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<p>Recent research shows that young carers have significantly lower educational attainment
at GCSE level than their peers, equivalent to nine grades lower overall. That’s the
difference between nine Bs and nine Cs.</p><p> </p><p>That shows why it is so important
that schools are able to identify and support pupils who are young carers. However
a legislative approach compelling them to do so is not in keeping with our drive to
reduce burdens on schools. It is important that headteachers and governors have the
freedoms they need to meet their responsibilities for the welfare of their pupils
in the way they consider is most appropriate.</p><p> </p><p>I am very grateful for
the support of the National Governors’ Association in raising awareness about the
needs of young carers and sharing resources with governing bodies. Whilst there is
a lot of good practice in schools, there remains much to do to make this more widely
available.</p><p> </p><p>That is why I welcome two exciting new developments led by
the voluntary sector. The Big Lottery Fund are financing The Children’s Society’s
“Young Carers in Focus” programme to launch a national award scheme that allows schools
to be recognised for the quality of support for their young carers. The Queen’s Trust
too are funding Carers Trust to develop and test best practice on young carer support
in schools. Both of these initiatives will build on the work my Department has been
doing with The Children’s Society and Carers Trust since 2011 to share existing tools
and good practice. This includes development of an e-learning module for school staff
to increase awareness in schools of young carers’ needs. We are planning to update
this soon to reflect the new legislation but the current version is available on The
Children’s Society’s website: <a href="http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/Young-Carers-Web-Pub-v13/player.html"
target="_blank">http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/Young-Carers-Web-Pub-v13/player.html</a></p><p>
</p><p>The Department of Health are also training school nurses to be champions for
young carers. They will speak up on their behalf and help headteachers and governors
decide how best to support them at school.</p><p> </p><p>At present we do not plan
to extend the pupil premium eligibility criteria to cover young carers (or any other
group). Our policy is to allocate pupil premium funding to those pupils who have experienced
financial disadvantage but there is a significant cross-over between young carers
and the current pupil premium target population. Research indicates that as many as
60 per cent of young carers could be eligible for free school meals, so already attract
the pupil premium.</p><p> </p><p>We will continue to encourage schools to use the
resources that are already freely available to them and to make links to their local
young carers support group.</p><p> </p>
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