January 2022 Newsletter - Young Carers

In this update

COVID-19 Booster and Flu Jabs for Young Carers aged 16-17
The Household Support Fund
Young Carers School Survey results
Plymouth Enhanced Transition
Barnardo's Young Carers Service
Carers UK - Young Carers Survey
GP Patient Experience Survey
Young Carers Leads Hubs for Schools
Share your stories with us
Useful links
Calendar

Welcome to our latest newsletter, which we hope you find useful and informative. If there's a colleague or another provider in your network that you think would like to receive the newsletter, please feel free to forward it onto them.

Please let us know if you have anything you would like us to share or publicise in a future issue.

COVID-19 Booster and Flu Jabs for Young Carers aged 16-17

Our Young Carer Health Champion, Laura, has also created some videos to encourage COVID-19 vaccine take up in young carers. Please see links below:

Have the vaccine - Laura - YouTube

Young carers and the vaccine - Laura - YouTube

A massive thank you to Laura for creating these videos.

The Household Support Fund

The Household Support Fund is helping people at risk of fuel poverty to meet their energy needs over winter.

Plymouth Energy Community is administering grants to eligible residents by referral only.

Applications can be made for grants of £245 (families with children) or £147 (other eligible households), repairs to heating / hot water systems or essential white goods.

Young Carers School Survey results

Thirty two primary, secondary and special schools responded the annual young carers survey in 2021.

There were 369 young carers identified in 2021 compared to 907 in the 2020 survey (due to a higher response rate of 98% in 2020). Some key findings from 2021 Young Carers School Survey:

21% are on the SEN Register and receive SEN Support.
29% have an EHCP
46% are in receipt of Pupil Premium
4% are from service families
4% are from ethic minority backgrounds
11% have an have attendance at 90% or below due to caring responsibilities

Thanks to everyone who took part.

Plymouth Enhanced Transition

Please familiarise yourself with the guidance in place to support enhanced transition.

Schools should use this guidance for their young carers. Guidance can be accessed through the Plymouth Online Directory.

Barnardo's Young Carers Service

Barnardo's are seeking volunteers to work with their young carers.

The volunteer role description can be found on their website.

Carers UK - Young Carers Survey

Calling on all young carers and young adult carers to take a survey.

Carers Trust has launched a survey to find out about the pressures and challenges facing young carers aged up to 25, including how they continue to be affected by coronavirus, and what support they need.

The findings of the survey will be published on Young Carers Action Day (16 March 2022) and will help influence decision makers to give young carers and young adult carers the support they need.

Can you help young carers and young adult carers by adding your voice and filling out the survey?

And please spread the word with your friends who are also young carers to make sure as many people as possible take the survey.

By taking part in the survey, you will have the option to be entered into a prize draw for a £25 wellbeing gift box.

The survey is live and will run up to 30 January 2022.

GP Patient Experience Survey

Around 2.4 million people, aged 16 and over, who are registered with a GP practice in England will receive an invitation to take part in Europe's biggest patient experience survey in early January. GP practices have had to make changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, so it is more important than ever that we hear about the experiences of using local GP and primary healthcare services.

The invitations go out mostly by letter to a sample of people from each of the more than 6,500 GP practices in England. The survey team at NHS England and NHS Improvement will follow this up with a text message reminder (where a mobile number is recorded) alongside further paper questionnaires to encourage as high a response rate as possible.

Please do take the time to take part in the survey. It provides vital information to the NHS to identify what's working well and what can be improved. It helps to identify inequalities in experience too, as the results can be analysed across different protected characteristics.

Find out how your practice faired in last year's survey.