Young carers

Caring for someone when you're a young person can be difficult. In Northumberland, you may be able to get some help if you look after a parent, brother or sister.

Caring for someone when you're a young person can be difficult. In Northumberland, you may be able to get some help if you look after a parent, brother or sister. You can contact us and ask for help in your caring role.

Northumberland’s priorities for children and young people (from the Children and Young People’s Plan) encompass young carers and we are committed to supporting young carers to help them access support in different areas such as health and wellbeing and education.

A young carer is somebody who is aged under 18 and looks after a parent, sibling or any other family member who may have a disability, serious illness, problems with their mental health or with alcohol or drugs.

At times, caring for someone can be really hard and mean that there is less time for hobbies, interests, friends, or school work. You may be taking on extra household chores, sorting out medications, helping someone to wash, or comforting someone, to name but a few tasks.

If you care for someone, you may feel like you would like to talk to someone or ask for help if you need it. In Northumberland, we have a service run by a specialist worker that can support you and give advice, and get you access to activities to enjoy in your spare time.

If you feel that you might be a young carer and would like to get some further advice or support we can help.

Please ask a professional you are working with (for example, a teacher, youth worker or family support worker) to help you complete our form. Click here to access the young carer referral form

Click here to see the question that the referral form asks.

If there is nobody you feel can ask to help you, ask for help using our Onecall telephone number: 01670 536400. You may ask to speak to someone from the Youth Service, using the same phone number.

The completed form will then be passed to our specialist worker at Carers Northumberland who will contact you to talk things through further and offer support that meets your needs, for example, when you have spare time.

The support you could receive includes access to an Active Northumberland Leisure pass, access to existing young carer groups, access to a dedicated support line and to activities led by the Youth Service.

This service is for carers of all ages, including young carers. They will provide individual support for young carers from June 2020, as well as advice for their family.

Once your professional has sent in the completed form on your behalf, this will be sent to Carers Northumberland who will have a special worker in place.

If you are a young carer, there are lots of ways you can get in touch with them...

Carers Northumberland - Young Carers Newsletter - Click here for the latest edition
If you are a professional working with a young carer and you would like to make a referral to Carers Northumberland for a Young Carers Assessment.

Click here to access the Young Carers referral form.

Click here to see the question that the referral form asks.
To find out how we use the information you give us, you can read our privacy notice.

Click here to read the privacy notice.