Management Information Sheet

Caring Together, Norfolk County Council and Young Carers Matter Norfolk, with the support of organisations across the county; have set a challenge to make sure every young carer in Norfolk has someone they can talk to in school and knows what support is available to help them.

Many children and young people play a vital but demanding role in helping to look after a family member because of an illness, disability or addiction. Too often their role is not known, and this means the impact of their caring role is not understood and they do not have the essential support they need.

From spring 2023, for the first-time, young carers are going to be included on the national school census return which all schools have to complete.

This will provide a better picture of the number of young carers in schools, help the impact of being a young carer to be understood, and potentially increase the support on offer to young carers.

To help ensure that every young carer in the county is identified at the earliest opportunity and linked into available support we have set a challenge. By the end of the 2022-23 academic year, we want every Norfolk school to:

1. Have a Young Carers Champion so every young carer has a trusted adult in school they can go to if things are difficult, or they need more support.
2. Have a young carers agreement / policy so that every young carer knows what support is available to them in their school and locally.
3. Ensure young carers are correctly identified in their school pupil management systems and monitor indicators such as attendance and attainment using the young carer flag.

This is a huge aim to try and get this in the 500+ schools across the county and so this is where we are asking for your help. If you have any links to local schools – whether that be through your work, as a parent, as a governor, or if you know anyone who works in schools, you can help us ensure that every young carer has support available by making sure schools are signing up to the challenge. You can also share Caring Together’s posts about the challenge on social media (@CaringTogether). If your organisation is willing to be listed as one which supports the challenge, then please e-mail carerfriendlytick@caringtogether.org with a copy of your logo and we will add you to the growing list. There is an image attached which you can also use to show your support.

Attached is a briefing sheet which contains more information. Schools can sign up to the challenge and find free resources available at www.caringtogether.org/youngcarerchallenge. People can e-mail enquiries (including to check if schools have signed up) to carerfriendlytick@caringtogether.org

On Young Carers Action Day in March, we will be publishing a list of the schools which have signed up to the challenge at a planned Norfolk Young Carers in Education Summit.

Thank you in advance for any support you can provide as we try to ensure all young carers are identified and supported to enable them to flourish. Please do share this with anyone who might be interested or able to support.