers have to do more at home to help.

4. Who are young carers? Anyone can become a young carer at any time
Sometimes you might be helping to look after someone but might not think you are a ‘Young Carer’ but you can still get help.
Even if you’re not a young carer, you can help other young carers by being a good friend
You might be listening to this and thinking ‘that’s not me, I don’t need to listen to this’. But it is important to listen for a few reasons.
Sadly illnesses can affect families at any time. Hopefully it won’t happen to you but it could, so it’s always good to know about how to get help.
You might also be doing this but have never thought of yourself as a carer. Sometimes people have illnesses that are very up and down, so you can be fine a lot of the time, but then things get really hard when they do have bad patches. Also, you might just have always been doing it without really realising it was called caring or that you could get help/support.
Another reason to listen is that, in a survey completed by a national carers organisation, a massive two thirds of young carers said they had experienced bullying at school because they look after someone who is ill or disabled in the family! So, even if you don’t think this affects you at all, this assembly is still important because we want our school to be a really good place for all our carers and, to make that happen, we need everyone in the school to understand and be supportive to all the young carers and to our teachers who are carers for people in their families.
So everyone in this whole year can help by being a good friend and looking after people who are carers.

5. What do young carers do?
So, what kind of things do you think young carers do?

6. What do Young Carers do?
A Young Carer may be helping in lots of ways, including:
Housework, shopping and cooking
Looking after younger brothers or sisters / taking them to school
Helping someone get washed or dressed or move around
Listening to someone’s problems / keeping them company
Helping someone take their medication
Going to hospital and doctors visits with them
Paying household bills
Young carers can help doing lots of different things. You might be helping doing day-to-day chores like shopping, cooking and cleaning. Or maybe taking younger brothers and sisters to school which might make you late getting here.
Sometimes carers have to help the person they look after get washed or dressed or move around.
Or a big part of caring can be emotional care – so just making sure someone is OK, checking in on them in the night, calming them down if they’re having a bad day. And that can be really hard to switch off from when you're at school.
Some carers also make sure the person at home is taking their tablets or knows how to give them their injections – and that’s a big responsibility to have.
People can be helping by arrange appointments or go with people to the doctors or hospital, which might mean they’re missing school. Sometimes young carers even have to get a job or help manage all the bills and money at home.
I’m sure all of you help out at home and do some of these things. But for young people who are caring for someone at home who is ill or disabled, they have to do a lot extra, on top of still coming to school, doing homework, making friends and all the other things that people your age have to do. So you can imagine it can really impact on the rest of their life

7. How can caring affect you?
So, if you’re having to do all those things, on top of going to school and having friends etc, what might be difficult for a young carer / how might school life be for them?

8. How can caring affect you?
Missing school
Being late for school
Feeling very tired / falling asleep in class
Not being able to concentrate at school
Not being able to get homework/ coursework done
Can’t join in activities after school or go out much
Bullying
Hard to make friends
Feeling really worried, frightened, angry or sad
Caring can affect you in lots of ways . (go through slide giving more detail /examples / reasons etc
Sometimes people get into trouble at school for some of things because we don’t know why its happening. But if we knew, we could help.

9. Good things about being a Young Carer
Feeling close to your family
Feeling proud because you are helping your family
Feeling safe because you know you are doing a good job looking after your family
Learning lots of things that will help when you are grown up
Getting to spend lots of time with the people you love
There are lots of good things about being a young carer though – carers are doing something amazing - its something to feel really proud of.
Young carers often just want a bit more support and for people to understand what being a young carer means

10. How many young carers are there in Sheffield?
Now often people don’t tell anyone they’re a young carer because they're worried about what people will think. But there are lots and lots of young carers in Sheffield. Can anyone guess how many?

11. Young Carers are not alone!
1 in 12 children and young people are young carers (BBC, Nov 2010).
This means .... in your year group, …. in this school and over 7000 young carers in Sheffield
The average age of a young carer is 12 but lots of people who are younger than this are also young carers.
The answer is we don’t really know because so many young carers haven't told anyone about what's happening at home.
But we know that 1 in 12 children and young people are carers, which means XXX in your year group, XXX in this school and over 7000 young carers in Sheffield!
We know about lots of young carers in this school already and give them lots of support to help them manage at school, but we know there are many more who we don’t know about , which is why we’re doing this assembly today.

