Cornwall Council Chairman adopts Cornwall Young Carers as official charity

Cornwall Council Chairman has decided to adopt Cornwall Young Carers as his official charity. Staff and Councillors will work together to raise funds for this excellent cause. Below is some information about young carers.

Currently Cornwall has 550 known young carers, up from roughly 250 18 months ago.  Estimates suggest (Census 2011) that there were a total of 1,217 young people aged 0-15 providing unpaid care in Cornwall and a further 2,682 aged 16 to 24.  Young carers do not come forward as they see nothing unusual about their role and its part of their family life.

The Children’s Society report “Hidden from View” (2013) revealed that:

• 1 in 12 young carers is caring for more than 15 hours per week. Around 1 in 20 misses school because of caring responsibilities
• Young carers are 1.5 times more likely than their peers to be from black, Asian or minority ethnic communities, and are twice as likely to not speak English as their first language
• Young carers are 1.5 times more likely than their peers to have a special educational need or a disability
• The average annual income for families with a young carer is £5000 less than families who do not have a young carer.
• There is no strong evidence that young carers are more likely than their peers to come into contact with support agencies, despite government recognition that this needs to happen.
• Young carers have significantly lower educational attainment at GCSE level, the equivalent to nine grades lower overall than their peers e.g. the difference between nine B’s and nine C’s.
• Young carers are more likely than the national average to be not in education, employment or training (NEET) between the ages of 16 and 19.