Health leaders are being urged to make policy changes to safeguard the mental health of unpaid carers as new evidence reveals the negative effects of taking on the role – including those who do so at a young age. The research is featured in a new Parliamentary report which also highlights an ‘urgent need’ for…
Do caregivers’ children reach milestones earlier?
The number of looked-after children in England has risen significantly in the past three decades, and around three quarters are placed with foster families. Many of those families have children of their own: what are the longer-term effects on them? In this blog Amanda Sacker and colleagues describe research which set out to shed light…
They care! We need to care about them
There have been calls in recent weeks and months for MPs to pledge their support to young carers. Young carers themselves have written to the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to ask him “to ensure that the needs of children and young people who are caring unpaid for friends and family members are being considered so…
How can schools and communities help children with violent home lives?
The UK Government’s Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan, published in 2022, set out a series of measures aimed at supporting schools and other bodies to help children whose home lives are blighted by violence. In this blog, Dawid Gondek from the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health describes new research conducted with colleagues from…
Taking a ‘positive’ look at child health development
Reducing, tackling and mitigating experiences that hurt or damage the physical and mental health of children as they grow up has been a major focus for policymakers, practitioners and researchers. In recent months research led by Rebecca Lacey looking at Adverse Childhood Experiences – their different impacts and lifecourse implications- has featured regularly on our…
Why it’s time to care more about the UK’s young caregivers
There have been growing concerns about the number of young carers in the UK and how looking after someone else might affect their life and put them at a disadvantage compared with their peers. Initial findings from a new study looking at the prevalence of caregiving among 16-29 year-olds in the UK has highlighted the…
What do we know about the health of young carers – and is it enough?
Care systems in many countries are underpinned by the efforts of huge armies of informal carers, many of whom are children. And while there is official recognition in some countries that these young carers suffer poorer health than their peers, there have been few studies highlighting the particular effects of caring on this group. Rebecca…
Are adverse childhood experiences linked to early drug use?
The long-term effects of childhood trauma have been subject to increased scrutiny by policymakers, practitioners and researchers as a growing body of evidence has drawn the links with mental health issues and other problems later on in people’s lives. In 2018, Rebecca Lacey from UCL’s ESRC International Centre for Lifecourse Studies wrote for our blog…
Evidence for change: how do we improve the long term outcomes of children in care?
In a Child of our Time blog last year, a team of researchers from University College and Kings College London said it was time for ALL policy to consider the needs of care leavers. The call was based on research findings that have now fed into the just-published Independent Review of Children’s Social Care. The findings from…
Unpicking childhood trauma and its later life effects
There has been increased focus in recent years on the mechanisms which link early childhood trauma with poorer health outcomes later in life. In 2018, Rebecca Lacey from UCL’s ESRC International Centre for Lifecourse Studies led a major project looking into how such early adversities (ACEs) can be linked to increased risk of health conditions…