This Carers Rights Day, we were very excited to support three brave young carers to represent young carers from all over the city by meeting with two local MPs to share their concerns and ideas.
Kindly hosted by Sheffield's Lord Mayor, Councillor Anne Murphy, MPs Paul Blomfield and Louise Haigh spent time hearing presentations and reading information that SYC’s Action Group had prepared in consultation with our 8-12 year-old young carer groups.
The groups chose to focus on health, education and money as their main areas of concern and gave thoughtful and detailed ideas about what would help improve things for young carers everywhere. A young adult carer also came to share her perspective of being a carer over a period of many years.
At the end of the session, the MPs were asked to make a pledge that they will report back on in three months and they said they would get a debate in Parliament about the young carers’ issues and recommendations. After the meeting, Paul Blomfield MP tweeted:
"Great to hear from a brilliant group of #youngcarers on #carersrightsday2017. We’ll be taking up their concerns…and reporting back!"
At our next Action Group session, one group member told his peers about the meeting. His face completely lit up and he said:
"It was amazing! It felt like the MP’s had known us for ages – they really listened."
On behalf of young carers everywhere, we’d like to say a huge thank you to Louise Haigh MP, Paul Blomfield MP and the Lord Mayor Councillor Anne Murphy for supporting this event. We look forward to hearing your progress on your pledge.
