Young Carers at Cale Green

Young Carers at Cale Green

Who are young carers?

The Children and Families Act 2014 definition says a young carer is ‘A person under 18 who provides or intends to provide care for another person’.

This can include caring for a parent, grandparent or a sibling.

The person they care for may live with a physical or health condition, long term illness or something more hidden, such as a mental health problem, an addiction or neurodiversity.

The young carer might help with shopping, cooking, cleaning, managing medicines or money or take on other household responsibilities. They might help to provide personal care or provide emotional support and help looking after other siblings. The young carer may have to adapt their behaviours to meet the needs of the family member they care for. They may be restricted in activities they can take part in due to their caring responsibilities. Young Carers may also give their time just to be with someone they care for when they need company.

Young Carers are a very hidden group and often experience negative impacts on their education, health and social and emotional development as a result of their caring responsibilities at home. They may feel isolated or very different to their peers.

When Young Carers are identified (if they were not already known to us), we can refer to Signpost. Sign post young carers can offer a range of different supportive interventions. We can work together with families and signpost to identify any targeted interventions which can lead to improvements in attendance, attainment and wellbeing - along with support for families. We provide weekly drop in sessions for Young carers on a Tuesday lunch time and termly after school events.

Here at Cale Green, we work closely with Signpost Young Carers who have supported us by providing workshops for Key Stage 2 children, delivered a whole school assembly and provided staff training. We will continue to seek support from them to develop our awareness of young carers, our provision for young carers and our understanding as a school.

Meet the team

All Young Carers can attend a Young Carers drop in every Wednesday lunchtime with Ms Rogers.

All Young Carers can self-refer to Ms Rogers / Mrs Harding if they feel they need additional support.

Ms Rogers can provide additional emotional support and explore homework support in school. 

Ms Rogers can refer to Signpost Young Carers service for additional support if this is required. 

Further information

Signpost Stockport for Carers is an independent local charity who have been supporting carers for more than 30 years.

A carer is anyone providing help to a friend, neighbour or relative who could not manage without them because of frailty, illness, addiction or disability. Carers often don’t recognise themselves as ‘carers’; they just think of themselves as helping out somebody they care about.

Signpost can be reached via their website:
https://www.signpostforcarers.org.uk/

Or via telephone:
0161 442 0442

Who can help me?

Being a Young Carer, or a family member of a Young Carer, may feel lonely or confusing. Please don’t feel like you are on your own. You can contact Signpost Stockport for Carers using the contacts above, the School Nurse, Ms Rogers, Mrs Harding or anyone in school to ask for further help or support.

If you would like more information or would like to discuss this further you can speak to our Young Carers Operational Lead, Ms Rogers on 0161 480 2715 or via e-mail schooladmin@calegreen.stockport.sch.uk