Generation of young carers ‘neglected by society’

A charity has accused the government of failing to support too many young people with caring responsibilities after it emerged that there could be as many as 800,000 young carers in England. Carers Trust said figures gathered following a survey give an “incredibly worrying sense of the scale of this issue for the first time in a decade”, adding that they “blow all previous figures out of the water”. Official figures from the last census in 2011 put the number of young carers in England aged between five and 17 at 166,000, although this has long been thought of as an underestimate. Research published this week calculates there could be as many as 800,000 young carers of secondary school age. The research, carried out by Nottingham University and BBC News, involved 925 children across England, aged 11 and 12 and 14 to 15. Extrapolated across England the results show that of the 800,000 young people of secondary school age carrying out care, 250,000 of these are undertaking a high level of care, with 73,000 taking on the highest level of care. Read more.