Ensuring West Wales young carers and families are not cut off during coronavirus crisis

Action for Children’s Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion Young Carers and Hawthorn Project family support services are pulling out all the stops to ensure young carers and families in the area are not left isolated during the coronavirus pandemic.

While Action for Children has launched a UK-wide emergency appeal, staff have been continuing contact with young carers and families they support over the phone and Skype with a steady stream of requests for food vouchers received by the charity. These key West Wales services are linked to the Trussell Trust food voucher scheme and staff have been out delivering vouchers to young carers and families across the area.

Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion Young Carer services supports young carers aged 8 – 18 by raising awareness, identifying and providing direct support to children and young people who look after or help to look after someone in their family who is unwell or disabled, including children caring for parents who have mental health or substance misuse problems.

The Hawthorn Project supports families caring for a children or young person who is disabled or has special needs.

Families have responded well to the services’ efforts to stay connected with them. One parent who wished to remain anonymous stated: ‘Thank you for phoning we really appreciate your call as we haven’t heard from anyone else. It’s really made my day.’

Another parent who also wanted to remain anonymous had received a food voucher plus pens and paper from Action for Children so they could do schoolwork, said: ‘Thank you for helping with the pens and paper for the girls, they were so excited! Are you able to phone every week to speak to them so they have someone to talk to?’ Service staff will contact these and other supported families every week during the crisis.

Vikki Phillips, family support practitioner for Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion Young Carers services, said: ‘Our teams have been working together to do everything possible to make sure we provide a service to our young carers and families despite the very challenging circumstances of the coronavirus pandemic. Despite working from home, we are always available on the phone and have conducted one-to-one support sessions on Skype.

‘The number of requests we have received for food vouchers shows how families are struggling and staff have been only too happy to deliver vouchers while observing government advice on social distancing. We will continue to all we can at this incredibly difficult time and would love people to donate to the emergency appeal and help those in the community who need it most.’

To support Action for Children’s emergency coronavirus appeal which will help families cover the cost of the basics, please visit actionforchildren.org.uk, call 0300 123 2112 or text ACTION to 70175 to give £10.