Wandsworth Young Carers Project

Background information

The project was originally started at the Katherine Low Settlement in 1997 and was piloted here very successfully for five years before being handed over to NCH (National Children’s Homes) in 2002. NCH continued to run it for nearly two years, but unfortunately it did not flourish as had been hoped, and they eventually decided to hand the project back to the Council. So in December 2004, the Council asked the Settlement to once again take back the management of the project, and since then membership and referrals to the project have increased significantly.

The project is currently core funded by Wandsworth Borough Council, and other small grants from various charitable trusts cover the cost of activities, residentials etc.

Aims and objectives

The project supports children and young people aged 5-18 who are affected by the illness or disability of a family member and provide care (physical or emotional) to that family member. The person they care for may have a physical disability, serious illness, mental health issues, drug or alcohol dependency or HIV/Aids. Caring can be isolating and demanding for children and young people and our aim is to ensure that they have support and can have a break from their caring role now and then.

We offer:

Twice monthly club for four age groups (5-6 years, 7-10 years, 11-13 years and 14+ years).
Day trips, outings and activities in the school holidays
Residential holiday breaks
Family support and advocacy
One-to-one support for young carers in ‘crisis’
Access to advice, information, resource library
Linking to other agencies and support networks

Staffing

The staff consists of a co-ordinator who has overall responsibility for the project and manages the other staff, together with an activity co-ordinator (part-time) and sessional workers and volunteers who help run the club nights and outings/activities.

Management arrangements

§ Management is organised by Katherine Low Settlement, who have designated a line-manager for the project whom is accountable to Wandsworth Borough Council for effective management of the project.

§ A steering group offers advice for the project. It includes representation from the Education Department, the Educational Welfare Service, Health (school nurses), Youth Service, Children Specialist Services, Adult Mental Health, CAMHS, Adult Services, Extended Schools, Children’s Trust and Carers Centre.

§ Responsibility for servicing this steering group rests with Katherine Low Settlement.

Katherine Low Settlement

The Settlement is a well established, multi-purpose community and social action centre in North Battersea. It currently leads the Sure Start Battersea local programme, and runs a refugee home-school support project, a self-help refugee group, projects for pensioners and generic youth work.

The Young Carers Project has the support of an experienced community development worker, and use of the resources offered by the Centre (including a mini-bus and youth-work facilities).

The Settlement is a registered charity, and managed as a limited company by a Management Board.