On Tuesday 27th May, two members of our committee (Florence and Lila) volunteered their time to travel to Westminster, London. It was an early start and a long day.
Why did they make this journey? To meet with other young carers from across the UK to collaboratively attend an arranged meeting with Ofsted to potentially influence their new framework to be launched Autumn 2025
Why did you volunteer to come today? Why is this important to you?
“I came to get some experience in a different setting like having meetings and being able to speak in front of others especially vocalising something I’m passionate about such as today’s meeting, raising young carer awareness and ways the government can support “.
“I volunteered for the experience to be able to change things for me and other young carers. I think it is a privilege to go the meetings and in the hope we can get support for others”.
What do they want Ofsted to do in support of young carers?
“We have asked Ofsted to make it a requirement that there is more awareness of young carers in schools, for example for each school to have a register of all pupils who are young carers, key adults within each school or college whose responsibility it is to be there for young carers, and more funding for school meals and trips since many young carers can miss out because of finance”.
“ As Lila has explained, we have asked for Ofsted to change things in a positive way for young carers. They are small asks but would be a big change”.
What was the response of Ofsted?
“Many young carers fall into two categories:
Those with perfect grades and a perfect smile making any adult believe they are happy and doing well but many suffer in silence and do not ask for help because there is stigma around looking for help for your family.
Children who always get detentions for not delivering a task in time, missing school or for challenging behaviour. For a young carer this can lead to the individual not being able to cope with the challenges at home but can’t communicate the help they need or isn’t understood by teachers and they shouldn’t have to explain to every teacher what’s going on with their life”.
Why should Ofsted give more acknowledgement to young carers in education?
“Even just all education staff understanding what a young carer is would help great out for everyone. Training for staff in being able to understand this could lead to better support for any challenging behaviour or improve mental health”.
“A lot of young carers will put on a fake smile and keep up there good grades, because they don’t want attention brought on themselves by asking for help. Or some carers will have a coping mechanism of messing around and getting detentions”.
What would be the best support?
“I think that just knowing that young people could have support and someone they trust to speak to or having a safe space to go to if they are feeling overwhelmed. And having training to know how to approach the young person and decreasing there stress and mental health issues”.
In summary:
“I personally thought that it was a great and inspiring day out, I got to meet other young careers and here about their stories. I also think that it benefited the most of us that we got to speak our mind and help other people to understand our struggles and hopefully change things for the future”.
“I believe it was a great day out, I got a few other perspectives of young carers from around the UK. It benefitted us all speaking out our ideas of what schools need help with to make them inclusive to everyone”Ofstead
