Young Carers in Schools. Step 9: Identifying, Assessing and Supporting Young Carers and their Families

This step, taken from Supporting Young Carers in Schools: A Step-by-step Guide for Leaders, Teachers and Non-teaching Staff, sets out the key actions that schools should follow when they identify a pupil who is, or may be, a young carer.

Key points

Each time the school identifies a pupil as a young carer, the Young Carers School Operational Lead should ensure a number of key actions are taken to:

• Assess the needs of this pupil and of their family.
• Secure consent for information to be shared.
• Establish the involvement of staff and other professionals to plan and implement support.
• Develop and agree pupil plans/provision maps.
• Deliver support.
• Monitor and review impact on the young carer and their family

Step 9: Identifying, Assessing and Supporting Young Carers and their Families, categories these key actions into those you should take to deliver a basic level of provision for young carers, to move beyond the basics, and to achieve best practice.

This step is taken from Supporting Young Carers in Schools: A Step-by-step Guide for Leaders, Teachers and Non-Teaching Staff. The steps from this guide are designed to be used in order.

Tools 

Tools available to support schools undertake the actions, set out in Step 9: Identifying, Assessing and Supporting Young Carers and their Families, include: 

• Step 9, Tool 1: Exemplar information consent sharing form
•  Step 9, Tool 2: The multidimensional assessment of caring activities
• Step 9, Tool 3: The positive and negative outcomes of caring
• Step 9, Tool 4: Wellbeing questionnaire
• Step 9, Tool 5: Staff observation checklist

Next step 

Go to Step 10: Sharing good practice with others.