Many young carers don’t want to say why they’re late, can’t stay awake in class or attend an after-school club. I know - I was one.

From age 6 until I moved out, I supported both my parents who had issues with alcohol and drug abuse. My mother also had a mental illness, so I had to make sure the house was safe and clean, and my mother was eating properly. I was too ashamed to say anything at school and I was afraid my parents would get in trouble if I did.

When I started working in education, I knew I didn’t want any other child to go through this unsupported and for their time in school to be as enriching and nurturing as possible.

Finding pupils who need support

To do this in our trust, we first had to identify the young carers in our schools.

To help with this, our director of quality assurance, Dr Jason Howard, called on Professor Saul Becker, an internationally recognised expert on young carers, the MYTIME Young Carers charity and other local charitable organisations for support.

With their guidance, we introduced a trust-wide Young Carers Policy that provides relevant guidance for schools. It is informed by insights from the above and sets about introducing a number of ways for young carers to come forward and receive support.

For example, rather than asking pupils if they are young carers, we ask if they have any “additional responsibilities” at home and reassure them they don’t have to share all the details.

To raise awareness about what this may include, we also encouraged schools to hold assemblies about what a young carer (or a “pupil with additional responsibilities”) is and isn’t.

Form tutors across the Creative Education Trust (CET) then followed up assemblies during tutor time, explaining in more detail the kinds of things young carers often do at home. We also put up “Are You a Young Carer?” displays around schools and celebrated Young Carers Action Day on 15 March.

Understanding the responsibilities of young carers

Through this work, we have gone from not really knowing who the majority of our young carers were to identifying over 400 across our schools. This should become easier for all schools and trusts as the government is now collecting data on young carers in the census.

Once we had identified these pupils, we then wanted to know more about the scope of what the young carers did. For this, we introduced the Multidimensional Assessment of Caring Activities (MACA) survey, which provides an indicator of caring activity undertaken by a pupil.

This was eye-opening, with some responses indicating children spent more than 15 hours a week caring for family members.

We also used this questionnaire with pupils when the reasons for any patterns around lateness, absence or poor behaviour might not be obvious as it can help identify young carers.

Tracking impact

With this information, we can better support and understand our young carers. For example, every CET school now has a young carers champion who works to identify and support young carers.

This work started in 2020 and is supported and evaluated by trust leaders and governors, who receive termly detailed impact statements.

These statements track the number of young carers who are being supported, the nature of that support, their attendance, behaviour and punctuality. We also consider how far young carers are represented in pupil leadership and are engaging in enrichment activities.

For staff, we’ve also provided appropriate CPD, while young carers champions have regular meetings with representatives from MYTIME. They then cascade this to staff in their schools.

Our pastoral teams are also alert to any mental health or safeguarding issues and they work with individual pupils to develop what are typically already strong coping strategies.

Practical support - and time for fun

However, much of our support for young carers is also practical and about simple adjustments. For example, we may move an after-school club to lunchtime or arrange for a taxi to pick them up after a school trip so they can attend.

We also give pupils who need to check their phone for messages a time-out card so there are no issues leaving lessons briefly.

CET celebrates the work young carers do at social events that are just for them, too, such as meals, cinema visits and bowling trips - all suggested by pupils as things they can’t always do.

There is no reason to lower expectations around what young carers can achieve. I don’t think I would be where I am today without being a young carer - the leadership skills and acute sense of responsibility and care for others will drive me for the rest of my life.

Having led or overseen over 50 schools now, I am aware there are young carers everywhere. You will have them in your setting, too. As educators, we have a responsibility to look out for young carers and help them find and capitalise on their strengths while they support others.

Nicole McCartney is director of Education at Creative Education Trust