On national Young Carers Awareness Day, Liverpool passed another important milestone on its journey of supporting the city’s young carers. January 28 saw the official launch of Liverpool John Moores University’s (LJMU) package of specialised support for young adult carers who are also students.
Liverpool has a strong tradition of supporting young carers. For many years, Liverpool city council and Barnardo’s Action with Young Carers project have worked in partnership to raise awareness of the city’s young carers and to work with them to make sure they get the right support. And now both organisations have collaborated with LJMU on their work with young adult carers aged between 14 and 25.
LJMU’s package of support includes a dedicated staff member to provide information, advice and support, study skills support from a mentor, help with accessing additional sources of funding and help with accommodation.
With young adult carers four times more likely to drop out of higher education than other students, the clock has always been ticking for universities to identify young carers and now there is a more pressing motivator: the law.
Philip Bakstad, student support co-ordinator at LJMU’s student advice and wellbeing services, explains: “The introduction of the Care Act last April has rightly placed the needs of carers on an equal footing with those they are caring for and, for the first time, the act places a responsibility on universities to support young adult carers to transition effectively into higher education.
“We’ve been working at a regional and national level to ensure we are able to provide an appropriate and effective package of support for them. We have also contributed to the Carers’ Trust toolkit for higher education institutions seeking to develop their policy and practice in this area. Staff have been invited to deliver talks at two national conferences and the university has worked and is continuing to work with Barnardo’s to develop outreach initiatives for their cohort of young carers.”
The outreach work is of particular importance with many of the UK’s estimated 375,000 young adult carers classed as NEETs (not in education, employment or training). And if young adult carers go to university they will find themselves part of a very small minority.
Louise Wardale, Keeping the Family in Mind coordinator, Barnardo’s Action with Young Carers Liverpool, says: “We know that often young people who have had a caring role for many years think that they can’t go to university. They feel like they’re neglecting their responsibilities or that they won’t be able to cope with studying along with everything else.
“As we build relationships with young people whilst they’re working towards their GCSEs and A-levels we can make sure that they consider university to be a real option not as an impossible dream. Having LJMU staff as well as their students involved in saying ‘Yes, you can do this too’, is a very, very important part of this.”
Sarah*, a 21-year-old carer, will be starting university again in September thanks to support from Barnardo’s.
“When my mum was diagnosed with vascular dementia it coincided with my first year at university when I realised the course I was doing wasn’t for me and I decided to take time out,” she says.
“That is how I fell into being my mother’s carer pretty much full-time. At first it was basically 9 to 5 with the option of me being able to leave early but then my mum’s condition got worse and I was unable to leave her alone for even a few minutes. The hours soon grew to 7am to 9pm, with me being her sole carer. The long hours, the big responsibility and the emotional turmoil became a lot to handle. Mopping the kitchen turned into me crying on the floor never really being able to pin point why.”
Although Sarah applied to university again, she did not feel that she had much control over her future and wasn’t involved in discussions with her family or care professionals.
She says: “Even though I was the person who looked after my mum every day, I was never included, I was never involved. Now that’s changed, and it’s thanks to my auntie who introduced me to Barnardo’s.
“I am now fully involved in planning my own future and I have someone I can rely on professionally. Though it’s only been a few months it’s made a huge difference. Thanks to this, I now have a plan in place for my mum so that this September I will finally 100% have freedom back over my life and I will be attending university to study primary education. I want to teach, I want that more than anything.”
*Name has been changed
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