Publishing a two-year Carers Action Plan, covering the period 2018-20, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said it is teaming up with the Carers Trust to develop a "young carers identification project" to help those in contact with young people to better spot those who are carrying out caring duties at home.
The department has also promised to carry out a review of projects where young carers are benefitting from early and effective support. This will report back to ministers in Easter 2019.
The action plan is separate to a delayed cross-government Carers Strategy which had been due to be published in 2017. The government said that strategy will now be published alongside a forthcoming strategy for social care, a green paper for which is due to be published this summer.
It is unclear precisely how many young people have caring responsibilities. A report by children's commissioner for England Anne Longfield found that as many as 130,000 children aged between five and 17 with caring responsibilities may be unknown to local authorities. However, a survey by the BBC in 2010 estimated there were as many as 700,000.
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