Supporting Young Carers in Schools: A Step-by-step Guide for Leaders, Teachers and Non-teaching Staff

This resource has been written in association with teachers and school staff to help make the identification and support of young carers in schools as easy as possible. The Step-by-step Guide is for use in secondary and primary schools in England but could be easily adapted for use in the rest of the UK.

Key points

• It forms part of the Young Carers in Schools programme, a free England wide initiative making it as easy as possible for schools to support young carers and awarding good practice. 
• Together with the programme's free webinars, videos, case studies and the termly e-Newsletter , the Step-by-step Guide will help schools achieve the Young Carers in Schools Award. To start working towards an Award, please see our Five key actions to getting involved.

Many schools are delivering exceptional practice, making a real and positive difference to the young carers they support. Other schools have told us they want to achieve these excellent outcomes, but don't know where to begin. Download the full Step-by-step Guide and/or follow the ten key steps to implementing effective identification and support for young carers in schools.

1. Step 1: Gaining an understanding about young carers
2. Step 2: Reviewing your school's provision for young carers
3. Step 3: Securing commitment of school leaders
4. Step 4: Introducing a Young Carers School Operational Lead
5. Step 5: Acknowledging young carers in principal school documents
6. Step 6: Setting up systems to identify, assess and support young carers
7. Step 7: Raising the awareness of school staff about young carers
8. Step 8: Raising the awareness of pupils and families about young carers
9. Step 9: Identifying, assessing and supporting young carers and their families
10. Step 10: Sharing good practice with others 

Like other aspects of school life, the development of effective support for young carers is reliant on regular reviews of current provision and the identification of areas for continual improvement.  The steps are therefore a cyclical process, which schools should engage with throughout the school year.

Making it as easy as possible for schools to support young carers

The Step-by-step Guide has been developed with teachers and school staff who understand the pressures that schools face to deliver the very wide range of demands placed upon them.  As a result it is designed to be as flexible and helpful as possible.

Each step is accompanied by key information and practical tools, which schools can use and adapt to suit their school structure and local circumstances.  

Not all schools will need to use all the tools included.  Some may find it more helpful to choose those that will help enhance the support they already offer to young carers and their families while other will want to simply start and build their activities over a number of years.  

Find out more

To find out more, and for a full list of the tools accompanying each step, download the introduction to the Step-by-step Guide. Other tools and resources that you may find useful are included in our helpful additional resources guide.