Keeping young carers well through lockdown
A key priority area for the Carers’ Centre over this period has been supporting carer wellbeing by transforming the way we deliver services. You can read more on our priorities here. Our wellbeing check-in’s showed many young carers were struggling with lockdown, so it was vital we continued to find ways to continue to support them.
As in the adult wellbeing team, the first step was to consider the online access of the young carers being supported. This led to the team deciding to create a booklet for primary aged children as well as developing an online offer. Two factors influenced this: although most families were known to be online, there are some who struggle with access. Additionally younger children are less likely than older children to have access to activities and friends online.
The booklet contains activities such as colouring and word searches along with opportunities for young carers to explore their feelings and activities to help with their emotional wellbeing. 245 booklets were mailed out and the response from families has been really positive.
Thank you for the YC booklet, we have done some of the games from there which were brilliant! He loves it!
What the team didn’t expect was how positively parents as well as children responded to the booklet. Many emailed thanks for providing an off screen activity they could offer to children when levels of screen time were a concern.
Alongside this booklet there have also been three online pilots for young carers: a ‘Family Day’; a music pilot with Bath Philharmonia and a young carer meet-up. These were designed to influence our summer activity programme for young carers.
Part of our regular young carer activity offer includes a family day, enabling young carers and their families to take time out together. To adapt this to an online activity we decided to tap in to what’s already being developed online. Why reinvent the wheel?! Captain Fantastic was booked to deliver a bespoke party through Zoom.
20 families registered for the event, though only 12 attended (the weather on the day was brilliant which probably played a part!). Still, new families who hadn’t engaged before joined in and there was great feedback
“It was such a lovely time to bond with the group and with our family. It gave us something to look forward to and enjoy!! Thank you so much”
It would actually have been hard to manage more families and enable them to engage with each other, a key part of family days. As a result, places will be limited for future events.
The second pilot was run by Bath Philharmonia, who have developed a way to deliver their successful young carer music project online. They wanted to test the new format. It was a great opportunity and to ensure the best outcome, we asked children who had previously participated in a Bath Phil project. They would be receptive to the content and already knew the musicians involved.
The session was a great success, with the young carers having a blast and creating this amazing video. Bath Phil have used this trial to gain funding for around 60 children to benefit from future online projects, including some of our own young carers.
Finally, we trialled a small ‘meetup’ of young carers from the same school. 40 minutes online to play some games, connect with each other and chat with staff. Again, we used young carers we already had a relationship with for this, as it helped us to be confident in the format. All those who took part enjoyed it, and we’re looking at how we can set up more ‘meetups’ for young carers in the future.
So, what has all of this taught us about helping young carers take a break?
- Although there is now a wealth of online activities for children in general, young carers and their families have benefited from being brought together. Why? Well, it might seem obvious, but It’s Relationships, Stupid. Each of the projects above worked because they got young carers and their families connected — to each other and to staff. Even the booklet has helped us to build relationships with parents, re-affiming our ability to be a positive force in the lives of their children. This has been further reinforced by the conversations we’ve had through wellbeing check-in’s which we spoke about here. Often our conversations with parents can be quick hello across a car park before we shuttle kids off on a break. Through lockdown, much more meaningful connections have been made. Yes, it’s about helping young carers have fun. But that’s a hook to ensuring young carers can be connected to those who can offer networks of support in what can be a really challenging role. Where young carers thrive is where this can be fostered. And it’s this we need to put at the heart of what we develop next.
- Linked to this, trialling options before launching a full breaks programme has helped understand what works, and it has really helped to use young carers we already had a relationship with for this, so we didn’t have to work on building this at the same time as considering a new context.
Next, we’ll be taking all of this learning to devise our summer programme. Whether this is all online, or part in person, this period has taught us a lot about what makes a successful wellbeing programme and we’re excited about developing this further.
