Camden Young Carers (Children's Society)

This is the local organisation supporting young people under 18 who are caring for a parent, sibling or other family member. They offer a wealth of help including young carers assessments, whole family work, peer support and group activities. 

More information here Islington and Camden Young Carers service | The Children's Society (childrenssociety.org.uk)

and to refer, email [email protected] 

 

Young Carers Assessments 

Young carers are children under 18 with caring responsibilities, and they have a right to a carers assessment.  Their rights to be assessed come mostly from the Children Act 1989 and the Children and Families Act 2014.

If there is an adult being looked after, then the council has a duty to consider whether there are any children involved in providing care, and if so, what the impact is on that child.

The council have a duty to assess ‘on the appearance of need’ (ie without a ‘request’ having to be made). They also have a more general duty to ‘take reasonable steps’ to identify young carers in their area.

The council must involve the child with caring responsibilities, their parents and any other person the young carer requests in the assessment process.

The assessment itself must look at whether or not the young carer wishes to continue caring, and whether it is appropriate for them to continue caring. When doing this they have to take into account any education, training, work or recreational activities the young carer is or wishes to participate in.

Where a young carer’s eligible needs are identified as requiring support, local councils will need to:

• provide support directly to the young carer or
• demonstrate that the ‘cared for person’s’ assessment has provided adequate care and support to prevent inappropriate care being required from the young carer

Here is a link to a leaflet with more information

https://www.local.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/Young%20Carers%20needs%20assessment.pdf

 

What to do if you are working with a young carer

If you are doing an early help assessment with a family that includes a young carer, make sure to tailor your assessment to specifically explore the impact of their caring role. You can find a tool to help you do this here My Life Now: Individual Assessment and Planning Tool for Young Carers - Resources - Carers Trust and a hard copy to print here 

Make sure to include the young person's needs relating to their caring role in your assessment and plan. 

You could also ask the Childrens Society to do a young carers assessment. If you do, make sure to ask for a copy and integrate it with the early help assessment and plan. 

If the young carer is caring for a parent, and you think the parent needs support from adult social care to reduce the impact of the young person's caring role, please contact Adult Social Care asap. 

 

Camden's Young Carers Protocol

Here is the protocol between CSSW, Adult Social Care and Early Help for identifying, supporting, and working with young carers.