SCHOOLS and GPs across the district need to be alert to spot young carers, according to a locally-based charity.

Carers’ Resource says many youngsters providing care are going unrecognised, and without support.

Chief executive Chris Whiley spoke out as a new survey found that nationally, more than 800,000 secondary-school-age children carry out some level of care.

Of those, over 250,000 are believed to be providing high levels – and 73,000 the highest amount.

Mrs Whiley 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 survey, carried out by the BBC and Nottingham University, 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.

“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 officer of national charity Carers Trust, said the new figures provided “a monumental wake-up call”.

And the trust is demanding Government action.

“This data blows all previous figures out of the water and it reveals a generation of young carers who are being neglected by society,” added Mr Meyer.

“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.

“Whilst these figures are shocking, we are not at all surprised.

“A lack of Government commitment to making sure these vulnerable children are routinely identified in school and supported means young carers are slipping through the net.

“We are calling on the Government to take urgent action to make sure the rights it enshrined in law to protect all young carers are actually being delivered by local authorities, rather than the patchy, ad-hoc support services currently out there.”