What do you mean by the terms Young Carer or Unpaid Carer?
An unpaid carer is someone who provides care and support to a family member, friend or neighbour. The person or people they care for may be affected by disability, physical or mental ill-health, frailty or substance misuse and cannot cope without their support. A carer does not need to be living with the person they care for.
Anybody can become a carer at any time in their life and sometimes for more than one person at a time. An unpaid carer can be any age from young children to very elderly people. A Young Carer is an unpaid carer under the age of 19. Those Young Carers who are aged 16, 17 or 18 may be eligible to access the Young Carers Grant
How can the college help?
- We will offer you access to a named person on campus whenever you need advice or support, and even to be the person who helps other staff to understand your own circumstances and the impact that this can have on you and your studies
- Where possible, we will fast track your funding application and offer to assist in helping you access any additional funding support
- We will work with you to consider what adjustments may be necessary to remove barriers and establish and maintain a personal learning plan
- For Young Cares, we’ll make sure you know about the Young Carers Grant
- We will offer to help you engage with our student support services and with local and national carers services
- We will offer you the opportunity to participate in respite and support actives through our Students’ Association
- We will do whatever we can to minimise the impact on your chances of success, including a commitment to the continuous review of our policies and processes to remove barriers wherever we can.
Young Careres and unpaid carers