CYP Now - Young carers ‘missing more than a month of schooling each year’

Young carers are missing more than a month of the school year due to their caring responsibilities, research has found.

The draft guidance includes banning sex education for pupils in year four and below. Picture: Adobe Stock/ Monkey Business - Monkey Business/Adobe Stock

On average young carers are absent from school for 23 days a year, compared with 14 days on average for their classmates.

Just under half of secondary school age young carers are classified as ‘persistently absent’, missing at least a day every fortnight.

Lack of support for young carers is a major factor in their high absence rate, according to the Carers Trust which has carried out the research.

More than half of schools do not provide the support young carers need, according to a poll of more than 8,000 teachers carried out by the charity's researchers.

A quarter of young carers told the charity they received no support at all from their school or college.

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