Young carers

Supporting and identifying Young Carers by

raising awareness of the young carers agenda
working closely with schools and partners
developing and managing provision for young carers

Support and advice on:

What is a Young Carer?

A young carer is a child who looks after or helps look after someone in their family.

It may be their

mum
dad
guardian
brother
sister or
grandparent

They may be providing care or support to someone who is unwell or disabled.

Young Carers are children who take on practical and/or emotional caring responsibilities that would normally be expected of an adult.

Supporting young carers across Bedfordshire

Central Bedfordshire Council are committed to identifying and supporting young carers, by offering the following:

'Young Carers News'
'Young Carers School Support Schemes'
'Supporting all carers across Bedfordshire'
'Young Carers Network'
'Protective behaviours workshops'
'First aid workshops'

Young Carers news

Young Carers News, is a bi monthly newsletter that goes out to professionals who work with children and young people who may be young carers.

The aim of the newsletter is to raise awareness of the young carers agenda and promote services that work with young carers. If you would like to subscribe to Young Carers News please call Julia on 0300 300 4008 or email - julia.overton@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk

Young Carers News Dates (PDF 34KB)

Young Carers News issue 4 (PDF 241KB)

Young Carers News issue 3 (PDF 341KB)

Young Carers News issue 2 (PDF 533KB)

Young Carers News issue 1 (PDF 407KB)

School Support Schemes

One of the ways in which Central Bedfordshire Council are identifying and supporting young carers, is via their Young Carers School Support Scheme.

The main aims of the schemes are:

Raise awareness of the young carers agenda in all 135 schools.
Educate professionals so they can identify and support young carers.
Equip professionals and students with the knowledge of suitable support available to young carers

Since September 2011, the Young Carers Support Officer, has visited 54 schools, if you would like her to come to your school to discuss the support that is available please call Katy on 0300 300 4008 or email: julia.overton@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk.

Does your school know about 'Do you Care' a resource for schools to support young carers?

Protective Behaviours

The Parenting Team at Central Bedfordshire Council and Carers in Bedfordshire are working together to run a number of Protective Behaviours courses for young carers.

Protective Behaviours (PBs) is a practical and down to earth approach to personal safety. It is a simple, flexible and effective process which is inclusive and therefore accessible to everyone. The courses will be split into the 2 key themes:

Theme 1: "We all have the right to feel safe all the time"

Theme 2: "There is nothing so awful we can't talk about it with someone"

The aim of the course is to raise awareness of personal safety and to reduce the amount of excessive and inappropriate caring in Central Bedfordshire.

For more information please call 0300 300 4008 or email: julia.overton@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk.

First Aid course

Central Bedfordshire Council are working with Carers in Bedfordshire and TJ Training to run a number of first aid courses for young carers who live in Central Bedfordshire.

6 courses were run across Central Bedfordshire, 3 courses for the 5-11 age group and 3 courses for 12-18. The 3 hour course provided the children with a 1 year first aid attendance certificate, along with a number of skills to support the young carers in their role. We are planning to run more first aid courses for young carers and if you are interested in attending please contact Julia Overton

The course covers a number of things, some of which include:

The opportunity for the young carers to discuss who they care for and issues they face
Calling for help
Basic life support skills
How to reduce accidents and incidents from happening
Question and answer session, to reduce the young carers anxieties.

For more information please call 0300 300 4008 or email julia.overton@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk.

Supporting all carers across Bedfordshire

A single carers' support service that will serve all of Bedfordshire (excluding Luton) goes live on Saturday (1 October), following months of planning by carers, Central Bedfordshire Council, Bedford Borough Council, NHS Bedfordshire and voluntary organisations.

At a Carers Rights Day event in 2010, carers told the council and its partners that while the range of support available was good it was often difficult to know who the right organisation was to approach.

Since then, partnership work has been underway to design a single carers' support service that will make it easier to access help while still offering the range of support that had previously been offered by several organisations.

Now the charity "Carers in Bedfordshire" will provide support to carers that includes specialist one to one support (as may be needed by a person caring for someone with a mental health problem), group support and advice and information by telephone, email and the internet. They will also administer the NHS Carers Break and Training Grant service and run Carers Cafes across Bedfordshire at weekends.

If you or someone you know provides unpaid support to a relative, partner, friend or neighbour who is ill, frail or disabled or who has a mental health or substance misuse problem - that makes you a carer. For information, advice and support email Carers in Bedfordshire, call 0300 111 1919 or visit www.carersinbeds.co.uk.

Local and national organisations

If you are a young carer living in Central Bedfordshire, and need advice and help why not visit YC Net website a dedicated website specifically for young carers or for more information on other organisations who support young carers, take a look at the links below:

National organisation who support young carers (PDF 69KB)

Local organisations who support young carers (PDF 52KB)

Bedfordshire young carer meets the prime minister (PDF 15KB)

Day in the life of a young carer - find below some clips from our Undercover Heroes DVD:

What is the role of the Young Carers Support Officer?

To develop and manage support and provision for Young Carers across Central Bedfordshire working with Commissioned Partners through a Service Level Agreement.
To work closely with lower, middle, upper and special education need schools in identifying and supporting Young Carers and their needs.
To promote closer working relationships between schools and other partners in the support and delivery of services to Young Carers.
To implement appropriate aspects of the National Carers Strategy with regards to Young Carers.

Over the next few months the Young Carers Support Officer will be updating this section with more information and advice for young carers and their families.

Adult carers

If you are an adult and are providing support for someone you can find out more by visiting our "Looking after someone" pages.

We help:

children and young people to achieve more
to protect children, keep them safe and reduce child poverty (intervening as early as we can)
to improve children's emotional and physical health. We support the most vulnerable and the least well off.