Department of Psychology, University of Winchester, Winchester SO22 4NR, UK.
Department of Child & Family Health, King's College London, James Clark Maxwell Building, London SE1 8WA, UK.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Aug 29;19(17):10755. doi: 10.3390/ijerph191710755.
Recognition and support for young carers has improved steadily in the past two decades; with stronger legislation and more visibility and awareness of the challenges that many of the YC face, especially with respect to their education. Recent UK-based initiatives providing toolkits and guidance for school staff have provided much needed direction for schools, to support the loosely defined statutory requirements. The aim of the current research was to hear from school staff about their experiences in identifying and supporting young carers, to better understand any enablers and barriers. The thematic analysis of the interview data from 18 school staff was organized into two main themes: perceptions regarding the characteristics of young carers; and perceptions regarding the importance of home-school communication. Each superordinate theme contained several sub-themes. Overall, the teachers perceived many difficulties identifying young carers who did not volunteer this information and felt that the main enabler of identification was the trust relationships between the school and the pupil and parents. Once identified, the schools perceived the main areas of need that they could provide support for were the emotional wellbeing of the pupils and additional academic opportunities. They spoke too of the difficulties balancing the provision of this extra support within the constraints of the school context, both in terms of the school day, and the competing priorities relating to academic and social-emotional needs. School staff recognized that extra time outside of school was difficult for young carers to attend. Other subthemes are discussed with consideration to enablers and barriers. The implications for the dissemination of good practice, and addressing policy are considered.
在过去的二十年中，人们对年轻照顾者的认识和支持稳步提高；随着立法的加强，以及对许多年轻照顾者所面临的挑战（尤其是在教育方面）的认识和意识的提高，最近英国的一些举措为学校工作人员提供了工具包和指导，为学校提供了急需的指导，以支持定义不明确的法定要求。目前这项研究的目的是听取学校工作人员在识别和支持年轻照顾者方面的经验，以更好地了解其中的促进因素和障碍。对 18 名学校工作人员的访谈数据进行的主题分析分为两个主要主题：对年轻照顾者特征的看法；以及对家校沟通重要性的看法。每个上级主题包含几个子主题。总的来说，教师在识别不愿主动提供信息的年轻照顾者方面存在许多困难，他们认为识别的主要促进因素是学校与学生和家长之间的信任关系。一旦确定，学校认为他们可以提供支持的主要需求领域是学生的情绪健康和额外的学术机会。他们还谈到了在学校环境的限制内平衡提供这种额外支持的困难，无论是在学校日，还是在与学术和社会情感需求相关的竞争优先事项方面。学校工作人员认识到，年轻照顾者很难在课外时间参加额外的支持。其他子主题也将结合促进因素和障碍进行讨论。本文还考虑了推广良好实践和解决政策问题的影响。
