Leeds Young Carers Support Service Information for young people
Making sure young carers are visible, valued and supported
Our Leeds Young Carers Support Service is here to make sure children and young people who are providing care for a loved one are visible, valued and supported. Find out more about who is a young carer and what services and support are available in the Leeds area below
A young carer is a child or young person under the age of 18 who looks after or helps to look after someone who has an illness, learning or physical disability, experiences mental ill health or has a difficulty with drugs or alcohol. It might be your mum or dad, grandparent, brother or sister or a close relative or friend.
A young carer usually takes on practical and/or emotional caring tasks that would normally be expected of an adult. This means doing things like cooking, cleaning, shopping, giving medication or just talking and helping when the person you care about is feeling sad.
Caring tasks can look very different, you might be doing different things than mentioned above, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t a young carer.
Looking after someone can sometimes take up a lot of time and it can be very difficult to cope with everything. Going to school, meeting up with friends and doing the things you enjoy can sometimes be hard to fit in.
The first service or professional a young carer or family member speaks to about the care they are providing has the responsibility to explore this further and find out what the family feel they need.
Services in the area work with young people and their families to find out the best way to get support. It could be from a range of services including school or our Young Carers Support Service. In order to be able to understand you and your families situation better a professional may complete a tool called “A Day in the Life of….” with you or your loved one.
The important thing is that you and your family have been able to fully talk about what is happening for you, including what is going well, what you are finding difficult and get support with understanding which service is best placed to support you and how to access it.
Our Leeds Young Carers Support Service can help in three main ways.
We can be contacted by you, a family member or professional Monday – Friday 9 am till 5 pm.
If the type of care you are providing is impacting a lot on what you can do and how you feel, a referral to our service may be the right type of support to help find ways to reduce the level of care you provide and improve how you are feeling. A Young Carers Practitioner would complete a young carers needs assessment with you and your family and together we would agree an action plan.
We run a monthly LEAP group which is a space for young carers to come together with others who have similar experiences, have a voice and an opportunity to influence issues affecting young carers.. We sometimes run additional groups for young carers too which focus on specific topics and provide opportunities to spend time with other children and young people who provide care for a loved one.
Getting into Work is a handbook for young adult carers in England who want to get into work. It will be particularly useful if you are looking for work for the first time, have been out of work for a while or if you are in work but looking for a new job.
For more information or if you have a question you can get in touch with us at the below.
Email [email protected]
Hollyshaw House,
2 Hollyshaw Lane,
Leeds
LS15 7BD
Open: Monday – Friday, 9 am – 5 pm.