Contact: Vanessa Courtney. 01962 845965. [email protected]

1 Summary

1.1 The current Young Carers Strategy expires this year and, therefore, the Young Carers' Advisory Group has reviewed that document with a view to taking services forward over the next four years, in line with current development and the outcomes from the Joint Area Review.

1.2 One of the requirements from the Joint Area Review is that an Action Plan be developed for Young Carer Services, and the Action Plan attached complements the strategy document.

1.3 The Draft Young Carers Strategy and Action Plan addresses the areas for improvement identified in the Joint Area Review, which were:

· Young carers strategy of 2005 lacks a detailed action plan and success indicators

and therefore a strategy which identifies and supports young carers should be reviewed across all services, with a collaborative action plan and performance indicators

· No database of young carers identified through services - even those services addressing the needs of adults or siblings who may be cared for by a child

· Inequitable access to projects or alternative support in some areas

· Lack of clarity about the future sustainability of funding

· Some young carers report that school staff do not respond well to their needs, even when they know the young person is a carer

2 Recommendations

That the Executive Member for Children & Families approves the Draft Young Carer Strategy and Action Plan for consultation.

That the consultation returns to the Executive Member for final approval and formal launch

3 National Context

Government have recently published the report Carers at the heart of the 21^st century families and communities. This sets out the vision is that children and young people will be protected from inappropriate caring and have the support they need to learn, develop and thrive, to enjoy positive childhoods and to achieve against all the Every Child Matters outcomes.

The Children's Society have recently published Young carers, parents and their families:

Key principles of practice which contains supportive practice guidance for those who work directly with, or commission services for, young carers and their families.

Hampshire's strategy for Young Carers stands up well in the light of these very recent publications. To ensure that Hampshire is closely aligned to these documents they will be considered alongside the strategy during the consultation process.

4 Hampshire Strategy for Young Carers 2008-2012

The Draft Young Carers Strategy and Action Plan (attached) sets out how we will achieve collective support for Young carers, some of which include:

· Promotion of a positive culture by encouraging openness so that young carers and their families feel confident to identify themselves.

· Schools to record whether a pupil is a young carer and whether they achieve their potential and if not to take whatever action necessary. The designated teacher in each school can support this action.

· GP practices are now required by the General Medical Council to identify a carer - this needs to become embedded in practice.

· Children's Services and Adult Services have developed a Joint Protocol identifying responsibility and accountability to young carers and their families.

· To support existing and future young carer specialist and universal services to provide a quality service to young carers and their families.

· To maintain ongoing multi-agency training

· To offer a choice of support and information at different levels to young carers and their families

5 Progress to date

Some of this work is already underway:

· Some schools do identify and record young carers, but this is not universal in Hampshire.

· The Children's Society has been funded via Children's Fund monies to undertake a Designated Teacher Development and Support programme during the academic year 2008/09. During the 2008/09 financial year, £23,700 will be provided from the Area Based Grant (Children's Fund element) towards this programme, with continued financial support earmarked for 2009/10 and 2010/11.

· The Children's Society via the Development Worker contract has been working with 10 GP practices in Hampshire to raise awareness about young carers, what their own health care needs may be, and how they can be supported. This work will be rolled out gradually across the rest of the county. For the 2008/09 financial year this contract (approximately £78,000) will be funded from the Area based Grant (Carers grant element).

· The Joint Protocol between Children's and Adult Services is progressing towards approval.

· The Department continues to support the specialist young carer projects across the county. . Approximately £56,000 is contributed by the Department from the Area Based Grant (Carers element) towards the Romsey, Andover, Winchester, Fareham (through KIDS), Hart & Rushmoor, Eastleigh, and Havant (via the Youth team) young carers projects. Additional funding was also provided to two of the projects in 2007/08 on a one-off basis (Winchester £20,000 and £15,000 in the South-East of the County. Funding from Extended Schools Services has also been made available in the current financial year to enable two new pieces of work in Basingstoke and the New Forest to be developed to identify need and provide support to young carers to meet that need.

6 Corporate Priorities

6.1 The proposals in this report are expected to meet the Corporate objective of "Making Hampshire safer and more secure for all" - by helping reduce the incidents of bullying for young carers, enabling them to feel confident about themselves and their families and "Maximising well-being" - by supporting young carers health needs, education, and their social skills and activities

6.2 The strategy and action plan will also support the five outcomes of Every Child Matters by supporting young carers with their own health needs, reducing the incidents of bullying, enabling young carers to enjoy and achieve in their education and sport/leisure activities to their full potential including college and university, and achieve economic wellbeing for themselves

7 Consultation

7.1 It is proposed that a consultation process of 12 weeks be undertaken to gain the views of appropriate agencies and young people and their families, to the strategy and proposals.

It has been agreed by the Advisory Group that the views of young people and their families will be gained via the young carer projects.

7.2 When the consultation process has taken place, the relevant comments/alterations will be incorporated into the strategy and the document will then be referred back to the Executive Member for final approval prior to publication and formal launch.

8 Legal implications

8.1 None.

9 Financial implications

9.1 The financial implications and funding streams of the work currently being supported by the Department is outlined within section 4 of the report. It is also expected that there will be further financial implications of developing and implementing the strategy over the next four years.

9.2 However, further work is required with the Advisory Group and Young Carers projects before full financial details can be provided, and all potential funding streams are identified. This will be incorporated into the 2009/10 budget planning process.

10 Personnel implications

10.1 None.

11 Impact assessment

11.1 The strategy will positively impact on young carers and their families as the identified agencies work together to improve and develop existing support for young carers.

11.2 If there are any cultural differences identified with a young carer or group of

young carers these will be addressed sensitively by the agency involved and the child/young person supported in a way that takes their background into account.

12 Crime prevention issues

12.1 Not applicable

13 Views of the Local County Councillor

13.1 County Councillors' views will be sought as part of the consultation process. They will have the opportunity to comment and make their views known about the proposals in the strategy.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background documents

The following documents discuss facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and have been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB: the list excludes

1. Published works

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

List documents here or type `none'.

Young Carers Strategy 2005 - 2008