PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
YOUNG CARERS AND THEIR FAMILIES (13 June 2005)

That this House welcomes the voluntary sector's leadership in working together to provide whole-family, preventative support for young carers and their families; congratulates the organisers of Carers' Week, which helps to highlight the vital work thousands of young carers undertake looking after a parent or guardian; recognises that the vast majority of the United Kingdom's 175,000 young carers endure their entire childhoods unsupported and receive no form of assessment; regrets that services for adults and services for children often struggle to work in partnership, especially where a local authority does not have a protocol for joint working; believes that disabled parents should be able to access the support they need to enable them to get their children to school and that young carers should receive appropriate recognition and support once at school; and calls for services that support adults to recognise that many of their clients are parents and require support with that role in order to prevent children having to take on inappropriate caring roles.

Sponsored by:
Annette Brooke (Liberal Democrat)