Young Carers Information

Young Carers

In the Carers Team we are trying to raise the profile, identify and support more young carers and parent carers. Children can be born into the role of a young carer if their sibling or parent has a long-term health condition, disability, or additional needs, or caring can happen suddenly overnight following a diagnosis or accident.

In Surrey we know that there are potentially around 20,000 young carers aged between 0 and 18 years old, if we can identify and support those young carers their education and social life can improve.

Parent carers are described as parent of a child up to the age of 18, who has a long-term health condition, disability, additional needs and/or mental health need. Parents do not often identify themselves as a carer, as they see caring for their child as their role. We need to ensure we are also supporting these types of carers across the county too.

We have a number of commissioned services for unpaid carers in Surrey:

Action for Carers – Young Carers – Surrey Young Carers provides support and opportunities to meet with other children and young people in similar positions. They provide activities such as fun days and activity groups, support groups and 1:1 support for young carers in more complex caring situations. Young carers (under 18) | Action for Carers
Action for Carers Mental Health Support – A new team who supports families who care for someone with a mental health problem. Carers for someone with mental health issues | Action for Carers
Crossroads Care – Crossroads provide carer breaks for unpaid carers to take a break from their caring responsibilities. Our care and support services - Crossroads Care Surrey.

There are two types of breaks currently commissioned in Surrey:

• Carer breaks – a one-off offer of a number of hours to be used flexibly over a period of a year (further comms to be shared in the next couple of weeks)

• Carer End of Life breaks – this is aimed at carers who are looking after someone who is in the last 12 months of life. A weekly break for an unpaid carer to look after their own health and wellbeing during this difficult time. Crossroads can support children and adults on End of Life.

If you need more information, please contact Kim Jacobs on kim.jacobs@nhs.net