Young Carers Card
What is a young carer?
A young carer is a person aged between 4 and 25 who helps to look after someone in their family at home. This might be because that person has a disability, has been ill for a long time, has a mental health problem or has a problem with alcohol or drugs. If you're a young carer, you might care alone or as part of your family.
What do young carers do?
A young carer might spend time doing things like cooking, cleaning and shopping. They might also give medicines and tablets to the person they look after or help them to wash or get dressed. Some might help their brothers or sisters to get dressed and take them to school. Some young carers might not do any of these things but they might worry about the person with the illness or disability.
Because of their responsibilities, young carers can sometimes feel tired, worried or stressed and are not always be able to concentrate on their school work or homework.
What is the young carer's card?
The young carer's card is for young carers who are having problems at school because they are looking after someone at home.
Young carers can carry the card with them at school and can show the card to teachers when they are having problems.
The card is for young carers who are unable to or find it difficult to:
- arrive at school on time
- stay after school without earlier warning
- finish homework on time
or need to:
- carry a mobile phone (on silent) so they can keep in contact with the person they care for
- leave early so they can collect young brothers or sisters
How do I request a Young Carers Card?
- Download the leaflet below, fill out your details and return the form to your school.
- Your school will then send the form on to Together for Children (contact details are included on the form). They will also need to supply a digital photograph of you for use on your card.
- Once we have your completed form and digital photograph, Together for Children will process the card and return it to your school for collection.
- Please note, this service is only available for children and young people who attend school and college in Sunderland.
Find out more information for Young Carers at www.sunderlandcarers.co.uk/young-carer/.
Downloads
Young Carers Card Application Form (PDF) [275KB]
Download the Young Carers Cared information leaflet and application form.
