Young Carers in Dundee - The Power of Partnership

What happens when young carers are involved as an equal partner and are able to inform the key priorities that statutory and third sector partners work towards?  What happens when all members of a partnership take responsibility to get it right for all of our young carers and commit to being a City that cares? 

A new policy to ensure young carers in schools in Dundee were identified and supported was developed in partnership with young carers, Dundee City Council and Dundee Carers Centre and launched in 2017.  This, however, was only the beginning of the story.  Driven by the young carers involved in the process ongoing work was undertaken by the schools, Education Senior managers and Dundee Carers Centre to ensure that the policy did not gather dust on the shelves but was a practical document and resource to ensure that identifying and supporting young carers would become everyone’s responsibility. 

Now in Dundee there is a strong, multi-agency partnership co-chaired by Dundee City Council Children & Families and Dundee Carers Centre supporting the implementation of the work at a Citywide level.  In every school there is a strong local partnership between young carer ambassadors in the school, a named member of school staff responsible for young carer identification and support and a dedicated link worker from Dundee Carers Centre.  

Across Scotland it is acknowledged that we need to improve our identification and recording of who our young carers are to ensure they are known and receiving the appropriate support.  Only around 4,000 of the estimated 29,000 young carers in Scotland are recorded on SEEMIS, the management information system for our schools.  In the last 3 years in Dundee we have moved from a position where fewer than 100 young carers were recorded SEEMIS to nearly 500 young carers across the City. 

This short film will explore and share experiences of how we have developed this partnership in Dundee, our successes and challenges and where we are going next.  

The following links are for the young carers resource page on the Carers of Dundee website – and all the information, leaflets and resources available to support young carers in Dundee have been co-produced with young carers, their families and the practitioners who support them.

https://carersofdundee.org/carers/young-carers/

Key Contacts:  Sarah Boath, Team Manager, Dundee Carers Centre

Fiona Low, Education Officer, Dundee City Council