Case Studies

The Young Carers Transition Service, delivered by youth charity YSS, offers specific support to young adult carers, aged 16-24, who are providing emotional and/or practical support for a member of their family (usually a parent). The Young Carers Transition Service is distinct from the Worcestershire Young Carers service, also delivered by YSS, which supports younger carers, aged 8 to 18 years-old.

The Young Carers Transition Service is a bespoke, dedicated service. Through the work of a part- time Transition Key Worker and a part-time Transition Support Worker, the service provides age-specific support that takes young adults beyond the Young Carers service, to focus on the other big issues in their lives, such as employment, education, housing, and emotional and physical wellbeing (addressing isolation and social problems).

The small team supports young adults through one-to-one work, and regular support sessions and focus groups.

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The Young Carers Transition Service came about through recognition by YSS and Worcestershire County Council that young adults were often not making the transition to adult services after they had outgrown the Young Carers service, which works with young carers up until their 19th birthday. A strategic review conducted in 2008 into carers’ services in the local area identified that the county had 2,000 carers aged 16-24 years-old, 400 of whom were providing 20 hours or more of caring every week. It was therefore considered essential to focus specific attention on this particularly vulnerable group.

A group of young adult carers met with YSS to discuss their experiences since leaving the Young Carers service and through doing so, highlighted why there was need for an additional service for their age-group. The young adults explained that they did not relate to the groups provided by adult services. They did not see any common ground with the other adult carers and felt their lives, responsibilities and issues were totally different. Adult carer support services were felt only appropriate for older carers, usually of retirement age, who were dealing with partners with dementia or severe arthritis. The young adult carers were mostly looking after disabled parents, and by contrast were trying to find ways to begin their adult lives. The outcomes of this research underlined the importance of implementing a service that would recognise young adult carers as a distinct group, and one in need of a service that met their individual needs.

The service is funded by NHS Worcestershire in partnership with Worcestershire's Adult Social Care and Children's Services. Funding is for 18 months in the first term. The service will be assessed again in October 2011 to see if it is meeting the goals of creating positive outcomes for young adult carers.

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Young adults are mainly referred on to the Young Carers Transition Service from the existing Young Carers and Adult Carers services. Other referral routes may include Connexions, GPs and colleges.

There are currently 110 young people accessing the Worcestershire Young Carers service. Of that number 19 (17%) are young adults aged 16 -19 and therefore eligible for the new young adults service.

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The Young Carers Transition Service is an innovative carers service, in that it supports the individual in all areas of their life and not simply around their caring needs. The service is as much about helping young people forge successful pathways to adulthood, as it is about supporting them with their caring responsibilities. Below are some of the ways in which the service works with young adult carers.

Supporting general living:

Young carers have often grown-up in an environment where they have taken on adult responsibilities a great deal earlier than other young people. However, the Young Carers Support Workers recognise that those young people may still need help, as in many cases they will not have had parents who were physically or mentally able to teach them the skills needed to cope with life. This is of particular importance for young adult carers who are at an age where they are about to embark on their independent, adult lives. Some of the ways in which the Transition Workers help young adults with general living may include: helping them to find money for driving lessons so they can transport a disabled parent; looking at what the needs are within the family – e.g. do they have bereavement issues? Are they in contact with social services if they need to be? It might also be about working on their basic living skills, such as teaching them how to shop on a budget, helping them manage money and showing them how to cook basic meals.

“You can wrongly assume because they are a young carer, they therefore know everything there is to know about the home life and the caring role... our help might just be something as simple as they want to look at renting and they don’t know who to go to, or how much it costs to start with. Or they might not know that there’s a housing association and that they can get put on the council list. Or once they get in to the property they might not know that they need a TV licence. It might have always just been in the home and they didn’t know you had to pay for it.” (Young Carers Transition Worker)

Signposting and accompanying to other appointments:

The Support Workers will also help young adult carers look into other services they may need. This may involve signposting them to those services or, where necessary, accompanying them to appointments and meetings related to those other services.

“...what this service does do is identify what their needs are and then try to facilitate addressing those needs. So linking them up with the college, linking them up Connexions, Job Centre Plus, linking them up to adult social care, GP practices... it’s about facilitating those things. If a young person is able and confident to do that you might give the information to signpost them, but if not it might be about hand-holding to take them along and support them in that.” (Joint Commissioner, Worcestershire CC)

Having someone to talk to:

The Support Workers also know the importance of having a dedicated person available for the young adult carers to offload on. Due to the demanding nature of the caring role, personal needs and feelings are often overlooked or put to one side. These ‘offloading’ sessions are often the time when underlying needs are highlighted, which in turn allows the Support Workers to better identify where that young adult may need additional help.

“It’s having someone to talk to. Someone who is not affected by what is going on, not emotionally involved, and you can just offload on. And it might be, during that time, that you realise that that isn’t enough for that young person, they might need counselling, or they might need to be referred on, or they might need to see the doctor even, they might have mental health issues of their own because of what’s been going on. So really it’s about picking up on those points while you work with them.” (Young Carer Transition Worker)

Supporting education and training:

The service has young adult’s futures at the heart of what they do. Whereas adult services will focus on supporting the carer to better support the person they are caring for, the Young Carers Transition Service also looks to help the carer in working towards their own goals. This may involve helping write CVs, supporting job applications or helping them source any additional training they may want or need.

Provide a ‘personal support network’:

Many young carers are isolated and rarely get to spend time with people their own age. The Young Adult Carers Support Group is particularly important as it allows the young adults to not only meet other carers with whom they can share their experiences, but also allows them the opportunity to talk through the issues that affect them as a young adult.

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• Involving young adult carers in decisions about the future direction of the service.
• Developing a new initial assessment tool, that explores issues related to both being a carer but also being a young adult.
• Developing stronger links with Adult Carers services.
• Currently looking at extending the service through developing promotional literature and making links with other services and professionals that may have access to young adult carers, such as: Healthy Schools Co-ordinators; school nurses; Connexions; and EduLink (Worcestershire’s online learners communication service).

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