Young Carers in the UK: Your Rights and How to Get Support

A note before you read on: this page is written for two different people, a young person who's taking care of someone, and a parent or family member who's realised that's happening. If that's you, whichever one, you're not doing anything wrong by looking this up.

A young carer is someone under 18 who looks after a parent, grandparent, sibling, or other family member, because of illness, disability, mental health difficulties, or a problem with drink or drugs. It might mean cooking, helping someone get dressed, managing medication, translating for appointments, or simply being the one who worries and keeps things going. Whatever it looks like day to day, it's real caring, even if it's never been called that out loud.

How many young carers there actually are, and why nobody's sure

This is genuinely hard to pin down, and the gap itself tells a real story. The most recent official school census (2025) recorded just 64,475 pupils as young carers nationally, only 0.8% of all pupils, and 69% of schools reported having none at all. Separate self-report research by BBC News and the University of Nottingham (2019) estimated around 800,000 young carers in secondary schools in England alone, roughly six in every classroom.

That gap between the official count and the real number isn't a mistake, it's the actual point. Most young carers don't identify themselves, and most schools don't know who they are. Family loyalty, not wanting to stand out, or simply not knowing there's a name for what they're doing, all keep young carers quietly invisible.

What being a young carer can mean for school

Carers Trust's own analysis of school census data (2022/23) found young carers missed an average of 23 days of school a year, compared to 14 days for other pupils, more than a month of extra missed education. Almost half, 46%, of young carers at secondary school were persistently absent, compared to 26% of their classmates. This isn't about young carers caring less about school, it's what happens when caring responsibilities and school attendance genuinely compete for the same hours.

What young carers are legally entitled to

Under Section 96 of the Children and Families Act 2014, local authorities in England must carry out a Young Carer's Needs Assessment if it appears a young person may need support because of caring, or if the young carer or their parent asks for one. This is a genuine, low-barrier right, a young carer or their parent can simply request an assessment, without first having to prove a set level of caring.

The assessment has to look at more than just practical needs. It must consider the young carer's own education, training, and recreation, whether they work or want to, and, importantly, whether it's actually appropriate for them to be providing this level of care at all, in light of their own needs and wishes. This isn't just a support-finding exercise, it's a genuine safeguard built into the law.

The Care Act 2014 works alongside this, requiring a whole-family approach, meaning support for the person being cared for and support for the young carer are meant to be considered together, not treated as separate problems. As a young carer approaches 18, there's also a right to a young carer's transition assessment, to plan what support looks like moving into adulthood.

What schools are supposed to do

Statutory guidance for schools (Keeping Children Safe in Education, and Working Together to Safeguard Children) states that school staff should be alert to the possibility that a pupil may be a young carer. Many schools also take part in the Young Carers in Schools programme, which helps identify and support pupils in this situation. In practice, support varies a lot between schools, some have a genuinely proactive young carers lead, others have never formally identified one. If a school doesn't seem to know about a young carer in their care, that's worth raising directly, not assumed to mean there's nothing they can do.

How to actually ask for help

• Contact the local council's children's services and ask for a Young Carer's Needs Assessment, either directly or via a parent.
• Many areas have a dedicated young carers' service, often run by a local carers' charity, offering one-to-one support, groups, and activities specifically for young carers, worth searching for by area name plus "young carers service."
• Talk to the school, even informally, a form tutor, pastoral lead, or the young carers lead if one exists, can make a real practical difference to how caring and school actually fit together.
• Carers Trust and The Children's Society both offer information and support specifically for young carers and their families, not just adult carers.

A word from The Care Compass

This isn't a topic we're covering from our own personal experience, and we want to be honest about that rather than pretend otherwise. What we can do is point clearly to real rights that exist and real organisations who specialise in exactly this. If you're a young carer reading this, or a parent who's just realised your child has been doing more than you knew, you deserve support built specifically around this, not a general carer's page that assumes you're an adult.

This article is for general guidance only and does not constitute legal advice. If you're worried about a child's safety or wellbeing, speak to their school, GP, or contact the NSPCC.

You don’t have to navigate it alone.