Using the social care framework to analyse research on young carers

Bettina Cass, with Deborah Brennan, Ilan Katz, Catherine Thomson and Deborah Mitchell, and 10 Partner organisations in NSW and South Australia, are undertaking a three-year ARC Linkage Grant project on 'Young Carers: Social Policy impacts of the caring responsibilities of children and young people'. Located at the Social Policy Research Centre (UNSW), the investigators are exploring the interplay between the socio-economic and socio-cultural circumstances in which young people take up caring responsibilities; the policy settings that affect the level and types of care which they provide; and the impacts of care-giving on their participation in education, employment and friendship/social networks. The project will map the gaps in service provision which young carers, their care recipients and service providers identify.