Led jointly by Carers Trust and The Children’s Society, the Young Carers in Schools programme supports schools across England to better identify and support pupils who are young carers and rewards best practice. The award was adapted and relaunched into a more streamlined format in January 2024 and since July 2024 we have been conducting a process and impact evaluation.
Today we are pleased to announce the publication of our evaluation report. This draws together public data and analysis of the National Pupil Database (NPD), with school surveys and interviews with staff in local carers’ services, school staff and young carers, to evaluate the Young Carers in Schools programme.
The evaluation has demonstrated some key impacts of the award programme:
- Schools with the award were identifying young carers at just over three times the rate of schools without the award.
- The award has a clear impact in reducing absence rates for young carers, with a 6% reduction in absences
- It has a positive impact on staff knowledge and awareness, with 87% of schools reporting increased staff knowledge about the challenges facing young carers and 81% reported that staff felt more confident in identifying young carers.
- The award contributes to improved wellbeing for young carers, with 62% of schools agreeing or strongly agreeing that the emotional wellbeing of young carers at their school had improved as a result of the award.
It has been wonderful to see how the staff and children’s awareness of young carers has evolved. Children enjoy referring to our young carers display board and our young carers say coming to our lunch club makes them feel valued. It has also improved our engagement with parents of our young carers.
Member of Senior Leadership Team
