Useful bits and interesting bobs, No. 6
Every other week I look at something that might be useful or interesting for DSL's. This week it's a very quick website for Young Carers*...
In my most recent blog piece I asked whether being a parent makes you a better DSL (read that here). In the process I mentioned all of the amazing parenting that is done by people who aren’t parents themselves, often called ‘Carers’. And then there are Young Carers. Those little people that dedicate incredible levels of maturity, compassion and resilience to looking after others. It’s no exaggeration to say that they are some of the most impressive human beings on the planet. They’re basically mini-superheroes.
They deserve all of the recognition and help we can possibly get for them. But I’ve always found them a hard group to locate and support. Usually very humble, sometimes embarrassed, often trying to cover up just how much they are doing. And then if you talk to their parents, you often find that they struggle to admit to themselves - let alone anyone else - just how much their son or daughter is doing to look after other people. So in my experience they are difficult conversations to have with children and parents alike.
Well the website I’m highlighting here is from the Young Carers section of the Action for Children website (here). It links to a confidential support service for young carers called Sidekick (here). I have no experience of someone using that service but it certainly sounds like a very valuable thing. And then really interestingly they have a survey you can do to see if you are a young carer (find that here).
It’s dead quick. It asks relevant questions in a straightforward manner. And it might be very helpful when working with children and adults if you are trying to think about whether someone in a specific situation is a young carer.
Obviously think about your policies and practice in relation to how and when you use this survey. But used well I think it can be very helpful (to be fair I have found it helpful so maybe it can work even if used badly!). Be aware that I don’t think it ever gives you a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answer. It will say something like ‘You are probably a Young Carer’ or ‘You might be a Young Carer’. And quite rightly it errs on the side of caution, so I suspect that a proud big sister who feels like she helps out a lot might come away thinking that she is a young carer, even if that description is actually not quite accurate for her. But it’s a valuable way of having those conversations, and the questions cut to the chase and possibly feel less nosey coming form an online survey than from a member of staff.
That’s it basically.
* All children are different. Something that might be suitable for some, might not be suitable for others. Other people might not rate this resource, and some children might not benefit from it. And before sharing anything with actual people, I’d always recommend checking it out yourself first, to see if it’s a good fit for them.
For those that celebrate it, I hope you’ve had a great Eid. TheDSLblog will be quiet for the next two weeks for the Easter holidays, but I’ll be back on 22nd April with a new blog piece, all about safeguarding and rats. Which will hopefully be slightly less stupid than it sounds…