Pictured (L-R) Young carers Joel, Kesiah and Aaron with their poster
The Department of Education has partnered with Action for Children Northern Ireland to distribute a poster designed by Young Carers to all educational settings in Northern Ireland.
The Initiative comes in response to a campaign started by a group of Young Carers who wanted to create more awareness within schools of what being in a caring role is like and the impact it can have on their educational and social experiences.
The poster was designed by three siblings – Aaron (13), Joel (10) and Kesiah (9) – who are young carers for their older brother Christian (14).
The poster designed by three siblings to raise awareness within schools of what being in a caring role is like and the impact it can have on their educational and social experiences.
It was launched at an event on Monday (January 29) at Action for Children’s Head Office, Loughshore House, alongside colleagues from Barnardo’s NI and the Department of Education.
Young carers are defined as children and young people who have a substantive caring role for a member of their family, whether that be another child, young person or an adult, and whose health or development is affected due to their caring role.
Many of these young carers are not visible in school and it can therefore be difficult for the school community to offer them appropriate support.
Aaron, Joel and Kesiah with their older brother Christian.
There are currently over 17,500 unpaid carers aged under 25 in Northern Ireland that we know of, however, there are likely to be more because they are often hard to identify. This figure makes up roughly 8% of Northern Ireland’s carer population and includes more than 2,500 carers aged under 15, and 550 carers under the age of 10 years old.
Surveying young carers across the Belfast, South and South-Eastern Trusts, Action for Children found that less than one in six (16%) of young people who take on a caring role feel that their schools support them. Many of them feel that some teachers do not understand what a young carer does each day or how it impacts their ability to learn.
For most children, getting into school is a case of rolling out of bed and hoping to grab a slice of toast on the way out the door, but for a young carer their day often starts hours before the school bell rings.
But a young carer may take on an average of 25 hours of unpaid work per week to support their family through various duties and tasks that keep a household running. They often forgo extra-curricular activities, struggle to find time to do homework and carry worries and concerns many other children may not need to manage.
Aisling Reynolds, Services Manager for Action for Children Young Carers, has taken the lead in helping schools better understand and support the role of young carers. Aisling said:
“It’s evident that a school’s awareness and level of support for a young carer can make a huge difference to not only their experience in education, but their confidence, self-esteem and ability to progress further.
“By launching this school poster, our hope is that young carers can recognise their caring role and see that there is support in the community for them. Educators can also access and receive information on how to support young carers in their classrooms, enhancing the experience of young people with caring responsibilities in schools across Northern Ireland.”
(L-R) Mark Colley ( Action for Children NI), Eileen Maguire (Barnardos NI), Aisling Reynolds (Action for Children NI), Peter Hutchinson (Department for Education NI), and Mark Reid (Education Authority NI)
Welcoming the launch, Dr Mark Browne, Permanent Secretary for the Department of Education, said:
“The challenges of balancing school with the demands of providing physical care, personal care and emotional support to family members on a daily basis cannot be underestimated.
“I hope that by providing this Young Carers in Education Digital Awareness Pack to educational settings and highlighting this issue, we can help to facilitate a better understanding around the role of young carers, the challenges they face and support available.”
Chloe, a Young Carer previously supported by Action for Children while still at school attended Monday’s launch. She was part of the original group that started the campaign and said:
“If this poster was in school when I was in school, it would’ve made a difference for me”.
Eileen Maguire, Manager of Barnardo’s NI Young Carers service added:
“Young people with caring responsibilities have all the challenges of being young, with all the responsibilities of being an adult, and they're often left to face these alone.
“The young carers we work with at Barnardo’s NI are an incredible bunch of people and I am reminded daily of their resilience and compassion. By getting this information into schools, we hope it will help identify more young carers who need support.”