A big thank you to everyone who took part on 25 January 2018 and helped us highlight some of the pressures that the UK’s youngest young carers are facing. The aim of Young Carers Awareness Day is to identify and raise awareness of the 700,000 young carers across the UK who are caring for a sick or disabled family member. By raising awareness we hope it will help them to get the support they desperately need.
For Young Carers Awareness Day 2018 we carried out a snapshot survey which showed that many five-to-ten year olds, known as infant young carers, are getting up at night to care for a sick family member. There are around 10,000 young carers between the ages of five and seven providing unpaid care, according to the most recent Census. We know that many go unnoticed and unrecognised and even when they are acknowledged, more needs to be done to support them and their families as a whole.
