The project is a team effort by nature; we want to unite with, and work alongside, other exceptional young carer organisations. We aim to showcase and celebrate impactful work across the country and build a national framework of good practice.
We take enormous pride in collaborating with other organisations. This work will only reach its potential if we all come together to change the culture. We are actively welcoming applications for involvement in this project. If you represent a UK-based young carer organisation, please get in touch with details of your specific area of outstanding work today.
We’ll award two organisations £2,500 each to work with us over a 2–3 month period, which will result in a report being published on their work. Click the link below to find out how you can join the project.
The project will be facilitated by us, with support from systems change and research specialists Social Finance.
• Over 1 million young carers across the UK provide vital care for their loved ones.
• Some receive excellent support - but the majority do not.
• Without a national framework of good practice, support depends on where you live. This postcode lottery leaves too many young carers without the help they deserve.
Enhance data use in identification and research
Recognising Young Carers and their complex identities
Codifying best practice and what works
Encouraging whole-family and whole-system responses
Tackling financial constraints and ‘making the case’
The project will help to codify best practice and ‘what works’ by providing a platform for organisations to share their successes in how they support young carers, informing national practice.
The project will help build a national picture of young carer experiences that can be used to lobby for more funding to ensure young carers reach their true potential.
Following its launch, the ‘Equity for Young Carers’ project will have four stages between 2025-2026:
Professor Saul Becker, leading global authority on young carers, serving as the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Health and Education at Manchester Metropolitan University, and Founding Director of the Institute for Children’s Futures, says:
"With 32 years’ experience, I have travelled the world to brief policy makers and governments on young carers, and in my view, MYTIME are one of the best (if not the best) young carer projects in the world. The design and delivery of their interventions is rigorous, their ‘theory of change’ is excellent, and the leadership of the organisation is sector leading.
They are innovative and creative, wholly focused on research-informed interventions leading to specific outcomes. There is much evidence that the young carers who use their services benefit greatly and MYTIME conducts research alongside its service provision, always looking to develop and learn as an organisation.
MYTIME is increasingly being invited to the table of national and international policy makers and service providers, to help inform their actions and future direction."
Social Finance are an expert not-for-profit organisation that works with partners to design, fund and scale solutions to complex and enduring social issues in the UK and globally. The organisation has:
• Developed and released a report detailing how we can create safer systems for young carers through data: Safety in data – Building data infrastructure that keeps Young Carers seen and safe
• Brought together expert organisations, including MYTIME, Catch22, and Football Beyond Borders to examine the links between caring responsibilities, exploitation, and exclusion, and how we can protect young carers from reaching these crisis points.
• United leading young carer organisations (including Carers Trust, Children’s Society, MYTIME, and Be Free Young Carers) to create a national strategy for improving young carers life experiences and future.
You can find out more about Social Finance’s work by visiting their website.
Advise organisations involved in the project, helping them to map local systems, identify stakeholders, finalising reports, and messaging.
We will also manage the project and its aims; hosting project information online, developing stakeholder relationships, and overseeing broader communications.
Lead the research element with each participating organisation, implementing the methodology. This will involve conducting interviews, report writing, and embedding best data collection practices into their processes.
Social Finance will then equip us with the tools and strategies to allow this project to continue in the long-term, so that in year 2 and beyond MYTIME can carry out this project independently.
