IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i17p10755-d900839.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Teachers’ Perceptions of Supporting Young Carers in Schools: Identifying Support Needs and the Importance of Home–School Relationships

Author

Listed:
  • Amy Warhurst

    (Department of Psychology, University of Winchester, Winchester SO22 4NR, UK)

  • Sarah Bayless

    (Department of Psychology, University of Winchester, Winchester SO22 4NR, UK)

  • Emma Maynard

    (Department of Child & Family Health, King’s College London, James Clark Maxwell Building, London SE1 8WA, UK)

Abstract

Recognition and support for young carers has improved steadily in the past two decades; with stronger legislation and more visibility and awareness of the challenges that many of the YC face, especially with respect to their education. Recent UK-based initiatives providing toolkits and guidance for school staff have provided much needed direction for schools, to support the loosely defined statutory requirements. The aim of the current research was to hear from school staff about their experiences in identifying and supporting young carers, to better understand any enablers and barriers. The thematic analysis of the interview data from 18 school staff was organized into two main themes: perceptions regarding the characteristics of young carers; and perceptions regarding the importance of home–school communication. Each superordinate theme contained several sub-themes. Overall, the teachers perceived many difficulties identifying young carers who did not volunteer this information and felt that the main enabler of identification was the trust relationships between the school and the pupil and parents. Once identified, the schools perceived the main areas of need that they could provide support for were the emotional wellbeing of the pupils and additional academic opportunities. They spoke too of the difficulties balancing the provision of this extra support within the constraints of the school context, both in terms of the school day, and the competing priorities relating to academic and social–emotional needs. School staff recognized that extra time outside of school was difficult for young carers to attend. Other subthemes are discussed with consideration to enablers and barriers. The implications for the dissemination of good practice, and addressing policy are considered.

Suggested Citation

  • Amy Warhurst & Sarah Bayless & Emma Maynard, 2022. "Teachers’ Perceptions of Supporting Young Carers in Schools: Identifying Support Needs and the Importance of Home–School Relationships," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-18, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:17:p:10755-:d:900839
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/17/10755/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/17/10755/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Katrina Lloyd, 2013. "Happiness and Well-Being of Young Carers: Extent, Nature and Correlates of Caring Among 10 and 11 Year Old School Children," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 67-80, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Aurélie Untas & Christel Vioulac & Pauline Justin & Agnes Leu & Géraldine Dorard, 2022. "Professionals’ Awareness of Young Carers in Schools: Results from a French Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-19, October.
    2. Hinke M. van der Werf & Wolter Paans & Anneke L. Francke & Petrie F. Roodbol & Marie Louise A. Luttik, 2023. "Identifying and Supporting Students with a Chronically Ill Family Member: A Mixed-Methods Study on the Perceived Competences and Role Views of Lecturers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(6), pages 1-12, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ed Janes, 2022. "Young Carer Perception of Control: Results of a Phenomenology with a Mixed Sample of Young Carers Accessing Support and Unknown to Services," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-16, May.
    2. Bou, Camille, 2023. "Factors associated with the quality-of-life of young unpaid carers: a systematic review of the evidence from 2003 to 2019," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118357, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Camille Bou, 2023. "Factors Associated with the Quality-of-Life of Young Unpaid Carers: A Systematic Review of the Evidence from 2003 to 2019," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(6), pages 1-15, March.
    4. Cho, Esther Yin-Nei & Yu, Fuk-Yuen, 2020. "A review of measurement tools for child wellbeing," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    5. Giulia Casu & Valentina Hlebec & Licia Boccaletti & Irena Bolko & Alessandra Manattini & Elizabeth Hanson, 2021. "Promoting Mental Health and Well-Being among Adolescent Young Carers in Europe: A Randomized Controlled Trial Protocol," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-23, February.
    6. Jade Pilato & Géraldine Dorard & Basilie Chevrier & Agnes Leu & Aurélie Untas, 2022. "Quality of Life of Adolescents Facing a Parental Illness: A Person-Oriented Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-17, June.
    7. Russell, Helen & Smyth, Emer, 2024. "Caregiving among Young Adults in Ireland," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number RS168.
    8. Frech, Marianne & Wepf, Hannah & Nagl-Cupal, Martin & Becker, Saul & Leu, Agnes, 2021. "Ready and able? Professional awareness and responses to young carers in Switzerland," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    9. Myra Hamilton & Gerry Redmond, 2020. "Are Young Carers Less Engaged in School than Non-Carers? Evidence from a Representative Australian Study," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 13(1), pages 33-49, February.
    10. Mansi Jain & Gagan Deep Sharma & Mandeep Mahendru, 2019. "Can I Sustain My Happiness? A Review, Critique and Research Agenda for Economics of Happiness," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-36, November.
    11. Katrina Lloyd & Lesley Emerson, 2017. "(Re)examining the Relationship Between Children’s Subjective Wellbeing and Their Perceptions of Participation Rights," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 10(3), pages 591-608, September.
    12. Hinke M. van der Werf & Wolter Paans & Geertjan Emmens & Anneke L. Francke & Petrie F. Roodbol & Marie Louise A. Luttik, 2020. "Expectations and Prospects of Young Adult Caregivers Regarding the Support of Professionals: A Qualitative Focus Group Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-11, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:17:p:10755-:d:900839. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.