The short answer
- Helping someone at home makes a child a young carerIn law, a young carer is anyone under 18 who provides or intends to provide care for another person, other than as paid or voluntary work. It is a description of what they do, not a judgement about your family.
- Some tasks should be done by an adultGovernment guidance to councils names personal care such as bathing and toileting, lifting, giving medication, managing the family's money and emotional support to the adult as tasks that may be inappropriate for a child.
- The council must assess a young carer if you askA young carer's needs assessment is free and looks at whether caring is appropriate for them. When the council assesses the adult, it must also consider any child who is helping.
- Carer's Allowance is possible from 16, but not alongside full-time studyIt is £86.45 a week in 2026/27 for 35 hours of caring or more. A young person in full-time education, or studying 21 hours a week or more, cannot get it.
This page covers England. Legal duties are quoted from legislation.gov.uk and the government's Care and Support Statutory Guidance, and benefit figures are from gov.uk, all checked in September 2026. Other organisations are named and linked so you can see what they offer where you live.
Who is a young carer
Who counts as a young carer, and the kinds of caring children do
Many children who help at home do not think of themselves as carers, and many parents would not use the word either. The law uses it for a practical reason: once a child is recognised as a young carer, the council and the school have duties towards them.
The Children Act 1989, in a section added by the Children and Families Act 2014, defines a young carer as a person under 18 who provides or intends to provide care for another person. Care given under a contract or as voluntary work does not count. The Care Act 2014 adds that providing care includes giving practical or emotional support, so a child does not have to be doing hands-on care to be a young carer. The person they help might be a parent, a grandparent who lives with the family, or a brother or sister.
Carers Trust, a national charity for unpaid carers, describes a young carer as someone under 18 who looks after a family member or friend who cannot cope without their support because of illness, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction. Being a young carer says nothing bad about a family.
The caring children do falls into a few kinds, and a child may do several.
Practical help around the home
Personal and physical care
Emotional support
Keeping watch
Schools in England now record how many of their pupils are known to be young carers. The Department for Education's school census counted 89,800 pupils identified as young carers in 2025/26, and the department notes that the rise in recent years mainly reflects schools getting used to recording it rather than more young carers (Department for Education, schools, pupils and their characteristics).
This page sits within our guides to caring for a parent, which are written for the adults in the family. If the person who needs care is your husband, wife or partner, and the child is helping you both, caring for your husband, wife or partner covers your side of it.
What to take off them
Which caring tasks should not fall to a child
Helping at home is part of ordinary family life, and a child who helps a parent they love is doing something good. The concern is caring that is too heavy for their age, or so much of it that school, sleep and friendships suffer.
The government's Care and Support Statutory Guidance, which councils must follow, describes inappropriate caring as anything likely to affect a child's health, wellbeing or education, or which is unsuitable in the light of the child's circumstances. It lists examples: personal care such as bathing and toileting, strenuous physical tasks such as lifting, giving medication, maintaining the family budget, and emotional support to the adult. It also says a young carer becomes vulnerable when caring risks their emotional or physical wellbeing or their prospects in education and life, for example when it keeps them off school, gets in the way of their learning, or stops them building friendships.
The table below takes those examples one at a time and sets out who could do each job instead.
Personal and physical care
| What a young carer may be doing | Should it be taken off them? | Who can help |
|---|---|---|
| Helping a parent or grandparent wash, bathe, dress or use the toilet | Yes. The government's guidance to councils names personal care such as bathing and toileting as a task that may be inappropriate for a child. | A paid carer for the morning and evening visits, or care the council arranges after it assesses the adult. |
| Lifting them, helping them up from a chair or the floor, or helping them in and out of bed | Yes. Strenuous physical tasks such as lifting are also named in the guidance. | An occupational therapist from the council, who can look at equipment, and a paid carer at the times of day that need it. |
| Giving tablets, injections or other medicines | Yes. Administering medication is on the same list. | The GP or pharmacist, who can review how medicines are given, and an adult carer or district nurse where one is needed. |
Helping a parent or grandparent wash, bathe, dress or use the toilet
Should it be taken off them?
Yes. The government's guidance to councils names personal care such as bathing and toileting as a task that may be inappropriate for a child.
Who can help
A paid carer for the morning and evening visits, or care the council arranges after it assesses the adult.
Lifting them, helping them up from a chair or the floor, or helping them in and out of bed
Should it be taken off them?
Yes. Strenuous physical tasks such as lifting are also named in the guidance.
