School of Education

One in five children in England care for family members

New research from Professor Stephen Joseph suggests more than one in five children in England carry out some care for sick and disabled family members.

New figures from BBC News and the University of Nottingham reveal that the extent of caring by children is much higher than had been thought, with 22% of children, who responded to a questionnaire, admitting to being young carers.

The secondary school pupils, who responded, lived with a family member who had an illness or disability and carried out caring duties. Nearly a third (32%) of those children are responsible for a high level caring.

If the results reflect the country as a whole, it would mean that over 800,000 secondary school children (aged 11-16 years) in England are having to care for someone at home…with nearly 260,000 regularly doing domestic work, household management and emotional care.

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Posted on Friday 14th September 2018

School of Education

University of Nottingham
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