School children

The article discusses the British Young Carers in School program which is designed to provide information, staff training, and other resources to schools to help them improve the support which they provide to students who have caregiving responsibilities. It notes the program is led by the nonprofit groups Carers Trust and The Children's Society and cites an award under the program received by Applemore College secondary school, Hampshire, England.

Presents school management guidelines for dealing with child caregivers in Great Britain. Tendency to be regularly late or to hand in homework on time; Looking after family members with disabilities, mental illness, or substance abuse problems; Experience of schooling; Impact of caregiving responsibilities on academic achievement.

Young carers often take on practical and/or emotional caring responsibilities that would normally be expected of an adult. For many of these children and young people, caring has been shown to have a detrimental effect on their lives. For example, caring at a young age appears to be associated with poor health and well-being, bullying and poorer educational outcomes. However, previous research has tended to be retrospective, carried out using small surveys of secondary school-aged children or to use qualitative methods with young people associated with caring projects.