Who can help
An occupational therapist from the council, who can look at equipment, and a paid carer at the times of day that need it.
Giving tablets, injections or other medicines
Should it be taken off them?
Yes. Administering medication is on the same list.
Who can help
The GP or pharmacist, who can review how medicines are given, and an adult carer or district nurse where one is needed.
Running the home
| What a young carer may be doing | Should it be taken off them? | Who can help |
|---|---|---|
| Cooking, shopping, washing and cleaning | Some help at home is part of ordinary family life. It becomes too much when it affects school, sleep, friendships or health. | Another adult in the family, a paid carer for a regular shopping or lunch visit, or the support plan that follows an assessment. |
| Keeping track of money, bills and benefit forms | Yes. Maintaining the family budget is named in the guidance. | Another adult relative, the council's adult social care team, or a benefits adviser. |
Cooking, shopping, washing and cleaning
Should it be taken off them?
Some help at home is part of ordinary family life. It becomes too much when it affects school, sleep, friendships or health.
Who can help
Another adult in the family, a paid carer for a regular shopping or lunch visit, or the support plan that follows an assessment.
Keeping track of money, bills and benefit forms
Should it be taken off them?
Yes. Maintaining the family budget is named in the guidance.
Who can help
Another adult relative, the council's adult social care team, or a benefits adviser.
Emotional support and keeping watch
| What a young carer may be doing | Should it be taken off them? | Who can help |
|---|---|---|
| Being the person a parent confides in, calms down or turns to when they are frightened or low | Emotional support to the adult is named in the guidance. A child will still comfort a parent they love, but they should not be the one holding the adult up. | The parent's GP and their own treatment or support, adult social care, and a young carers' service for the child. |
| Staying home from school, or ringing home in every break to check they are all right | Yes. The guidance says a caring role that stops a child going to school or affects their learning makes them vulnerable. | Paid visits during the school day, and the school, which can help the child keep in touch at break times. |
Being the person a parent confides in, calms down or turns to when they are frightened or low
Should it be taken off them?
Emotional support to the adult is named in the guidance. A child will still comfort a parent they love, but they should not be the one holding the adult up.
Who can help
The parent's GP and their own treatment or support, adult social care, and a young carers' service for the child.
Staying home from school, or ringing home in every break to check they are all right
Should it be taken off them?
Yes. The guidance says a caring role that stops a child going to school or affects their learning makes them vulnerable.
Who can help
Paid visits during the school day, and the school, which can help the child keep in touch at break times.
Source: Care and Support Statutory Guidance, paragraphs 6.71 to 6.72, Department of Health and Social Care, on gov.uk.
You do not have to change everything at once. Start with the task that worries you most and ask who could take that on first. If you are not sure whether something your child does is too much, the guidance says the child's own view should be taken into account, so ask them how they feel about it. A child who wants to keep helping in small ways can be respected while the heavier jobs go to adults.
If the person being cared for has a condition that has come on young, the family may be adjusting to caring for the first time. Care for a younger stroke survivor and young-onset dementia both cover the help available when a parent of school-age children becomes ill.
The council assessment
The young carer's needs assessment, and why the council should look at the whole family
There are two routes to the council, and they work best together. One looks at the child who is caring. The other looks at the adult who needs care, and must take the child into account.
Under section 17ZA of the Children Act 1989, a council must carry out a young carer's needs assessment if it appears the young carer may need support, or if the young carer or a parent asks for one. The assessment must look at whether it is appropriate for the child to provide care, or to carry on providing it, in the light of their own needs and wishes. It must consider their education, training, leisure and any work they do or want to do. The council must then decide whether the child has needs for support and whether to provide services to meet them.
The whole-family approach comes from the adult side. When the council assesses the adult who needs care, regulation 4 of the Care and Support (Assessment) Regulations 2014 says it must consider the impact on anyone caring for them. Where a child is helping, the council must look at the effect on the child's wellbeing, welfare, education and development, and whether any of the tasks the child does are inappropriate. The statutory guidance adds that the council should consider how supporting the adult can prevent the child from carrying out excessive or inappropriate caring. In plain terms, the more care the adult gets, the less the child should have to do.
