YCAD Professionals' Seminar: The Difference You Make
Online seminar for professionals, marking Young Carers Action Day: Wednesday 12th March, 12.30-2pm
The Difference You Make: how early identification can transform young carers’ lives.
Marking Young Carers Action Day 2025, Wednesday 12th March, Action for Carers, alongside SCC, the NHS in Surrey and other partners is holding a free online seminar, The Difference You Make, to improve the identification and support of young carers.
Young carers are under-recognised in Surrey, often failing to get the support and additional help they need to thrive, meaning they fall behind, at school, socially, and in their longer-term attainment overall.
There are likely over 15,000 young carers in Surrey, but the majority are not known, meaning they are missing out on the help available. But when they get the right support, it can have a hugely beneficial effect on their lives and long-term outcomes.
Seminar aims
At this seminar you’ll find out more about this vulnerable group, their needs, the help available, and Surrey’s aims for young carers. You’ll learn how best to identify and support them, to ensure the best possible outcomes.
Together we hope to improve the numbers of young carers actively getting support – ensuring many more get the help they vitally need.
The event is for any Surrey professional working where they are likely to encounter young carers; across health, social care and education including early year providers.
It takes place online, between 12.30-2pm on Wednesday 12th March, which is the national Young Carers Action Day.
Event outline
- The Voice of Young Carers: Gina Munday, Engagement and Systems Team, Surrey County Council, about her lived experience as a young carer
- Issues with identification, and the benefits of support from school, health and Action for Carers: Michelle Harper, Manager Young Carers Service, Action for Carers Surrey
- The Law around Assessment of Need: Jo Lee, Head of Commissioning – Family Resilience, Young Carers and Personal Support, Surrey County Council
- Latest Research, including Recent Positive Findings: Pam Howard, Luminus Surrey’s Giving Carers a Voice programme
- School Support – Statistics, the School Census and the Impact on the Child: TBC
- Back to Basics – Health Support for Young Carers: Kim Jacobs, Surrey Joint Carers Programme Manager, Surrey Heartlands
- Supporting Parents – Identifying Adult carers in the Family, What to Look For, and Support Available: Rachel Brennan, Manager Adult Carers Service, Action for Carers Surrey
We’ll also be launching a new resource for young carers on their Rights.
Register for Young Carers Action Day seminar today
To attend the seminar, sign up here:
What goes wrong for young carers?
Carers Trusts’ 2023 Young Carers’ Survey showed ONE in THREE young carers struggle to balance caring with education, this can have a big impact on whether they can get on at school, go to university, or get a job or an apprenticeship.
In school they can fall behind, miss classes, not have time for homework or extra activities (let alone friendships), feel tired, and physically and emotionally under pressure from their caring role.
When considering college or career choices, having to care for someone at home can really impact on a young person’s plans, limiting their options, including whether they can leave home, how far they can go, and if in fact they can go at all.
And even when in work, a lack of support or understanding can pile even more pressure on a young carer, meaning they are likely to have to quit.
However, when they are identified early, supported properly and given the opportunities and additional help they need, young carers will thrive. Our event aims to get more of Surrey’s professionals able to spot and refer these young people, and ensure all of our young carers get the support they deserve.
Key facts:
- There are around 15,000 young carers in Surrey – that’s at least two in every classroom.
- Action for Carers currently supports over 2,500 of these young people.
- Over a quarter of young carers aged 11-15 regularly miss school. This can have a lasting effect on their life chances. (Children’s Society 2023)
- Young carers are missing on average 23 days of school every year – that’s more than a month in total. This can have a lasting effect on their life chances. (Carers Trust 2024)
- Almost half of young carers at secondary school are ‘persistently absent’. (Carers Trust 2024)
- Only 46% of teachers think their school provides the support young carers need, while 23% of young carers say they get no support at all. (Carers Trust 2024)
- 44% of young carers always or usually feel stressed because of caring (Carers Trust 2023)
- 23% of young carers in the UK said that their caring role had stopped them making friends. (Children’s Society 2023)
Young Carers Action Day
Young Carers Action Day (YCAD) is a national event, coordinated by the Carers Trust, which exists to raise awareness of young carers and the incredible contribution they make to their families and local communities.
The overall theme for this year’s event is ‘Give us a break’ highlighting the important need for young carers to have time to rest and recharge while also calling on schools and employers to provide better support, helping them balance their responsibilities and achieve their full potential.
