Schools Award
Does your school support young carers? Sign up for our Schools Award designed by young carers!
How the Award can help your school
Young carers have told us about their experiences of being a young carer and attending school. Together they have devised ten standards they feel will support them and enhance their education and participation in school life.
As a school, you will evidence your achievement of the standards. Once reached and verified by Carers In Bedfordshire, the award certificate will be presented to your school.
The Schools Award demonstrates that your school identifies and supports young carers against these ten standards.
- It recognises your school’s good practice
- It demonstrates your school is meeting the needs of this vulnerable group, as specially mentioned in Ofsted’s Inspection Framework
- Your school will be recognised by pupils, families and professionals as a young carer-friendly school.
Your school will have developed a culture of acceptance, understanding and support for young carers in their schools.
Research tell us that:
- There is on average two young carers in every classroom.
- 27% of young carers (aged 11-15) miss school or experience educational difficulties (40% where children care for a relative with drug or alcohol problems) (Dearden, C, Becker, S, 2004).
- A quarter of young carers said they were bullied at schools because of their caring role (Carers Trust, 2013)
- Young carers are more likely than the national average not to be in education, employment or training (NEET) between the ages of 16 and 19
- Young carers have significantly lower attainment at GCSE level.
The 10 Award Standards
- A young carer link worker in school
- Display information about young carers
- Assembly presentations about young carers
- Allocated space and time for young carers
- Young carers are included in school policies
- Young carers in school are identified
- Home work extensions are offered to young carers when needed
- Young carers pass or password to allow them to check on the person they care for
- The option to leave school early or start later in the morning
- Links with other schools developing young carer recognition and support
You can download our Schools Award guidance which includes what we are looking for and how to collect evidence
What is a young carer?
A young carer looks after someone in their family, who couldn’t cope without their support, such as a brother or sister, or a parent. There are around 700,000 young carers in the UK.
They have a lot of responsibilities and pressure at a young age. They may experience isolation, difficulties coping at home, problems at school or lack of social experiences.
Find out more about life as a young carer on our Young Carer pages.
You can also view these videos which give a good insight:
How would your school score?
Use our self-assessment tool to see how far you meet the 10 Standards. Your score will come through to our Young Carers team. They can come in to your school to help you improve your score.
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