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<p>We have changed the law to improve how young carers and their families including
those of parents with mental illness are identified and supported. These new duties
came into effect in April 2015. Changes introduced through the Children and Families
Act 2014 consolidate and simplify the legislation relating to young carers’ assessments,
make rights and duties clearer to both young people and practitioners, extend the
right to an assessment of needs of all young carers regardless of who they care for
or what type of care they provide and make it clear to local authorities that they
must carry out an assessment of a young carer’s needs for support on request or on
the appearance of need.</p><br /><p>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 in the first place.</p><br /><p>The Royal
College of Psychiatrists’ Report CR164 <em>Parents as patients: Supporting the needs
of patients who are parents and their children</em> published in January 2011 and
available at</p><br /><p><a href="http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/usefulresources/publications/collegereports/cr/cr164.aspx"
target="_blank">http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/usefulresources/publications/collegereports/cr/cr164.aspx</a></p><br
/><p>sets out the College’s position on how the needs of parents and children can
be managed and dealt with sensitively in the case of parental mental illness.</p><br
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