- 1
Ring the council and ask for both assessments
Adult social care and children's servicesAsk adult social care for a care needs assessment for the person who needs care, and say a child in the family is helping. Ask for a young carer's needs assessment for the child at the same time. If you do not know which council covers you, gov.uk has a council finder. - 2
The child, the parents and anyone they choose are involved
Set by lawThe council must involve the young carer, their parents, and anyone else the young carer or a parent asks it to include, such as a teacher or a grandparent. - 3
The council looks at what the child does and how it affects them
At the assessmentIt considers whether caring is appropriate for them, and their schooling, training, free time and any work. The child's own view about what they do should be taken into account. - 4
Everyone gets a written record
AfterwardsThe young carer, their parents and anyone the child or a parent names must be given a written record of the assessment. - 5
Support for the child, and care for the adult
What can followThe council decides whether to provide support for the young carer. Care arranged for the adult after their own assessment is what takes tasks off the child.
The two assessments can be combined if everyone involved agrees, which saves the family telling the same story twice. If an assessment has been done before, the council does not have to repeat it unless something has changed, so tell them if the adult's condition has got worse or the child is doing more than they were. The adult's side is explained in the care needs assessment, including how to prepare and what happens if you disagree with the outcome.
School and young carers' services
Support at school, and young carers' services and groups
A young carer's school sees them every day and may notice the effect of caring before anyone else does. Local young carers' services give the child something that belongs to them, away from caring.
The Department for Education's statutory safeguarding guidance for schools, Keeping children safe in education, tells all school and college staff to be particularly alert to a child who may need extra support, and lists being a young carer as one of the reasons. It says schools should be alert to the needs of young carers, recognising that caring can affect their attendance, attainment, behaviour and wellbeing, and that early identification is essential so they get support at the right time.
The school can only help if it knows. Telling the school is your decision and your child's, and it is worth talking to them about it first so they do not feel talked about. Ask whether the school has a member of staff who looks after young carers. Not every school has one, and if yours does not, the head of year or the designated safeguarding lead is the right person to speak to.
Time and understanding over schoolwork
A way to check in at break time
Groups in school
Someone to talk to
Outside school, Carers Trust has a search for local carer services by postcode, including services for young carers and young adult carers. What each service offers is decided locally, so contact them to find out what they run. The NHS guide to help for young carers is written for the young person themselves and lists other organisations and helplines, including Childline on 0800 1111.
From 16 to 25
Young adult carers: Carer's Allowance, the study rule and turning 18
Carers Trust uses the term young adult carers for people aged 16 to 25 who care, unpaid, for a family member or friend. This is the age at which benefits can begin, and at which support moves from children's services to adult services.
| What applies | Where it comes from | |
|---|---|---|
| Under 18 | A young carer's needs assessment from the council, and consideration of the child whenever the adult they care for is assessed. | Children Act 1989, section 17ZA; Care and Support (Assessment) Regulations 2014, regulation 4 |
| Approaching 18 | A young carer's assessment of the support they are likely to need once they are an adult, where it would be of significant benefit. | Care Act 2014, section 63 |
| From 16 | Carer's Allowance of £86.45 a week for 35 hours of caring or more, if not in full-time education or studying 21 hours a week or more, and earning £204 a week or less after deductions. | Department for Work and Pensions, on gov.uk |
| From 16, caring 20 hours or more | Carer's Credit, which fills gaps in a National Insurance record for a carer who cannot get Carer's Allowance. | Department for Work and Pensions, on gov.uk |
| 18 and over | A carer's assessment from adult social care, which anyone over 18 who cares for someone can ask for. | Care Act 2014; NHS guide to carer's assessments |
Under 18
- What applies
- A young carer's needs assessment from the council, and consideration of the child whenever the adult they care for is assessed.
- Where it comes from
- Children Act 1989, section 17ZA; Care and Support (Assessment) Regulations 2014, regulation 4
Approaching 18
- What applies
- A young carer's assessment of the support they are likely to need once they are an adult, where it would be of significant benefit.
- Where it comes from
- Care Act 2014, section 63
From 16
- What applies
- Carer's Allowance of £86.45 a week for 35 hours of caring or more, if not in full-time education or studying 21 hours a week or more, and earning £204 a week or less after deductions.
- Where it comes from
- Department for Work and Pensions, on gov.uk
From 16, caring 20 hours or more
- What applies
- Carer's Credit, which fills gaps in a National Insurance record for a carer who cannot get Carer's Allowance.
- Where it comes from
- Department for Work and Pensions, on gov.uk
18 and over
- What applies
- A carer's assessment from adult social care, which anyone over 18 who cares for someone can ask for.
