Life To Get Even Tougher For Britain’s 175,000 Young Carers

Hundreds of projects providing vital help to Britain’s hidden army of young carers are under threat because the £334m government grants that fund them are due to end within months, charities warn. Schemes offering support such as counsellors and after-school groups to help young people who look after disabled, mentally ill or drug-abusing parents, are at risk despite growing concern at the struggles facing the estimated 175,000 carers aged under 18 in the UK.

{mosimage}Children as young as five are helping at home, taking on housework and cooking and even nursing care for family members, in some cases spending 20 hours a week or more on such activities. Charities fear that a move to end the central grants that pay for many young carers projects, and to give the money to the local authorities instead, could see the cash diverted to other needs.

The children’s commissioner for England, Al Aynsley-Green, warns that child carers barely feature in the plans published by councils covering priorities for young people. “These young people are in danger of falling through the gap between adult and children’s services, as few authorities have protocols to help children’s and adults’ teams work together.”

The carers grant and children’s fund are central government pots of money that fund a range of projects for carers and disadvantaged children, and include schemes backing young carers. The carers grant is worth £185m in England this financial year, while the children’s fund will provide £130-£149m. Both are due to be wound up next March. The children’s fund will go directly into councils’ children budgets, but the future of the carers grant will not be clarified until the comprehensive spending review in October. Charities fear all the money will simply be absorbed into local government funding, with no guarantee that help for young carers will be protected.

The plight of young carers was highlighted last month when the Milton Keynes deputy coroner, Thomas Osborne, called for a government investigation following the death of 13-year-old Deanne Asamoah from an overdose of morphine tablets prescribed for her sick mother. The apparent suicide of the teenager, who helped look after her mother, being treated for cancer, was “a tragedy”, he said.

Alex Fox, assistant director at the Princess Royal Trust for Carers, which supports 15,000 young carers via 81 projects in the UK, offering advice, mentoring, clubs, holidays and family support, said the schemes provided “a lifeline” for young people. He warned: “Many of these services are relying on the [grants] because very few are getting anything out of councils’ core funding. There are 350 young carers’ projects in the UK, and a lot of them are now vulnerable to disappearing.”

Alison Webster, principal policy officer at Barnardo’s, said losing the projects to funding cuts would be “a disaster” for families. She said: “They will lose their source of support. We will be fighting very hard to make sure the projects don’t suffer or close.”

Beverley Hughes, the children’s minister, said yesterday the government had put the needs of such children “in the frame”. She added: “They shouldn’t have to miss their childhood.”

In school, carer children can suffer verbal taunts and abuse. According to a 2005 study by the Princess Royal Trust “it is rare to meet a young carer who has not been bullied as a result of their caring role”.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said ministers had yet to decide what would happen to the carers grant and other grants in the next spending review period, in the autumn. “I appreciate that this may make local planning more difficult. However, regardless of whether the carers grant continues as a separate sum or is rolled into the general personal social services money, councils will still have a duty to support carers.”

A DfES spokesman said: “Funding formerly administered by the children’s fund will be taken over by children’s trusts from March. This will enable much greater coordination between the organisations that provide services for young carers.

“Many areas have already taken the first steps towards securing this by including the children’s fund grant within the local area agreements. This decision should make it easier to take forward children’s fund projects that have been effective and met local needs.

“Given the excellent contribution of the children’s fund in providing good quality preventative services for 5- to 13-year- olds and their families, we would expect that local authorities will continue to commission this work. To assist, the Department for Education and Skills, and government offices, are disseminating learning and good practice from the fund.”

Case Study

For Christian Lunn, a typical morning means getting ready for school, then emptying the dishwasher, putting on the washing machine, hanging the washing out and checking whether his mother, who suffers from a debilitating blood disorder leaving her permanently exhausted, is all right.

After school, Christian comes home and ensures his father, who developed bipolar schizophrenia seven years ago, is occupied, perhaps with drawing or painting. Then it’s time to cook dinner and do the ironing before homework and bed. Sometimes it will be a night of broken sleep if his father, a poor sleeper, is up and about.

Christian is 14. Despite being too young even for GCSEs, never mind driving or voting, he has been looking after both his parents for the past three years, juggling his responsibilities with school.

At first, starting seven years ago, his mother cared for his father, but now, increasingly, the responsibility is falling to Christian, an only child. “Sometimes I feel why me, why me?” he says. “It is like one thing after another. We think he [father] is getting better, then there is a big relapse and he is back to square one. Then we think mum is getting better but she gets ill – and she is my support.”

Christian belongs to the Young Carers project in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, where he lives. He meets an adviser from the project each week in school. He can discuss problems and concerns, including anything he thinks could upset his mother. “We talk about what is going on at home, and I can just let out my emotion,” Christian says. “If I am feeling cross I can be cross at them and they won’t run away.”

The adviser helps in practical ways – in little things that matter, Christian believes. Through Young Carers he attended a cookery course which helped him with dishes such as stir fry, spaghetti bolognese, and crumble. After his education was affected when caring responsibilities got in the way of homework, his school allowed him to drop a language course, leaving him extra free periods to catch up.

For Christian, outside support has meant helping him cope better with his caring role rather than easing or removing it. But he insists that is the way he wants things. He says: “I don’t feel they can take the role off me because I feel responsible. If they took it off me I would feel I am not doing my part, I am not helping.”

To ease the stress of constant caring, the adviser encouraged Christian to take an hour a day for himself, which could involve dancing, singing and acting classes after school. He has also got friends who offer moral support. The hardest thing, he says, is “not knowing what is to come, what will happen to my dad and my mum”.

As his mother prepares to go into hospital for a tumour removal, he insists that he does not think how great his responsibilities are for his age. “I don’t think of it like that. I feel it is just something I have got to do. Because I love them, I will do it for them.”