Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children have received young carer assessments under the Children and Families Act 2014 since its implementation; and what proportion of young carers received services from the local authority to meet their needs following such an assessment.

This information is not available to the Department.

From April 2015, all young carers are entitled to an assessment of their needs for support by the local authority. These new provisions work alongside those in the Care Act 2014 for assessing adults to enable ‘whole family approaches’ to assessment and support. This means that when a child is identified as a young carer, the needs of everyone in the family will be considered. This will cause both children’s and adults’ support services to assess why a child has a caring responsibility, what needs to change, and what would help the family to prevent children from taking on this responsibility in the first place.

This reform is intended to ensure effective, joined-up support with the potential to offer a single point of professional contact for young carers and their families.