Caring Lives: What do young people with caring responsibilities for family members need to thrive?
Lead Research Organisation:
CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
Department Name: Sch of Social Sciences
Abstract
My PhD studied why the impacts of caring vary for different children and young people depending on their individual lives. Young carers research has focused on those who access young carer projects due to having substantial responsibilities, and I was keen to study the wider young carer spectrum, in order to better understand the positive and negative effects:
My main findings included:
- Young carers who feel in control of their roles are often able to manage their responsibilities alongside their education and social lives. Threats to this control include excessive responsibilities, unstable roles and regular medical tasks.
- Support from family members, community and services can help young carers who have less control over their roles. The relationship between the young carer and the care receiver is particularly important.
- Research with all young carers is vital to understanding the difference between manageable responsibilities and problematic care. Working with the wider spectrum can also informed support that is tiered to meet the needs of the whole group.
- Young carer policy and awareness raising currently reflects the minority of young carers with substantial responsibilities. Policy and messaging that is reflective of the wider group can reduce stigma and privacy among young carers and their families.
My fellowship will enable me to publish multiple articles from my PhD and to build a track record as a mixed methods researcher. My findings have the potential to affect policy and practice and I will organise a national young carers event, in addition to presenting to and meeting with key groups in Wales and the wider UK. In addition I will access training and develop funding bids for further young carers research.
My main findings included:
- Young carers who feel in control of their roles are often able to manage their responsibilities alongside their education and social lives. Threats to this control include excessive responsibilities, unstable roles and regular medical tasks.
- Support from family members, community and services can help young carers who have less control over their roles. The relationship between the young carer and the care receiver is particularly important.
- Research with all young carers is vital to understanding the difference between manageable responsibilities and problematic care. Working with the wider spectrum can also informed support that is tiered to meet the needs of the whole group.
- Young carer policy and awareness raising currently reflects the minority of young carers with substantial responsibilities. Policy and messaging that is reflective of the wider group can reduce stigma and privacy among young carers and their families.
My fellowship will enable me to publish multiple articles from my PhD and to build a track record as a mixed methods researcher. My findings have the potential to affect policy and practice and I will organise a national young carers event, in addition to presenting to and meeting with key groups in Wales and the wider UK. In addition I will access training and develop funding bids for further young carers research.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Edward Janes (Principal Investigator / Fellow) |
Publications
| Description | A major focus of the fellowship is to disseminate the original findings of my doctoral study (Caring Lives) with policy officers and practitioners. While research has long hypothesised the presence of a young spectrum, research has been hampered by how to reach this larger and often private group. My mixed-methods study used cohort data and a school-based population approach to study this larger group, resulting in original findings on the diversity of the group, how positive and negative impacts vary depending on caring responsibilities and the home environment, and the need to tier support to the wider group. At the halfway point of the one-year fellowship I have held meetings with policy officers including the Welsh Government's Unpaid Carers and Older People's Team, and with practitioners including Carers Trust Wales and the Young Carers Alliance, Children in Wales (host of the Young Carers Network) and YMCA Swansea. In addition, I facilitated a half day Exchange session for policy makers and practitioners that included an initial presentation on my work, followed by groupwork on opportunities and implications, as well as discussions on future research and the potential to build an evidence base of research with practitioners. The fellowship also includes the development of funding bids for future work. Development of these relationships, particularly with Carers Trust Wales and YMCA Swansea, have also informed the development of two bids - for a three-year fellowship, and a two-year school based project respectively. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2023 |
| Sector | Education,Healthcare,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Societal,Policy & public services |
| Description | Development of social media presence (Twitter) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Development of social media challenge linked to my doctoral study (Caring Lives) and my one-year fellowship. Main focus is on young carers, both in terms of highlighting key pieces of my own work, but also interesting research and practice, but also tweeting on wider children's social care, public health and rights. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://twitter.com/EdJanesResearch |
| Description | Exchange seminar on the Young Carer spectrum |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Exchange seminar link up researchers with practitioners to enable two-way conversations. This half-day event included a presentation by me on the key results of the Caring Lives study that are of relevance to policy makers and practitioners. The second half of the event included group discussions and feedback on opportunities and implications for work, plus group work on the potential to develop research with practitioners that could inform an evidence base. These activities will inform future work and bid development. The intention was to make a video of the presentation available but the audio / video quality was poor. This was therefore rerecorded. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRXVKMHFsRY |
| Description | Making sense of increasing young carer prevalence - cause for concern or finding the hidden population? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | New blog to mark Young Carer Action Day (15/03/2023), on the increase in young carer prevalence, and how to interpret. Blog focuses on improved availability of large-scale dataset which allow us better reach previously hidden young carers, and how it enables the study of problematic caring responsibilities in the context of a larger population who have lesser caring roles. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://cascadewales.org/making-sense-of-increasing-young-carer-prevalence-cause-for-concern-or-find... |
| Description | Masterclass on working with young carers as a marginalised population |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | CASCADE Masterclasses are presented to academics and practitioners with an interest in research. This class focused on working with marginalised groups, with a focus on young carers. The session considered the issues that make many young carers hidden, before focusing on the challenges faced in attempting to recruit young carers from the general population, but also the resulting original findings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Meetings and presentations |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Meetings with individual groups including Carers Trust Wales, the Welsh Government's Unpaid Carers and Older People's Team, Children in Wales and YMCA Swansea to share the key results of the Caring Lives study, discuss next steps, and identify possible ways to work together. In addition, I have been attending Young Carer Alliance meetings that bring together practitioners and policy officers from the UK and internationally. This has led to working together on future work plans and the development of funding bids. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
| Description | WISERD seminar on quantitative findings |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Internal Cardiff University seminar for WISERD research centre on the quantitative component of the Caring Lives studies. This included a focus on young carer prevalence in the dataset, the descriptive summary, and the structural equation modelling results on young carer mental health compared to non-young carers over time, and also those with substantial responsibilities compared to other respondents over time. The feedback and questions informed a quantitative paper. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |