At Putnoe Primary, we consider a Young Carer as anyone who:

• Regularly looks after a family member who has a serious illness, disability, mental illness or substance misuse problem. This person may be a sibling, a parent or a member of their extended family
• We also recognise that children and young people may also have additional caring responsibilities in the shorter term e.g. when a family member is in hospital or receiving treatment over a period of time.

Identifying Young Carers

Whilst we wish to be proactive in supporting our Young Carers and their families, we recognise that some families wish to keep their situation private. However, by bringing the issue of Young Carers to the fore, we hope to encourage them to come forward and thus benefit from any strategies we are able to put in place.

We seek to identify our Young Carers in the following ways:

• On entry to the school – via our pupils information sheet and liaison with previous schools;
• Having open relationships with our pupils and doing all we can to know them (and their families) well;
• Following up information shared by other agencies;
• Awareness raising assemblies and items in newsletters.

If you would like more information on the charity Young Carers please visit their website

http://carersinbeds.org.uk/young-carers/being-a-young-carer or phone 0300 111 1919.

Please speak to Claire Woodfield (SENDCO) or Gail Hall (Family Worker) if you would like to receive any additional information regarding these meetings.

Adaptions for supporting Young Carers September 2020/2021

Young carers no longer meet in their Key Stage group; instead pupils have the opportunity to meet with Mrs Woodfield or Gail Hall on a 1:1 basis.  Time is allocated before and after every session, so that equipment and area used can be thoroughly cleaned.