YMCA Swansea works with over 150 young carers and their families in Swansea. We are part of the all wales young carers forum and have been working with politicians and ministers in Wales to lobby the views and voices of young carers in Wales. The legislation looks at carers of all ages.
· To assess the impact of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 [Opens in a new browser window] on carers of all ages in Wales, including:
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· Assessments of need;
Local authorities across Wales have adopted different methods for ensuring they are completing assessments of need for young carers. Whilst adult cares regularly get assessments, young carers are often missed out across Wales. Some local authorities complete their own assessments of need and share information with organisations that can support young people and their families. Some local authorities commission third sector organisations to develop and implement assessments of need and create action plans to work with the families to reduce the impact of caring on a young carer. Unfortunately, there are examples where local authorities don’t provide or complete any assessments of need. Therefore organisations working with and supporting young carers have developed their own assessments to provide support.
There needs to be a national standard for a Young Carers assessment where it links into the SSWA and future generations of Wales act. Local Authorities need to be held accountable for completing assessments or commissioning services that do this role for them.
· Provision of support, including respite care;
· Respite care for young carers is usually provided by the third sector organisations that support them. They are opportunities that don’t get funded by Local Authorities and tend to be trust funds or grant funds that organisations have to apply for.
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· Provision of information, advice and assistance;
· Local Health Boards have created and adopted Carers Strategies that include the provision of providing information, advice and assistance. Whilst this is a great start, far too often young people’s views and experiences are not thought about. Many of the events that are hosted by local authorities or voluntary services are hosted during the day time on weekdays to cater for adult carers. This is then not accessible for young carers as the aim of the services supporting young carers is to ensure they are attending school.
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· Information collected by local authorities and Local Health Boards on carers and their needs.
· The number of identified young carers used to be collated and reported on a yearly basis. This stopped in 2015/16
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· To consider broader Welsh Government policy on carers.
more needs to be done to support young carers in school. When a young carer leaves primary school their secondary school should be informed of their caring role. Similarly when young carers leave secondary school they should be able to tell the college on application that they are a young carer. Only recently universities have created a box where applicants can declare they are a carers.