Types of carers
Young carers
You are a young carer if you are a child or young person aged 25 or under, and you provide or plan to provide care, practical help or emotional support to another person.
As a young carer, you can be at risk of:
- social isolation
- bullying
- under-achievement
- missing school
- physical and mental ill health
Type of support you might provide
A young carer carries out important caring tasks and takes on responsibilities that would usually be expected of an adult.
This might involve:
- personal care
- giving medication
- helping someone get up, get dressed or get around
- emotional support for someone who has a mental health problem or substance addiction
Who you might care for
The person you are caring for can be a parent, sibling, grandparent or other family member who:
- is disabled
- has a chronic illness
- has a mental health problem
- has a substance misuse problem
- has a condition that they need care, support or supervision for
You might also be responsible for looking after younger brothers and sisters and all or most of the household chores.
Your rights
You and your family have the right to be identified, offered information, get an assessment and support.
The 兔子先生 has a responsibility to:
- carry out a carer's assessment for young carers before their 18th birthday
- identify, assess and support carers by working with other local organisations to make sure they are proactively identifying all young carers
- make sure the assessment process meets the criteria set out in legislation
- make sure we join up the work of Children's and Adult Services so that young carers and young adults can benefit from the services working together
- make sure that services working with young carers are aware that young carers now have stronger rights, so they can make sure they benefit from these important changes
For information and advice or to arrange an assessment, please contact Children's Social Care on 0191 424 5010.
For young carers support services contact .
Find out more about the help and support available to young carers at .
For more information about the assessment system and support for young carers, see .
School drop in sessions
If you are a young carer in South Tyneside, the drop-in sessions are a great chance to meet other young carers in your school and chat to the school support staff.
At every drop-in session there is a game or an activity, as well as snacks to enjoy while chatting to other young carers.
Where you can go for advice
Discussion boards, blogs, live webchats, and lots of information for carers.
Information about being a young carer, including your rights, advice about your caring role, going to school, as well as where you can go for help, and much more.
Information for young carers, videos, webchats, blogs, and more.