Young Carers Team - Family Solutions Service

The Young Carers Team (formerly Young Carers Service) is part of the Family Solutions Service. It provides targeted support and interventions through casework to children and families requiring statutory or targeted support to reduce safeguarding concerns in relation to young carers.

For some children, providing care to another person can cause them to have support needs, or put their health, development, or education at risk. If you feel you child has support needs in relation to the care they are providing/intending to provide, then you can ask professionals such as schools to complete an Early Help Assessment https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/residents/children-education-and-families/childrens-services/integrated-childrens-services/early-help-assessment. Professionals have access to support from the county council to help them with this process.

If you are worried about the impact that providing care to someone is having on your child, you can contact the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH)  https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/business/information-providers/multi-agency-safeguarding-hub) The MASH worker will talk through your concerns and explore your child’s needs with you and determine what sort of assessment is needed. If they think that an assessment with Social Care is required, they will discuss this with you.

The purpose of an assessment is to gather important information about your child, to analyse their needs and any risks they face, and provide support to address those needs to improve your child’s outcomes and ensure they are safe.

An assessment should consider the type of care a child is providing, how much care they are providing, and what support needs they have as a result of this. An assessment should also consider if the person they care for would benefit from support.

Specialist support for young carers

The young carers team is part of the Family Solutions Service https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/residents/children-education-and-families/childrens-services/integrated-childrens-services/family-solutions-service

The young carers team provides targeted casework and support to young carers for whom there are safeguarding concerns that require a multi-agency plan of support.

If an early help assessment or an assessment completed by Social Care identifies the need for specialist support, this may be provided by the young carers team, or other teams within the Family Solutions Service https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/residents/children-education-and-families/childrens-services/integrated-childrens-services/family-solutions-service