Joining up support for young carers
In the second year of the Carers Action Plan, we remain committed to supporting all unpaid carers to provide care as they would wish and in a way that supports their own health and wellbeing throughout their lives and in whatever circumstances.
This is no less true of young carers, who are often unknown, underrepresented and therefore missing out on the vital help and support they undoubtedly need and deserve.
Through the carers work I lead on, we are clear that, for support for young carers to be truly effective, it must extend beyond traditional health and care services to include whole communities and wider society.
That’s why we want to see more carer-friendly communities, where high street businesses, transport networks, schools, libraries and leisure services are more openly supportive of carers – and collaborative in their efforts.
Invitation to innovate
In service to this ideal, we have issued two Invitations to Tender (ITT) to improve the recognition and identification of young carers:
These are essential pieces of work designed to support the delivery of our carers work programme in this second and final year.
The projects’ aims are to raise awareness through a young carers recognition scheme and to improve identification of this hidden and seldom heard from group.
These projects - and their outcomes - will support joint working between the statutory and voluntary sectors - and the wider communities within which they operate - as part of the work to develop carer-friendly communities.
Please note that the deadline for both tender submissions is Wednesday 9 October 2019.