COVID-19 AND YOUNG CARERS IN YOUR SCHOOL “Currently, at Ellesmere Port Catholic High School, we have 21 children who have been referred to Cheshire Young Carers. The service provides support for children who may care for parents and family members they live with. The service attends Team Around the Family (TAF) meetings for the school as well as regularly liaising with the school about the emotional wellbeing of children. The feedback we have received from the children using the service is always positive and children feel assured that they can go to a place for respite and support without the need to speak to someone about their problems if they do not want to. The service is always proactive in ensuring the work of Cheshire Young Carers is recognised by doing assemblies and school visits to raise awareness.�
Farhan Patel, Learning Mentor - Ellesmere Port Catholic High School.
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Our three-step plan to support pupils who are young carers; IDENTIFY
We want to work with you to help you identify and support more children who are young carers.
ASSESS
Our unique “Assessment Tool” provides schools with a practical means of quantifying the amount of care a young carer is undertaking so that you can tailor support on an individual basis; thereby improving educational outcomes.
ACTION PLAN
The information from the assessment tool to devise pupil a centered action plan to support each pupil with simple, time limited strategies designed to generate a significant increase in educational outcomes.
Without COVID-19 this is how we deliver a solution to schools like yours; Step One - Initial meeting This is to introduce our service and discuss the numbers of actual and potential young carers you are aware of and the number of “hidden pupils who are young carers” in your school / college.
Step Two - Staff Briefing
Working with your staff team this step helps everybody to understand: • How to identify a young carer • Why young carers may be hidden • What young carers may be doing in their caring role • What the impact of the caring role can have on attendance and educational outcomes • The FIVE free things any school can do to support young carers • The FREE support available from Cheshire Young Carers
Step Three - Assemblies Our assemblies have been designed to raise awareness of young carers along with giving children the confidence who may be a young carer to come forward and self-identify. 15 minute or 30-minute assemblies are available, designed to reinforce the school’s ethos of talking to trusted members of staff. The assemblies are delivered using specially created video content to bring the subject to life and reduce the stigma that young carers frequently experience. Step Four - Education Assessments Our educational assessment consists of structured questions that estimate the amount of care that a pupil undertakes and translates this into an impact measure on their potential educational attainment. The process is conducted by one of our highly trained education support officers who all come with a background in education. The result is an individual report that estimates the impact of their caring role on their education, with suggestions of simple actions that can positively transform the school experience of young carers. This has been proven to improve both welfare and educational attainment for many young carers.
In a COVID-19 world we are still here to support YOU! Since the start of the pandemic we have retained all our educational team members so that we can continue to support schools and colleges like yours. We are happy (subject to Government guidance) to deliver this free programme face to face but equally happy to use all our digital tools developed as a result of the pandemic. The result is the same – more children who are young carers supported through their education journey with improved life chances.
This is our COVID-19 Support Package: Step One - Initial meeting Delivered face to face or meeting digitally using Microsoft Teams (Zoom, GoToMeeting, or Google Meet) to discuss how our programme can help you to better identify and support the “hidden pupils who are young carers” in your school / college. Step Two - Staff Briefing Delivered either online or using a digital platform. The result is still the same with a better understanding of the pressures some pupils experience as a result of being a young carer. Plus, the simple steps all staff team members can take to identify and support pupils who might be young carers (and why we believe young carers are such unsung heroes). Step Three - Assemblies Our assemblies are now available as online content that can be delivered by our team or used by your school as an additional aspect of your normal assembly. The results can empower pupils who are young carers to come forward and create a supportive environment amongst all pupils across the whole school / college. Step Four - Education Assessments Over the summer (2020) we have transformed our educational assessment process into an online tool that is almost as good as faceto-face engagement and it produces the same quality information and recommendations. Please help us to start transforming the life chances of children you support who are young carers.
These are the benefits to your school:
Increased awareness for staff and pupils
Reduces the stigma for those pupils who may be young carers
Helps improve the support strategies that you already have in place
Improves support for vulnerable pupils
Action is louder than words... All it takes is a 10-minute conversation by telephone with one of our education team to discuss how this programme might work in your school / college. After the call if you believe we can add value to the support you already offer your pupils we are ready to work with you, it’s all free as a result of generous donors. If you think you already have young carers support covered then all you will have lost is 10 minutes! If nothing else, we can tell you the estimated number of young carers in your school based on leading research from the BBC and the University of Nottingham.
Education officer: Ceri Morgan 07921 860270
ceri.morgan@cheshireyoungcarers.com Serving the Cheshire East area
Schools Programme Manager: Sarah-Jane Dickinson 07922 421451
Sarah-Jane.Dickinson@cheshireyoungcarers.com
Serving the Cheshire West area
How our support has already helped school and colleges to change lives: “As a school we are delighted with the supportive and engaging education programme that has been provided by Cheshire Young Carers for the children of Dee Point. Not only has it raised their profile and recognised the incredible resilience, determination and courage of our children but it has also equipped them with an increased self-confidence and self-belief. The programme ensures the children are at the heart of it and the breadth and range of activities ensures all children’s interests are catered for. The staff are always so welcoming, engaging and motivating which is infectious and impacts on the children too. Having seen the hands-on experiences myself, I am really inspired by the work they do and the impact it has on our wonderful children.”
Dave Williams, Dee Point Primary Head Teacher.
Whole school changes Following staff briefings and assemblies, and developing PSHE content to include young carers, we worked alongside a primary school in Cheshire West and Chester to establish a Young Carer Policy, develop a ‘Young Carer Champion’ role within the school, and create in school provisions that built on existing support. The benefits of this has been significant – more young carers identified, improved educational outcomes, celebrating young carers rather than stigmatising them, and ultimately a happier group of children.
Individual support
A chaotic home life gave Julian stress at home, often seeming to lack concentration and display disruptive behaviours during lessons. School were initially unaware of his emotional challenges and his mother’s poor health – through our assessment and subsequent report, it became clear that his caring role was having an impact upon his attendance and grades. Some low-level changes to his support and a better understanding of Julian’s needs, helped him to positively engage with school. Julian also benefitted from some one to one wellbeing support and respite activities all year round (two other ways we support young carers). Julian is now thriving, with improved attendance and grades, and sees school as a ‘safe space’, a very different place to his previous life experiences.
Transitions New stages of life are daunting – which is why we help young carers moving up to high school, or work with young carers closely to prepare them for adulthood. Recently we have delivered online support sessions for those starting high school to reduce their worries, and also worked with high schools to prepare young carers for university, a doubly difficult transition for those young adults whom have a caring role at home. They visited new places, experience potential workplaces, learn key life skills such as budgeting and cooking, to help them grow as individuals but always having someone to talk to. With such genuine effort and interest, many young carers achieve so much more – help us, to help them reach their goals.
COVID-19 AND YOUNG CARERS IN YOUR SCHOOL
This support package for schools is supported by
The Westminister Foundation
CHESHIRE YOUNG CARERS Registered Charity no. 1151399 Northern Lights Business Park, Rossfield Road, Ellesmere Port, CH65 3AW Tel: 0151 356 3176 info@cheshireyoungcarers.com
www.cheshireyoungcarers.org @cheshireyoungcarers
@CYC_youngcarers
@cheshireyoungcarers
Cheshire Young Carers
Cheshire Young Carers