Young Carers

• Census 2011 suggests that there are 2,840 Wirral young people aged between 0 – 24 providing some form of unpaid care.

• There was an increase from 2,539 self-reported Wirral young carers in 2001 to 2,840 in 2011.

• At Census 2011 Wirral had 748 self-reported young carers aged 0 – 15 years and 2,092 between 16-24 years.

• Other research suggests that we can estimate that between 2,061 and 2,375 secondary-age Wirral school children could have additional carer responsibilities.

• Young Wirral Carers (2011 Census) are 45% Male and 55% Female, with just over 73% under 15 and over 26% aged 15-24 years with the vast majority providing 1 – 19 hours (72.4%) then 20-49 hours care (15.3%) and 50+ hours of care per week (12.3%).

• From 2001 to 2011 Census the percentage of Wirral Young Carers has increased by age as 2% (0-15 years), 14% (16-24 years) but this is below North West (11% for 0-15 and 19% for 16-24) and England (18% for 0-15 and 23% for 16-24).

• The increase between Census 2001 and Census 2011 is 2% for 0-15 year old young carers and 14% those carers aged 16-24 and 11% overall.

• Between 2001 and 2011 Census:

  • Male young carers fell by less than 1%

  • 0-15 year old young carers decreased by 2.5% with 16-24 year olds increasing to 73.7%.

  • More young carers are providing more unpaid care hours with 20-49 and 50+ hours increasing by over 2% between Census 2001 and 2011.

• Young carers self-reported health from both 2001 and 2011 Census is worse than people who have no recorded caring responsibilities.

• For 2018/19 service data then almost 27% of Young Carers who are accessing Barnardos support are aged 13 or 14 (21 of 77 young people).

• Both the 2001 and 2011 Census suggest that more Young Carers live and provide care in Wirral wards experiencing the highest levels of deprivation.

• Conditions of Cared for Adults (2017/18 and 2018/19 data)

  • Almost 33% of young carers were caring for adults with a diagnosed mental health illness.

  • Almost 22% children were caring for adults with a Physical/illness disability

  • 10% children were caring for adults have a Neurological Condition (e.g. MS Brain Tumour, Stroke, Dementia).

  • Less than 5% were caring for adults with a terminal illness.

• Of the 168 carers accessing Barnardos Young Carer service for 2017/18 and 2018/19 the key headlines in terms of household composition are:

  • 58% of young carers live in lone parent households.

  • 79% of young carers care for one adult family member.

  • Almost 80% of Young Carers being supported where from Birkenhead and Wallasey.

Young Carers JSNA (published January 2018)

• 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. 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 have to care for someone at home, with nearly 260,000 regularly doing domestic work, household management and emotional care.

• Also see Wirral Carers Section