From burnout to bright futures: The power of support for young carers

The theme for Carers Week 2025 is Caring about Equality. So right across the week Carers Trust is looking at the inequalities carers of all ages face as a result of their caring role.

In this article, we look at the real life challenges faced by young adult carers; and a project made possible by players of People’s Postcode Lottery that is helping them balance their caring role with pursuing their education and employment goals.

Carers Week has always been about recognising the huge contribution made by unpaid carers.

But it’s also about highlighting the really tough life challenges many carers face. Far too often, caring comes at a big personal cost to the carer. It could be acute financial hardship as a result of having to give up paid work to care for a relative.

For others it’s the double whammy of loneliness and sheer exhaustion that comes from spending day after day at home caring for a family member - without the faintest hope of a break and time to themselves.

So this year’s Carers Week theme ‘Caring about Equality’ asks us to think about what more we can do to support carers experiencing these profound inequalities.

One of the most obvious examples of carer inequality is the real challenge so many young carers face keeping up at school, and as they try to move into the world of work and training. It’s hard to study when you’re spending upwards of 20 hours a week looking after a parent or sibling at home.

And for many others, it’s extremely hard to move away from home for university or employment when they are constantly worrying about the person they care for back home.

It’s no surprise therefore that young people with caring responsibilities are three times more likely not to be in education, employment and training as young people without a caring responsibility.

So this Carers Week we are celebrating support from players of People’s Postcode Lottery that is helping us tackle some of these inequalities. Over the last seven years, the players have raised £5,550,000 for our work to help carers cope with the enormous challenges caring can bring.

And one of the ways they’ve done this is to fund two groundbreaking projects in Blackpool and Fife. These projects have transformed the training and employment opportunities for young adult carers – young carers transitioning from school into the world of work.

Employment and training workshops meant over 300 young adult carers were able to get support at a pre-employment stage to build up their confidence, as well as step away from their caring role to focus on their futures.

CV workshops helped young adult carers realise the skills they’d developed as a carer – strong sense of responsibility for others, multi-tasking and punctuality – were directly transferrable to the work place.

And the carer centres running the projects in Blackpool and Fife built up strong relationships with local businesses, colleges and training providers to ensure young adult carers weren’t overlooked for jobs, apprenticeships and Higher Education courses.

Carers were also invited to share their experience with employers including the BBC, Department of Work and Pensions, M&S and SSE Energy. In total, the projects collaborated with more than 90 educators, employers and local organisations.

Carson, 23 and from Fife, is one of the young adult carers whose life opportunities have been transformed thanks to the employability project funded by players of People’s Postcode Lottery.

He helps his parents care for a younger brother with Downs Syndrome, autism and other conditions that require 24 hour care. He explains how the support he got has given him the confidence to follow his dreams:

“I’m in my final year of college so I need to think about getting a job. I won’t fully stop my caring role obviously, but I need to be getting on with my own life. It’s also a great opportunity because I’m currently in the process of applying for a BBC apprenticeship which I learned about from the programme."

“Being a carer was never something I put on my CV. But realising that employers maybe do want to know this and do want to know that the skills I have developed with my caring role can be transferred into other areas has been a real confidence boost.”

Head of Charities at People's Postcode Lottery Laura Chow said:

“We're proud to support Carers Trust in all of the vital work that they do including these two programmes in Blackpool and Fife."

"I am delighted that funding raised by players of People’s Postcode Lottery is enabling Carers Trust to support young adult carers to grow in confidence, break down barriers to training and to explore employment opportunities.”