SCHOOLS and GPs need to be on alert to spot young carers, the chief executive of a Skipton based charity has said after a survey revealed more than 800,000 secondary-school age children carry out some level of care.

The survey by BBC News and Nottingham University suggested that more than 250,000 young carers are carrying out a high level of care, with 73,000 taking on the highest amount of care.The last census in 2011 found there were 166,000 young carers in England aged five to 17 years but this new research suggests the real number is far higher. says the charity.

Chris Whiley, chief executive of Carers’ Resource, said: “A young carer is anyone under 18 who cares for a parent or sibling with a physical or mental illness, a disability or an addiction to drugs or alcohol.

“We believe the numbers stated in the BBC and Nottingham University survey are so high because no one is realising these young people are carers. Our schools and GPs need to be on alert about this issue so that young carers are identified and referred to services such as ours or Barnardo’s for emotional and practical support.”

She added: “We know many unpaid carers are struggling and feel unsupported due to a lack of finances and resources such as respite and overnight paid-for care.

“This has a particularly tough impact on children and young people who are caring. They have to grow up quickly and often carry out adult tasks for loved ones such as cooking, cleaning and shopping. They can feel isolated from peers and face bullying and can be living in poverty.

“With support, young carers can be given coping strategies and breaks from caring - but professionals and wider society need to make sure these children have the chance to receive that support by flagging them up.”

Carers’ Resource gives practical and emotional support to 16,000 unpaid carers across the Bradford, Skipton and Harrogate districts.

Giles Meyer, chief executive of national charity Carers Trust, said: “This new data blows all previous figures out of the water, revealing a generation of young carers who are being neglected by society.”

“This is a monumental wake-up call for us all to take responsibility for these vulnerable children.

“Staggeringly, there are six young carers in every secondary school classroom, which gives us an incredibly worrying sense of the scale of this issue for the first time in a decade.”