This petition originally emerged as a Members Motion presented by a group of Edinburgh MSYPs (Sara Ansari, Jahura Hussain and Kelley Temple) at a National Sitting of the Scottish Youth Parliament in October 2011. The idea, based on consultation they had carried out with young carers, received extremely strong support from their fellow MSYPs, with 85% voting in favour of the motion:
“Young carers under the age of 18 should be entitled to receive the unpaid carers allowance (or equivalent) and student carers should be entitled to receive a carers grant (or equivalent) funded by the Scottish Government.”
Ensuring support for young carers has been an important issue for young people and the Scottish Youth Parliament for a number of years. As part of the Scottish Youth Parliament’s Youth Manifesto consultation in 2011, the manifesto, ‘Change the Picture’ (http://www.syp.org.uk/our-manifesto-W21page-82-/ ), was shaped by 42,804 responses from young people - the largest youth consultation of its type in Scotland. 88% of respondents agreed with the statement “Young carers in Scotland should be shown that they are appreciated members of society and should be offered more support inside and outside of education. The Scottish Government should produce a Young Carers Strategy to help improve the lives of young people who are young carers for the benefit of every single young person who cares in Scotland”, with just 6% disagreeing. Based on this strong support, the statement is included in the manifesto, which shapes the basis of the SYP’s policy and campaigning work for the 2011-16 Parliamentary term. We welcomed the publication of a stand-alone young carers strategy, ‘Getting It Right For Young Carers’, towards the end of the youth manifesto consultation in July 2010. Young carers are well-represented within the Scottish Youth Parliament’s membership, with 12% of our 2011-2013 cohort of MSYPs indicating that another person relies on them for day to day care and attention (http://bit.ly/WkXNxU).
The lead petitioner, Lauren King, is heavily involved in a Young Carers Forum in Motherwell, which was established in response to concerns from young carers in her local area at a lack of channels to share issues of mutual concern and to have their voices heard.
At the October 2012 SYP National Sitting, Lauren presented the issue as an option for a Public Petition. From a competitive and diverse shortlist of issues that are of importance to young people, MSYPs voted for the principle of a Young Carer’s Grant to be presented to the Public Petitions Committee as a priority for positive change for young people.
Based on this strong support, the Scottish Youth Parliament is submitting this petition as the next stage in seeking to secure this important provision.