Transforming Support for Young Carers: Chloe Powell’s Approach at Radyr Comprehensive School

Chloe Powell is the Operational Lead for Young Carers at Radyr Comprehensive School in Cardiff.

Recording young carers

Recording the young carer status of our learners is an important part of tracking their progress and ensuring they get the support they need.

I record all young carers via a live database which tracks if they are Eligible for Free School Meals (EFMA) or have Additional Learning Needs (ALN) as well as recording if they’ve had a carers assessment. This data is shared with all teaching staff to make them aware of the individuals.

To help us identify young carers at the earliest point, our admission form has a section for parents to complete if their child is a young carer and, during the year 6 transition, the pastoral team will check all feeder primary schools if there are any identified young carers and put provision in place for September.

Raising awareness of young carers in our school

I run assemblies and activities during form time to raise awareness of young carers regularly, as well as writing about young carers through parent emails and the school website.

We have information posters in all main areas of the school, as well as having them in all staff communal areas and staff offices. Each year, we take part in Carers Week in June and promote this around the school.

We have regular training planned to keep staff up to date

Supporting young carers in our school

When a young carer is newly identified, one of the other young carers will speak with them to establish a bond and help them feel more comfortable attending our regular group sessions.

We offer regular check-ins as and when needed, with some young carers wanting weekly and others prefer to access support on their own.

Each term we run a different project with the young carers group, looking at specific topics they want to explore. This term, it was a cooking wellbeing project.

All staff have previously had training and we have regular training planned to keep staff up to date.

Connections between our school and external agencies to support young carers

We have a good relationship with the social worker for young carers from our local authority.

In the past, we had fortnightly drop in sessions offered by support workers in the school however, due to limited funding, this hasn’t been possible of late. This was very positive and young carers would turn up regularly.

All pastoral staff within the school are aware of how to refer to ‘Family Gateway’ for young carer support external to the school, however they alert me, as the Operational Lead for Young Carers, first.

The YCID

The young carers like the ID cards as they give them a level of security and evidence that they have a caring role. It can be used in the school when the young carer needs to sign in late or leave early.

Young carers at our school who have been offered the YCID card say it gives them additional security when having to collect medication for parents.

Some of our younger young carers don’t yet have the ID card. When the opportunity becomes available to them, we would certainly promote this with young carers.