Shocking school absence figures for young carers show they urgently need more support

Attendance figures for 2023/24 released today by the Department for Education show, for the second year in a row, how young carers are continuing to miss more than a month of the school year (23 days) on average. This compares to just 13 days for pupils without a caring role.

Persistent absence is almost twice as high at 38% for young carers compared to 20% for their classmates. Secondary persistent absence shows close to half of young carers miss a day of school every fortnight (45% compared to 25%)

Unauthorised absence also continues to be twice as high for young carers (5% vs 2.5%).

Commenting on the figures, Andy McGowan, Carers Trust’s Policy and Practice Manager, said:

“These shocking figures show how young carers continue to miss out on their education because of the huge pressure their caring role brings."

"If the Government is serious about tackling what it calls an absence epidemic, it needs to recognise why young carers are missing so much school."

"These children are just trying to do the best by those they care for and that is causing them huge issues with attendance."

"Sometimes, the person they look after need urgent help in the morning, or the late nights and stress of caring catch-up with them."

"Yet far too often, young carers do not get the help they need to balance caring and learning.

“The only way to tackle this is to vastly improve identification and support for carers across our education system."

"This is why we are calling on the Department for Education to urgently set out their plan for improving identification and support for young carers."

"Introducing a Young Carers Lead in every school, who can coordinate identification and support for young carers, would be a vital step towards this."

"Without that extra help, we are failing a generation of young people, with enormous repercussions for their education, wellbeing and future life opportunities.”