CARER FRIENDLY Southampton – Support in education and
work
The Panel considered the report
of the Director of Legal and Business Operations requesting that
the Panel consider the comments made by the invited guests and use
the information provided as evidence in the review.
- Summary of
information provided:
A carers perspective
– Young carers Alex, Ellie-May, Leah,
Zunayrah
- A vox
pop outlining the views of young carers on support in education and
transport was played to the Panel, and 3 young carers, Leah,
Ellie-May and Zunayrah, supported by Emma Jones from No Limits,
informed the Panel about their
experiences.
- View that schools
could do more to support young carers by ensuring that teachers are
aware of their status as young carers; are more flexible in their
approach to homework and lateness; are trained to know how to
support young carers more effectively.
- No Limits
presentation recommended the following to address the issues
raised: Schools to include Young Carers awareness in PSHE lessons
– raising awareness of support amongst
hidden YC in school; Staff inset days to include Young Carers
awareness training (No Limits currently run four SCC Wednesday
workshop training sessions on Young Carers although teachers are
not able to access these sessions due to being within the school
day); Schools need more support setting up the school's programmes
than is currently available within the young carers team. Add
capacity into the current young carers team to enable the roll out
of the Young Carers in Schools programmes.
·
Transport was raised as an issue for young carers
– the cost and lack of flexibility was
identified. No Limits recommend free or
subsidised public transport across Southampton City for Young
Carers to access support groups and other
respite activities (could be accessed with a Young Carers
identity card).
A
carers perspective – Adult carers Vickey and Jon
·
A vox pop outlining views of adult carers on carers
support in education and work was played for the Panel. In addition, Linda Lawless, Service Manager at
Carers in Southampton, interviewed Vickey and Jon. Vickey is a
carer who has a 9-year-old son with a rare neuro-genetic condition
and a 6-year-old daughter diagnosed with autism. Vickey is also Co-ordinator of Southampton’s Parent Carer
Forum. Jon cared for his mother until she died in
2019.
·
Vickey had to leave her job as a physio to care for
her son. She was unable to combine her
caring responsibilities with work.
·
Her employee was not very supportive. She was overlooked for opportunities, alienated by
her team, left out of social activities.
·
Annual leave used to be used for medical
appointments. Time for yourself is very
limited.
- As Co-ordinator of
the Parent Carer Forum she has seen many parents having to take pay
cuts, give up businesses to care for their children. The unpredictability of a child’s health and
behavioural challenges can make a parent who has to care for a
child an unreliable employee.
·
This is not just a local issue. A 2019 survey of parent carers identified that 53%
of respondents had been forced to give up paid
employment. SEND parent carers have a
high percentage of single-parent families due to pressure and
stresses.
·
Some good employers have special leave arrangements
that are helpful.
·
School holiday schemes for SEND pupils are only 1 or
2 weeks in summer holiday. School
transport is not flexible, only drop child off at home address so
cannot get transport to childcare.
·
Jon gave up work to care for his mum who had
suffered a stroke and her health deteriorated over time.
·
When employed, his manager was excellent and
supported him in his caring role. They
were flexible with him and it did not reduce his productivity. He
was able to work and provide care until he had to focus on caring
for his mum.
·
Following her death Jon was able to return to
employment with the same company in financial services, via an
employment agency.
Young Carers
Education – Rebecca Rolfe, Service Manager for the Include
Service at The Children’s Society
·
A presentation was provided by Rebecca
Rolfe. The 2011
Census identified over 160k young carers in the UK. Latest research indicates that there may be up to
800k young carers now. That is 5 young
carers in every classroom.
- Evidence
shows that being a young carer can impact on attendance,
attainment, personal development and welfare: Over 25% miss school
regularly; Significantly lower education attainment at GCSE level
an average one grade lower across all subjects; On average young
carers miss or cut short 48 school days a year; 62% said they were
bullied; 42% say there is not a particular person at school who
recognised them as a carer.
- Young
carers develop additional skills and qualities through their caring
roles.
- The
Children’s Society established a Young Carers in Schools
Award (YCiS), created by young carers.
- Schools
can apply to join the scheme – Criteria for schools
is:
- Understand
– is there a young carer lead to approach?
- Inform
– raising awareness through both staff and students to reduce
stigma
- Identify
– can staff recognise indicators and action next
steps?
- Listen
– space to talk, or just rest
- Support
– practical intervention, space to call home, homework
support during school day, signposting / referring to local Young
Carers Service or EH or for assessments if necessary
- YCiS Award
Impact– 73% of
schools reported young carers’ classroom engagement had
improved; 63% reported improvements in young carers’
achievements; 83% of young carers demonstrated increased happiness;
94% of schools reported to have a better understanding of the
support required for young carers.
- No schools
in Southampton are accredited with the Young Carers in Schools
Award.
Good practice: Levelling the playing field for Young
Carers – Krista Sharp, CEO, MYTime Young Carers,
Dorset
- A
presentation was delivered by Krista Sharp informing the Panel of the
programmes being delivered by MYTime Young Carers to improve
outcomes in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP).
- MYTime
runs a school programme and an employability programme –
Despite their skillset, emotional maturity and qualities, Carers
Trust report that 49% of young adult carers end up NEET (not in
employment, education or training).