12. Short films: Our Stories (secondary age) Or
We Care, Do You? (primary age)
Time to be Heard (post 16 age)
If time, show part of one of these films – CHECK NO PUPILS FROM YOUR SCHOOL APPEAR IN THE FILM FIRST

13. How can you get help?
So, this is the most important bit about today’s assembly. Has anyone got ideas what you could do if you or someone you know is a young carer to get some help?

14. Speak to someone! How can you get help?
Caring for someone is something to be proud of.
But it can be hard and sometimes everyone needs help.
If no one knows, no-one can help!
The most important thing, is to speak to someone about it. If no one knows, no-one can help!
You and your family wont get in any trouble – we just want to make sure you are all OK.
You can talk to XXX here at school and everything you share will be in confidence.

15. Contact Sheffield Young Carers Project
How can you get help?
Contact Sheffield Young Carers Project
For young people aged 8-25 who are
caring for someone in their families
Social groups, trips, activities
Issue-based work
One-to-one support
There is also a local charity that helps young carers called Sheffield Young Carers. They support young people aged 8-25 from across Sheffield who are caring for someone at home. They have lots of information on their website or you can contact them for help too.
They do different things like:
Social groups and trips (get a break from caring, meet others who also care for someone, have fun!)
Issue-based work (healthy eating, dealing with stress, first aid, bullying etc.....)
One-to-one support (this is where you have someone to talk to, to get information, ask questions and get things off your chest)
Sometimes they do have a waiting list though. If you want to contact them but aren’t sure about it, speak to us and we can help.

16. Keeping young carers healthy
Caring can be rewarding but it can also be hard, so its important that young carers keep themselves well.
You can help keep well by:
Telling your doctor or nurse that you are looking after somebody at home
Letting a trusted adult know if you are feeling sad or worried
Remembering you are important too – make sure you take time or ask for help to care for you too!
Another way to get help can be through your doctors surgery so, if you feel comfortable talking to them. You could tell your GP or another adult you trust at the surgery such as a receptionist or nurse that you’re a young carer so they can make sure you stay well and are OK too.
Its important you look after yourself as well as the person you're caring for – don’t forget, young carers need care too!

17. Other help – look after each other!
Written by Sheffield Young Carers Project members:
Keep what is happening in their family private (but help them to get help from an adult )
Be there for them
Understand that they can’t always go out
Listen to them when they’re upset
Listen to them when they explain what is wrong with the person they care for
Take them seriously and try to imagine how it feels
Remember important dates – like when someone has died or when someone has to go to hospital
Don’t use them – they are very caring people!
Some of you might be thinking –this isn’t me, it doesn’t affect me. But we can all do something to help make life easier for the many young carers who go to this school.
This slide was written by some young carers who were members of Sheffield Young Carers Project. Some of them had a very bad time at school so they wanted all schools to know what would have helped them at school.
So, if you have a friend who has someone in their family who’s unwell or disabled, or if you are a teacher and a pupil talks to you about this, try and do some of these things to help them....
(go through list /expand a bit)

18. Changes in the Law - Young Carers Assessments
This year, young carers got the right to an assessment, which means they have been recognised properly in the law for the first time!
An assessment is a booklet to help you tell an adult about your caring at home. This will help you and the adult find ways to make your life and your caring role easier.
To find out more, speak to a staff member you trust or go to :
Since April 2015, we have a new law in the UK – young carers now have the right to an assessment, which is brilliant news because it means they have been recognised properly in the law for the first time!
An assessment sounds serious but its actually just a booklet (pictured here) to help you tell an adult about your caring at home. This will help you and the adult find ways to make your life and your caring role easier.
To find out more, speak to a staff member you trust or go to :

19. Another way to help…. Carers Week 2017 (12th -18th June)
This year’s theme is ‘Building Carer Friendly Communities’
Activities that are already happening in Sheffield: A circus and drumming workshop, information stands and an award ceremony for people who help carers.
Lots of other events all over the country and an online pledge wall:
We want to make Sheffield a carer-friendly place…
What will YOU do???

20. Thank you for listening Any questions?
Thank you very much for listening today. Any questions?
If anything I've said has got you thinking, please do come and talk to me or any other teacher and we’ll let you know how we can help.