1. Barnardo’s Lancashire Young Carers Service
Lancashire Wide Service:
East – Burnley, Pendle, Rossendale, Hyndburn & Ribble Valley
Central – Preston, Chorley, South Ribble & West Lancashire
North – Lancaster, Morecambe, Fylde & Wyre
Supporting Young Carers and their families
We work with Young Carers aged 5 – 17
The Service is currently funded through
Lancashire County Council and
East Lancashire C.C.G.
The LYC Team!

2. Legislation
The Care Act 2014 and the Children and Families Act 2014 came into effect on 1st April 2015.
The following statement defines who a young carer is;
Young carers include children and young people under 18 who provide regular or on-going care and emotional support to a family member who is physically or mentally ill, disabled, or misuses substances.
The Care Act 2014
A whole family approach to assessing and supporting adults;
• Consider the impact of the adult’s care needs on the child;
• Identify any children who undertake a caring role;
• Consider the parenting responsibilities of the adult.

3. Legislation cont.….. Children and Families Act 2014
Local Authorities must assess whether young carers in their area have support needs and, if so, what those needs are.
Lancashire County Council (Children's or Adult's Services) can carry out an assessment if;-
They think the child has needs (the young carer or their parent doesn’t have to ask),
The child asks them to;
The child’s parent asks them to.
Lancashire County Council must take reasonable steps to identify and assess young carers within Lancashire who have support needs. All young carers under 18 have a right to an assessment of their need; no matter who they care for, what type of care they provide or how often they provide it. Young adult carers in 'transition' from receiving support from Children's Services to Adult Services also have a right to an assessment.

4. Young Carers in Lancashire?
9% provide 50+ hours per week care
11.3% provide hours per week care
56.1% female (0-24s), 61.2% of those undertaking 50 hrs or more care per week
* Caveat of methodology – Census recording. 166,363 nationally. Other estimates at 700,000. Different measures: caring role / activities, negative impact etc.
* 2.31% of under 18 population, but skewed by low proportion of under 10s

5. Young Carers in Lancashire
1.2% of 0-15 census survey population reported as unpaid carers
Small district variations but generally reflects population spread
Little sig District variation in proportions of YCs: 1.4% in West Lancashire, 1.1% in Burnley, Lancaster, Preston

6. What Young Carer’s often do
Cleaning and tidying up
Making food for themselves and/or their family
Washing and ironing clothes
Go to the shops on their own
Paying for things for the family
Looking after brothers or sisters
Helping someone administer or organise their medication
Paying bills/going to the cash point or bank
Making and attending doctor and other appointments
Making sure house is safe – turning off switches and locking up
Helping someone to have a bath or a shower
Help to go to the toilet
Help to get someone dressed or undressed

7. What Young Carer’s often do
Emotional Support
Being there for the adult if they are upset, sad or worried
Listening to the adult about their illness, often being a shoulder to cry on
Talking to the adult about their illness, ‘Googling’ information so they understand it themselves first
Comforting the Adult about their future
Reassuring younger siblings about the adults illness or disability

8. Effects on Young Carers
Have no one to talk to, feel frightened or isolated.
Are scared to tell anyone about their home circumstances
Miss out on friendships & can often be bullied and stigmatised
Find it difficult to concentrate and/or hold on to their tempers
Are often tired
Feel worried, stressed, ashamed and guilty
Have difficulty getting to school on time/staying for the whole day
Find it difficult to do homework
Struggle to get involved in activities in their community
Carry high levels of responsibility with little/No support – leading to emotional poor health
Can’t think about their future’s i.e. employment/ future education
“Now you know the signs and symptoms, here is how you refer for support”

9. Referrals to The Service
Referrals are taken from all agencies and self referral
LCC request that a referral is accompanied by a CAF, or step up, step down processes so the service has a full picture of the whole family
Referrals are inputted and checked for appropriateness before an assessment
Project Worker contacts the family for consent to assess Young Carer
Assessment is carried out with Young Carer and then shared with the family to input into the process – the assessment looks at all areas of the young carers lives affected by their role
“Nobody asks; they just presume if someone did something wrong or is upset it's their own fault. They don't dig deeper into the matter they just presume something then stick to that idea, even if it's completely wrong – they don't care.”

10. Support Offered by LYC Support is split into 3 Tiers
Tier 1 – High level of support need
Tier 2 – Medium level of support need
Tier 3 – low level/signposting
Support Plan is developed based on the individual needs and wishes of the young carer and the family – Project Worker will meet regularly on a 1 to 1 basis to work through the plan - reviewed regularly and the young carer supported until the plan is completed
Targeted group work based on specific needs and issues identified through assessment (ongoing)
Supporting young carers to attend meetings e.g. TAF, CIN, CP.
Holiday Club
“Being able to talk to others really helps. I didn't know about the service until my last year in High School... Before that I just couldn't talk to anybody, I was on my own.”

11. Support continued Transitions into Adult Services when appropriate
Transition support at periods of change e.g. Primary to Secondary School, School to College
Work closely with school’s to develop support in conjunction with school staff
Young Carers Forum, enabling Young Carers to have a VOICE in services
Signposting and support to access Universal Services
Referring to other specialist services
as appropriate e.g. CAMHS;
Children & Family Wellbeing Service;
Counselling Services

12. Other Areas of Work Raising Awareness of Young Carers and our service
GP’s & Health Services
Education
Identifying areas of low referrals and targeting services
Identifying and Training Young Carers Champions in Lancashire
Attendance at strategic meetings including Working Together for Carers; Triangle of Care and Lancashire Young Carers Strategy Group
Involvement in consultation e.g. East Lancashire CSC Development Day, Equality & Cohesion Conference, Barnardo’s research

13. Same Day, Different Lives
What we need from you?
Help find the Lancashire young carers still hidden.
How can you do it in your daily role?
What support do you need from LYC?
Champions…….

14. Contact details Lancashire Young Carers Service 1 Dorothy Avenue
Leyland
PR25 2YA
Website - –