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<p>Young carers make an enormous contribution by caring for their loved ones. The
department wants to ensure young carers are supported in their education and can take
advantage of opportunities beyond their caring responsibilities.</p><p>The department
introduced The Young Carers (Needs Assessments) Regulations in 2015. This is an assessment
of needs, conducted by the local authority which must consider whether it is appropriate
or excessive for the child or young person to provide care for the person in question,
in light of the young carer’s needs and wishes. It also helps to determine whether
the care which the young carer provides, or intends to provide, impacts on the young
carer’s well-being, education and development.</p><p>The department added young carers
to the annual school census in 2023 for the first time and identified 38,983 young
carers, raising their visibility in the school system and allowing schools to better
identify and support their young carers. This is providing the department with strong
evidence on both the numbers of young carers and their educational outcomes. This
also provides an annual data collection to establish long-term trends.</p><p>As this
is a new data collection, the department expects the quality of the data returns to
improve over time as the collection becomes established. All schools (except nursery
schools) must send this information as part of the spring school census. However,
the recording and handling of the information is at the school’s discretion. 79% of
schools recorded no young carers in 2023.</p><p>The department recognises that absence
is often a symptom of other problems. The department has a comprehensive support-first
strategy to improve attendance, which includes:</p><ul><li>Stronger expectations of
schools, trusts and local authorities to work together to tackle absence, which is
set out in guidance that will become statutory in August 2024.</li><li>An attendance
data tool allowing early identification and intervention of pupils at risk of persistent
absence, which will become mandatory from September 2024.</li><li>The Attendance Action
Alliance of system leaders who are working to remove barriers to attendance.</li><li>Appointing
Rob Tarn as the new national attendance ambassador to work with school leaders to
champion attendance as well as ten expert Attendance Advisers to support local authorities
and trusts.</li><li>Expanding the department’s attendance mentor pilot from 5 to 15
areas from September, backed by an additional £15 million and reaching 10,000 children.</li><li>Doubling
the number of lead attendance hubs, bringing the total to 32 which will see nearly
2,000 schools supported to tackle persistent absence.</li><li>A national communications
campaign aimed to highlight the benefits of attendance and target preventable odd
days of absence linked to mild illness, mild anxiety and term-time holidays.</li></ul><p>The
department is also building a system of family help by reforming children’s social
care. The £45 million Families First for Children Pathfinder programme is testing
how multi-disciplinary family help teams can improve the support that children, families
and young carers receive.</p><p> </p>
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