- Employability programme commenced before March 2020 lockdown - 6
young adult carers went through pilot programme. Scheduled to use Barclay’s Eagle Lab as base
for support but had to operate via Zoom, led by a careers advisor. Mock interviews with business
community, developed CVs.
- Successful
programme – 1 young adult carer who was formerly NEET is now
in employment, 3 in education, 2 are still working with
MYTIME.
- Scheme is
also educating business about the flexibility they can offer in
their workplaces to support carers.
- Hard to
recruit young adult carers to the pilot programme due to poor
communications between BCPs young carer team, adult carer team,
NEET team and social services. Working
with BCP to set up a transitions service for carers that reach 17 -
Transitions service will help young carers see what opportunities
are out there for them.
- School
Young Carer Programme -‘Level Up’- 80% of school
teachers have had no training on working with young
carers. Working will Senior Leadership
and staff in the first school they worked with resulted in 28 young
carers being identified by the school (during
lockdown).
- Planning
to embed employability programme into the Level Up schools
programme to ensure careers advice and focussed work experience for
young carers.
- Schools
encouraged to develop a young carers policy and to appoint a member
of the senior leadership team to be accountable for the
policy.
- Working
with 35 schools across BCP, including academy chains. Sharing good
practice. Positive feedback and
increased identification of young carers.
- Get school
system registers to identify young carers as they would those
receiving pupil premium.
- Educating
teachers what they need to look out for makes a huge
difference.
- Currently
measuring impact of the school programme with regards to attendance
and attainment.
- Ofsted do
not recognise young carers as a distinct disadvantaged
group.
- Making
Memories Initiative – Opportunity for young carers to
experience things they would otherwise miss out on, such as days
out.
- MYTime
looking to increase the scale of the employability
programme.
Summer Camp – Charlie Dormehl, Teacher of
History with Hattie Wheeler & Anna Aksenova, 6th formers at
King Edwards VI School, Southampton
·
Working in partnership with No Limits,
every year King Edwards VI School runs a summer camp for 16 young
carers in the New Forest.
·
The camp is the culmination of activities
across a year to raise funds, and to build relationships between
the 6th form students who organise the events and the
young carers.
·
The initiative is an example of good
practice that benefits 6th formers and the young carers
and could be emulated by other 6th forms in
Southampton.
Supporting carers in the workplace – Carers
UK
- Madeleine
Starr MBE, Director of Business Development and Innovation and
Katherine Wilson, Head of Employers for Carers at Carers UK
provided a presentation for the
Panel. In their absence Adrian
Littlemore, Senior Commissioner at the Integrated Commissioning
Unit raised the following points.
·
1 in 7 people in any workplace will be a
carer, 1 in 5 in health and care.
- 2.8m more
workers are juggling work and unpaid care since the Coronavirus
outbreak. During the outbreak 11% of
carers reported that they had reduced their hours; 9% had given up
work; Services being closed/reduced was the biggest
factor.
- Carers UK
have set up Employers for Carers (EFC) - Carers UK’s business
forum. Over 220 members representing
3.5m employees.
- The forum
seeks to supports employers to develop carer friendly workplaces;
promote the business benefits of supporting carers; influence
employment
policy and practice.
- EFC
umbrella scheme - Umbrella membership is designed for local
authorities to reach and support working carers in their own
workforce; Through health partners in their locality, as employers
and providers; Through SMEs.
- Local
authorities sign up as the key subscriber and then make EfC’s
resources available free to health partners and SMEs, offering
added value at no cost. Cost for a city membership is
£5-6k.
- Managed by
the EFC, the Carer Confident benchmarking scheme started in January
2020. There are three levels that any organisation, whether they
are an EFC member or not, can achieve. Level one shows they are an
active in addressing carer support, level 2 shows that they are
accomplished in providing carer support, and level 3 shows they are
an ambassador for carer support both internally and
externally.
- Organisations are measured using the following 5 key criteria:
Preparation; Policy and guidance; Practical support; Peer support;
Promoting support.
- Recognised
benefits to business in retaining skilled and experienced
staff.
- No
employer in Southampton has signed up to the Carer Confident scheme
yet.
Carers in the workplace: SCC as an employer –
Katie Cope, HR Advisory Manager, SCC
- A presentation
was delivered
by Katie Cope.
- Flexible
working is followed in most areas of the Council and the right to
request flexible work patterns is open to all staff.
- The Way We
Work Project is designed to support employees work life balance.
1,000 staff are now on the flexible working scheme – work
anytime between 6.30am – 9.30pm – allows up to 4 breaks
in a day giving employees more control over their working day
(operationally permitting).
- Looking to
roll out the scheme across SCC but not suitable for all positions
but options are being considered for other roles.
- Scheme has
been positively received and gives employees more control over
their working day which is beneficial to carers.
- Paid for
leave for up to 6 days in an emergency for caring
responsibilities.Extended leave - unpaid
leave for up to 13 weeks – priority given to requests from
carers.
- Employee
Assistance Programme (EAP) Provided by Health Assured - Guidance on
website for Carers.
- Vulnerable
young people, including young carers, are given priority for work
experience and apprenticeships at the Council.
- To better
understand the number of SCC employees who are unpaid carers, and
to identify support and training required, SCC could include a
question on caring responsibility in the employers’
survey.
- Carer
Confident Scheme accreditation would help SCC’s reputation as
an employer of choice.