Young Carers
At Sir Robert Pattinson Academy, we are young carer friendly and recognise the difficulties our young carers may experience with their attendance, attainment and their general well-being.
Who are young carers?
A young carer is someone under the age of 18 who looks after a family member or friend who has an illness, a disability, is affected by mental ill-health or misuses substances such as alcohol or drugs. They may also look after brothers, sisters or elderly relatives too. Carers could be as young as five.
A young carer may undertake some or all of the following:
- Practical tasks, such as cooking, housework and shopping.
- Physical care, such as lifting, helping a parent/carer on stairs or with physiotherapy.
- Personal care, such as dressing, washing, helping with toileting needs.
- Managing the family budget, collecting benefits and prescriptions.
- Administering medication.
- Looking after or “parenting” younger siblings.
- Emotional support.
- Interpreting, due to a hearing or speech impairment or because English is not the family’s first language
Our Young Carers Champions are Miss J Lilley and Miss A McLellan, while our SLT Young Carers Champion is Mr A Parkinson who supports our group of students and ensures new students to the Academy are aware of what support is available. We can provide students with confidential support and advice through our mentoring programme, RCC referrals Ros Christopher Centre | Sir Robert Pattinson Academy (srpa.co.uk) and we allow young carers to telephone home during break and lunch-times where necessary. Staff are also aware of who our young carers are in the Academy. Students, staff and parent/carers also have access to our young carers email address youngcarers@srpa.co.uk if they wish to notify us that a student is a young carer or if circumstances have changed.
Links to websites
