Children caring for sick and disabled parents ‘risk lasting problems as adults’

Many children and young people who spend time caring for a chronically sick or disabled parent experience long-term problems in their own lives resulting from missed school and lack of qualifications or job opportunities.

Research for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, being launched at the House of Commons today as part of National Carers Week, suggests that associated difficulties facing young carers include stress, depression and behavioural disorders as well as restricted opportunities to make friends and form relationships.

Based on in-depth interviews with 60 carers, and former carers, aged 16 to 25, the study by researchers at Loughborough University looks at the ways that caring influenced their education, training and employment and how it affected their transition into adult life. It shows that:

• The caring tasks carried out by young people ranged from domestic chores to emotional support and helping their parents with medication, mobility and personal, intimate care.
• Nearly all the young carers had parents receiving welfare or disability benefits. Half were living in lone parent families. Some interviewees described how long-term disability and reliance on benefits had led to extreme and enduring financial difficulties for their families.
• A third of parents were receiving care from social or mental health services. But another third had no support at all. Some families had cancelled their support because they considered services over intrusive, poor quality or too expensive.
• Half the young carers had missed some school and a quarter had no GCSE qualifications. Non-attendance was usually because of reluctance to leave sick parents alone, but sometimes because parents did not want them to go to school. In a few cases teachers and educational welfare staff had colluded in these absences - possibly because they (mistakenly) believed it was supportive to do so.
• Only a quarter of those interviewed had paid jobs. Many were in further education, but caring in the home made it difficult to seek part-time work while studying, compounding their financial difficulties.
• Leaving home was a problem for many young carers. Some had delayed moving out because of the need to continue caring for their parents. However, a few young people whose parents had severe mental health problems had left home prematurely - sometimes to be taken into care.

The study finds that young carers frequently had close, loving relationships with their parents and had tended to mature quickly, gaining practical skills that were useful for independence and adulthood. But these positive aspects of their lives had been outweighed by the loss of educational, social and employment opportunities as they grew older.

Chris Dearden, co-author of the report, said: “Children and young people who take on a significant and inappropriate burden of caring for their parents can not only be affected during childhood, but also when they start making their way in the adult world. A lack of positive, professional support for their families, combined with family poverty and poor qualifications caused by missed schooling, are major reasons why many young carers face continuing social exclusion and stress as young adults.”