In this issue:

• Young Carers Action Day 2023
• Young Carer Roadshows
• Young Carer Health Checks
• Young Carers Voice & Young Carer Ambassadors
• Transitions
• New Resources
• Young Carers Research Project
• Dundee Carers Charter News & Updates

Young Carers Action Day - The Overgate Takeover!

Young Carers Action Day 2023 showcase event will be held in the Overgate Shopping Mall, from Wednesday 15 March until Friday 17 March 2023. We will be taking over many parts of the Overgate and will keep you posted on these locations.

This year we would like to take this theme ‘Making Time for Young Carers’ and focus on highlighting Dundee as a City where its young carers are identified and celebrated and where the experiences and contributions of our young carers are known, understood, and valued.

We will see showcase material from over 20 school groups, community groups and businesses showing their interpretation of “The day in a life of a young carer” this will be in many different formats from videos to artwork and presentations…

We will keep you posted on our dedicated webpage you can find here - https://carersofdundee.org/carers/young-carers-action-day-2023/

Young Carer Roadshows in Schools

Young Carers Voice and Young Carer Ambassadors have been working hard to prepare a new roadshow to introduce all S1 pupils across the city to what it means to be a Young Carer. They have been unable to deliver roadshows since 2019 but this year throughout February and before the Young Carer Day in March they will be able to visit each secondary school. This year, for the first time Roadshows will also visit a youth group to reach young people in the community.

Most schools have confirmed dates and Young Carers Voice are looking forward to raising awareness of young carers and their amazing contribution with staff and young people across the City.
 

Young Carer Health Checks

The health checks have been completed in all high schools except for 1 that will be completed in March. The health checks indicated that a lot of young carers 28.8% were struggling with their mental wellbeing. This resulted in a new 1:1 support service being implemented by The young carers outreach team at The Corner , to support young carers. We also received funding to ensure that young carers who are struggling with their mental health can receive a "wellbeing box" with tools and information to enhance their mental wellbeing.
 
The health checks are to be implemented to all young carers annually with the new academic term potentially offering it for S2-S6. The health checks are still available for all young carers up to age 25 and any service can refer a young carer for a health check.
 
The young carers outreach team at The Corner are now working in partnership with CAMHS & Dundee Carers Centre providing tailored programmes incorporating CBT & DBT techniques to promote & educate positive mental health coping strategies to young carers across the city.
 
The Corner are currently working on Young Carers Action and making a short film to portray "the day in the life of a carer" and to highlight the key issues facing young carers. The Corner will also be having a window display on the run up to Young Carers Action day, which will be designed and decorated by young carers.
 

 

 

Young Carers Voice & Young Carer Ambassadors

Young Carers Voice is a city-wide group of young carers who get involved in influencing change for young carers in the City and have taken a lead on organising the Young Carers Action Day and Roadshows in schools.  If you are a young carer who would like to find out more or you know a young carer you think would like to join this group please contact your Dundee Carers Centre link worker or email Jaymieleigh: jaymieleigh.eardley@dundeecarerscentre.org.uk

Young Carer Ambassadors are young carers who take on a leadership role, volunteering to support awareness raising, groups and support in their school or college.  We have 24 young carer ambassadors across the City.  If you are interested in finding out more about this role please contact your Dundee Carers Centre link worker or email Alix: alix.hill@dundeecarerscentre.org.uk

As well as regular groups, activities and training both Young Carers Voice and Young Carer Ambassadors will have the opportunity to attend the Big Ideas Residential for young leaders at Stirling University this Summer.
 

Young Carer Transitions

Working in partnership with schools, CLD and D&A College Dundee Carers Centre runs transition support and activities for young carers moving from P7 – S1 and who will be leaving school this year.

Dundee Carers Centre Link Workers are working hard to ensure that we know who all the young carers are who are due to transition this year.  If you work in schools please liaise directly with your link worker to ensure that no young carer misses out on these fantastic opportunities.

Depending on the cluster or age of young people a variety of activities are provided including getting to know other young carers, trips, activities, training and accreditation opportunities, support to access additional supports such as young carer package and young carer grants.  

For both age groups residential opportunities will be available – to the Scottish Young Carers Festival and an Outward-Bound opportunity in partnership with Camp & Trek.

 

Feedback from the Primary School Resource Pack has been fantastic, and it is great to see so many primary schools now running young carers groups.

Based on the success of this resource pack we are developing a similar pack for use with secondary school peer support groups for young carers.  

A new peer education programme, developed with young carers, is being piloted in the Baldragon Cluster this term.  Young carers from Baldragon have developed awareness raising sessions for young people in P.7 and will be delivering these sessions over the coming weeks.  This will raise awareness of young carers generally and enable young people at primary to self-identify and come forward for support.

Both these resources will be ready to rollout to all schools for the new session in August 2023.  Watch this space for further information and training sessions on the new resources.

Dundee is recognised as leading the way nationally in its work with young carers. In 2021/22 Sarah Boath, Team Manager at the Carers Centre, undertook a masters research project at the University of Dundee to explore this approach more fully, and its impact.  Working with a participatory research team of 12 young carers and 4 practitioners the research was submitted to the University in Autumn 2022.

A short summary report is attached here, and the full report is accessible here.

This is a fantastic piece of work and a great achievement for Sarah Boath who received a distinction for the research and there are plans for report to be published in an academic journal! Wow! Thanks to the research team for all their input and making it all possible.
 

Dundee Carers Charter is for businesses and organisations to sign up to in order to demonstrate their commitment to supporting unpaid carers. This can help support their employees who may be unpaid carers or if in a public setting like schools and speaking to anyone with caring responsibilities. This makes you ideally placed to help identify and support carers in your community.
 
Being recognised as being part of the Carers Charter can make you more approachable to carers. We can also help give support, access to online modules and staff training.
 
The work that Dundee Schools undertake in identifying and supporting young carers, in partnership with Dundee Carers Centre, has been recognised as sector-leading across Scotland. The presentation of the Carers of Dundee Charter to each and every school in the City is a way of recognising the excellent practice in Dundee schools of identifying and nurturing the amazing young carers of our City.  We are delighted that schools in Dundee are signing up to the Dundee Carers Charter and presentations for each individual school will be taking place over the coming months.

Harris Academy were the first school to be presented with the charter. Harris Academy have shown ongoing dedication and commitment to identifying and supporting young carers throughout the whole school. The school has a regular young carers group, awareness-raising sessions, a dedicated noticeboard, a team of dedicated young carer ambassadors as well as tailored supports for individual young carers. This ensures that the whole school really lives up to their young carer group name – Harris Cares.
Every school makes its unique contribution to supporting young carers in a person-centred way – watch this space to hear about the amazing work in other schools across the city.

Visit www.carersofdundee.org for more on:

• Carers information & advice
• Young carers information & advice plus information and resources for youth support services and schools
• Service directory
• Events page packed with online information events and group sessions
• Learning Portal packed with e-modules including Everyone Cares E-module