Plaid Cymru AM Lindsay Whittle will stress the vital contribution young carers make during a debate in the Senedd today.
The South Wales East AM will highlight the need for schools to make adjustments for young people who look after parents. An estimated 11,000 carers in Wales are children.
He praised an innovative Access to Action scheme in Flintshire in which young carers have an ID card so that they can be immediately identified by teachers and pharmacists. Lindsay Whittle backed calls for the scheme to be rolled out across the whole of Wales.
“I can’t emphasise too much the vital role that schools, in particular, could and should be playing in making adjustments for young carers.
“The domestic duties that they have to do for a parent, for example, means that they might need to have extra time to hand in their homework; to be allowed to come to school a little later than other pupils or to leave early on occasions.”
Lindsay Whittle also wondered whether young carers were getting training for the tasks they need to do – such as lifting an adult safely.
He argued that staff in schools and colleges should receive awareness training about the challenges faced by young carers.
It has been estimated that across Wales carers in general contribute around £7.7bn worth of care and support that would otherwise have to be paid for by the public purse.