- Where it comes from
- Care Act 2014; NHS guide to carer's assessments
Benefit figures are 2026/27 rates from gov.uk. The person being cared for must get a qualifying disability benefit for Carer's Allowance, and there are other conditions; check gov.uk before claiming.
Carer's Allowance can be claimed from 16. The young person must care for at least 35 hours a week for someone who gets a qualifying benefit such as Attendance Allowance or the daily living part of Personal Independence Payment. They cannot get it if they are in full-time education or studying for 21 hours a week or more, and their earnings must be £204 a week or less after tax, National Insurance and expenses. For a teenager who is still at school or college full time, this usually rules it out. Only one person can claim for caring for the same person, so if a parent already claims Carer's Allowance for looking after a grandparent, a young person cannot claim for the same grandparent as well. Our guide to who can claim Carer's Allowance covers the qualifying benefits and how it affects other benefits.
Carer's Credit is available from 16 to anyone under State Pension age who cares for someone for at least 20 hours a week. It is not a payment. It fills gaps in a National Insurance record, which protects the young person's future State Pension.
Turning 18 can be a hard point for a young carer, because children's services end and adult services begin. Under section 63 of the Care Act 2014, the council must assess a young carer who is likely to need support after 18, where doing so would be of significant benefit to them. If it refuses a request from the young carer or a parent, it must give written reasons. The statutory guidance says councils must not allow a gap in support when young carers move from children's to adult services. From 18, a young adult carer can ask for a carer's assessment in their own name, which what is a carer's assessment? explains.
Getting care in
Getting paid care in so the child can do less
The most direct way to take tasks off a young carer is to have an adult do them instead. That can come from the council after an assessment, from paid visits the family arranges, or from both.
If the council assesses the adult and finds they have eligible needs, it will agree a care and support plan with them, and it may pay towards the cost depending on their income and savings. The family carers in the house, including a child, can also get help in their own right. The free help for carers sets out everything a family carer in England can ask for without paying, from carers' centres to the GP practice.
Council support can take weeks to arrange, and it may not cover every time of day a child is currently helping. Families who want to take personal care off a child straight away can arrange paid visits themselves at the times that matter most. Carers on PrimeCarers charge £18 to £25 an hour with our fee included, against £28 to £35 an hour at an agency. You can search for carers near you and compare their rates, then message the ones who look right.
A morning visit before school
Personal care
An evening visit
Medication and bedtime
Cover for exams and school trips
Short periods
A regular break for the whole family
Respite
Every carer on PrimeCarers has had their identity and right to work checked, holds an enhanced DBS check (or PVG in Scotland, Access NI in Northern Ireland) issued within the last 18 months, and has been interviewed online. We do not check qualifications, training or references, so ask each carer about their experience with the tasks you need and check it with them. Every visit booked through PrimeCarers is insured, by the carer's own policy or by cover PrimeCarers arranges where they do not hold one. You agree the visits directly with the carer, and hourly care can be ended on 48 hours' notice.
If a parent's needs mean someone should be in the house day and night, and a child is currently the person who stays in, when to hand over to a professional helps you judge when family care has reached its limit.
Questions
Questions families ask about young carers
In law a young carer is anyone under 18 who provides or intends to provide care for another person, and the Care Act 2014 says care includes practical or emotional support. There is no minimum number of hours. Whether they need support is a separate question, which the council's young carer's needs assessment is there to answer.
A young carer's needs assessment is about what support the child needs and whether their caring is appropriate for them. The government's guidance tells councils to consider how supporting the adult can reduce what the child does, and to take account of the adult's responsibilities as a parent. Asking for help is what the assessment is for.
Your local council. A young carer or a parent can ask, and the council must carry out the assessment if the child may need support. Ask adult social care for a care needs assessment for the person being cared for at the same time, and say a child is helping.
Yes, if they care for someone for 35 hours a week or more, the person gets a qualifying benefit, and they meet the other conditions. They cannot get it while in full-time education or studying 21 hours a week or more, and earnings must be £204 a week or less after deductions. Carer's Allowance explained has the details.
It is your family's choice, but the school can only help if it knows. Statutory guidance tells school staff to be alert to young carers because caring can affect attendance, attainment, behaviour and wellbeing. Talk to your child first, then ask the school who looks after young carers there.
Under section 63 of the Care Act 2014, the council must assess a young carer who is likely to need support after 18, where it would be of significant benefit. The statutory guidance says there must be no gap in support between children's and adult services. From 18 they can ask for a carer's assessment in their own name.