Surrey Young Carers has been supporting young carers across Surrey since 1996. We are one of three voluntary services managed by Action for Carers (Surrey). We can offer free impartial information and support to young carers. We aim to promote the needs of young carers in all child care and adult settings. SYC receives funding from Adult & Community Care services, the Carers Grant and the Children’s Fund.
Young carers are children and young persons under 18 who provide or intend to provide care, assistance or support to another family member. They carry out, often on a regular basis, significant or substantial caring tasks and assume a level of responsibility which would usually be associated with an adult. The person receiving care is often a parent but can be a sibling, grandparent or other relative who is disabled, has some chronic illness, mental health problem or other condition connected with a need for care, support or supervision.
(Becker, S. (2000) ‘Young Carers’ in Davies, M. (ed.) The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social Work, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd p. 378.)
“Surrey Young Carers want young carers out there to know that they are not alone, and that we can provide information and support to reduce the effect that caring for a member of their family has on their lives. Our Area Workers can put your family in touch with services which can make your daily lives better. We want young carers to have the same chances to have fun, be healthy, and do well at school and in further education as other young people. That’s why we run young carers groups, offer workshops to young carers on things that they have said are important to them and have dedicated workers in schools to raise awareness of the difficulties young carers may face. We also want you to tell us how you feel and what more we can do to support young carers, through our Young Carers forum. Young carers do amazing things in supporting members of their family but we want to make sure that they can have a life of their own too."
Jane Thornton - CEO Action for Carers Surrey
Our work is guided by the Every Child Matters learning outcomes that state ‘all children and young people should’