Sutton Young Carers Service provides a range of specialist and targeted support to children and young people aged 8 – 25 years of age, who have caring responsibilities.  This may be for a family member who has a physical or long term illness, mental ill health or misuses alcohol or substance.  Sometimes the family member might have more than one of the above mentioned conditions.  We should also be aware that a Young/Young Adult Carer may also have their own medical condition, or additional need.  

Our aim is to reduce the impact of caring through: 

• Building capacity and resilience 

• Improving well being 

• Improve educational outcomes 

• Reduce inappropriate caring. 

By: 

• Sharing age appropriate information, advice and guidance, with regards to family member’s illness/disability. 

• Giving respite from caring role by offering therapeutic interventions such as; Peer and community support, including:

Young carer groups, peer mentoring schemes and one-to-one support. 

• Emotional support. 

• Advocacy. 

• Emergency planning support. 

• Training partners who have contact with children to understand the needs of Young Carers. 

• Referring to agencies who can offer specialist support such as CAHMS.  

​Did you know?

• 1 in 12 Young People of secondary school age have a caring role

• 22% of young carers suffer significant educational disadvantage, including bullying, attendance problems or inability to complete homework/coursework

• Young carers have significantly lower educational attainment at GCSE level; the equivalent to nine grades lower overall than their peers

What Young Carers told us and what we did:

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Young Carers said that they wanted more direct support in school.

We created a weekly drop in for Young Carers in secondary school for them to access support in their lunch hour (in addition to one to one support sessions).  Young Carers attending tell us it has made a significant difference to their wellbeing and attainment at school.  

Young Carers said that they wanted increased awareness of their caring role amongst their teachers:

We provided targeted training to teachers and assisted Senior Staff to create a protocol for identifying and supporting Young Carers in School.

Additionally, talking to schools resulted in Young Carers being able to:

• Have access to a phone on in school, to keep in touch with home when necessary.

• Giving Young Carers a space and additional time to complete their homework work.

• Keeping in touch with Young Carers regarding the impact of their caring role and adapting the support according to pressures at home.

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Young Carers said they wished school had identified them earlier as Young Carers.

We worked with Senior Staff to include screening for Young Carers on the schools admissions application form.

We provide schools with advice, training, information and support to enable them to identify and support Young Carers both at teaching and governance levels. If you are a school and would like to talk to us about how we can support you to support Young Carers please call or email.

If you are a Young Carer and want support in school or would like us to talk to your school to help them understand your caring responsibilities, please call or email the team on youngcarers@suttoncarerscentre.org .  We can make a difference!

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Access online information for Professionals in Education here. 

​There are different types of support and help available to Young Adult Carers when they turn 18.  As a Young Adult Carer you have a right to a Transition Assessment so that children’s and adults services can support you to decide what help you need.  There is no set age for a Transition Assessment but it should happen before you reach 18.

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Know your Rights

For more information on the Carers Trust website, click here.

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Young Carer Awareness Training

If your team has not yet received training on identifying and supporting Young Carers please email or call to see how we can provide training tailored to the needs of your organisation.

Schools, Colleges and Universities

We can assist you to include Young Carers in your policies and protocols.  We deliver assemblies and have stalls at educational events.  We offer training to staff and governors. We can discuss setting up Young Carer Peer Support or whole family support in your school.

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