January 2025 Newsletter - Young Carers

In this update

New Year, New Service
School census
Carers Allowance
Useful links

New Year New Service

The New Year brings with it a new look to our service. We are now directly engaged with young people on our waiting list on a 1:1 basis, meeting with them at schools and in the community to begin essential interventions and support.

Our work with our local schools has also begun; we are now offering a bespoke 6-week package, focusing on training staff to identify and support their young carers. This also includes the opportunity to achieve the Young Carers in Schools Award with support from our team. We are continuing to shape our service according to the needs of our service users, gaining invaluable feedback from our flagship schools in the city.

We are proud to be working alongside our local partners across Plymouth and are currently establishing links with other charities, groups and organisations to benefit young carers in the area.

Spring 2025 School Census

The date for the 2025 school census is Thursday, 16th January 2025.

What is the School Census Return?

The school census is an electronic collection of pupil data from state primary, secondary, special schools and pupil referral units. It takes place three times a year (Autumn, Spring and Summer) and is a statutory obligation for schools to complete the census. Schools must ask parents for information, tell parents and pupils where data is optional, and tell them what it will be used for before submitting.

Independent schools submit school-level data on an annual basis through the school-level annual school census return.

Since 2023, young carers have been included within the school census return. From January 2024, independent schools will also be asked to record the number of young
carers in their school in their school-level annual school census return.

Read the School Census 2024 to 2025 Business and Technical Specification

The submission deadline for all schools is Wednesday, 12 February 2025, but in the interest of performance management and error resolution, an early submission will be much appreciated. The census file can be uploaded on COLLECT via DfE Sign-in via https://services.signin.education.gov.uk

For more up-to-date information, please view the DfE website.

Young carers and the school census

A young carer is a person under 18 who provides or intends to provide care for someone else. This might be someone in their family or a friend who is ill, disabled, or has a mental health problem or an addiction. They may help by:

Shopping, cooking, cleaning
Managing medicines or money
Providing personal care
Helping to get people out the house
Keeping an eye on someone
Providing emotional support

We need to identify young carers so we can fully meet their needs and remove barriers from learning and development.

Please include information regarding our young carers within the school census. This is essential to help the local authority, its commissioned services and supporting partner organisations tailor support and guidance in Plymouth. The indicator records if the child is identified as a young carer and by whom. This indicator was introduced at the beginning of the academic year 2022/23. The first collection of this data was in the spring 2023 census, recording 599 young carers. In the spring of 2024, the Census recorded 730 young carers; however, not all schools completed this section of the census, thus many young carers remain unidentified and unrecorded. Please continue to identify and support our young carers throughout the year and continue to record in the school census.

Schools will be asked to record the information using the following codes:

Code Young Carer indicator
N Not declared
P Identified as a young carer by parent or guardian
S Identified as a young carer by school

The default value will be 'N', not declared. For young carers identified by the school (e.g., a young carer self-identified on the back of an assembly), use the 'S' code, identified as a young carer by school. Similarly, for a young carer identified by the local young carer service (or by any other organisation), use code 'S', identified by school.

More information about the school census and young carers can be found on the Young Carers in Schools website.

Carers Allowance 16+

Carer's Allowance is a benefit for anyone aged 16 or over who spends at least 35 hours each week caring for someone.

How it works

If you care for someone for at least 35 hours a week and they get certain benefits, you will be entitled to claim a carer allowance.

You do not have to be related to, or live with, the person you care for.

You do not get paid extra if you care for more than one person.

If someone else also cares for the same person as you, only one of you can claim a carer's allowance.

More information about the Carer's Allowance

Age UK is a clear guide with general advice that is useful to all carers, not just older people
Carers UK includes a comprehensive guide and video
Disability Rights UK, a general overview presented as a factsheet for easy printing

Useful links

Please share your stories with us

If you are a Plymouth school and you would like to share your news, stories, or information with the wider Young Carers Network in Plymouth, please email

We'd love to share all the amazing things you are doing.

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