A young carer is someone aged 18 years old or under who helps look after a relative or close friend with a disability, illness, mental health condition, or drug or alcohol problem.

What might a young carer do?

• Practical tasks, such as cooking, housework and shopping.
• Physical care, such as helping someone out of bed.
• Emotional support, such as talking to someone who is distressed.
• Personal care, such as helping someone dress.
• Managing the family budget and collecting prescriptions.
• Helping to give medicine.
• Helping someone communicate.
• Looking after brothers and sisters.

Support for young carers in Devon

Being a young carer can have a big impact on a child. It can affect their health, social life and self-confidence. Many young carers struggle to juggle their education and caring which can cause pressure and stress.

Devon County Council commissions ‘Devon Carers’ to support young carers in Devon and help them cope with their caring role through specialised services.

You can contact the service directly or, if you’ve given your consent, a professional or practitioner can make a referral to the service on your behalf.

The support offered aims to help young carers have the same life opportunities as their peers, feel supported at school/college, have good physical and emotional health, access and achieve their potential in education and training, have their voices heard and be prepared for adulthood and independence.

You can get in touch with Devon Carers by calling 03456 434 435 Monday to Fridays from 8am to 6pm and on Saturday from 9am to 1pm. Alternatively you can fill out the contact form on their website.

Types of support available

Devon Carers offers young carers a range of advice and information as well as access to specialist services for support depending on their individual needs.

They carry out assessments to make sure young carers receive the right level of support based on how their caring role affects other parts of their life. This can include helping young carers come up with an action plan to identify and achieve their goals, offering advice specific to their situation, access to online resources, leaflets or books or helping make appointments with another services.

The impact of some caring roles means some young carers need more support than others. This could be through groups, clubs, drop in sessions, mentoring and buddying opportunities to meet other young carers and share experiences or trips and activities to make friends and take a break from their caring role, improve their health and wellbeing and help them to achieve the best outcomes at school.

If their caring role is having a profound impact on their life, a young carer is likely to have multi-agency support co-ordinated through an early help plan to ensure the right support is being received at the right time and in the right place. This can include regular 1:1 support for the young carer from the Young Carers Support Service, who will also help young carers prepare for adulthood and transition, for example from primary to secondary school, and where there may be a likelihood of continuing caring responsibilities beyond 18 years old.

Devon Carers will also work with other services to make sure that young carers receive up-to-date information and advice and are able to access the most appropriate service.

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