Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 25 January 2017 to Question 60977, if her Department will gather data on the number of young carers registered in schools.

Later this year we will publish a new cross government carer’s strategy. In this strategy we will set out what more can be done to support young carers so they are able to live a full life beyond their caring responsibilities. As part of this we will consider what additional data on young carers we might need to collect.

Although not collected through schools, The Department for Education now collects information on young carers through the annual children in need census. When a child is assessed following a referral to children's social services, local authorities are asked to report factors identified at the end of this assessment. One of these potential factors is whether there are concerns that services may be required or the child’s health or development may be impaired due to their caring responsibilities. Figures for this for the year ending 31 March 2016 can be found in table C3 at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/characteristics-of-children-in-need-2015-to-2016