Research into young carers

When we were planning our final idea, we came up with the idea of having a young carer trying to look after 3 siblings and her alcoholic mother. We decided that as this was a vital part of our media piece, that we should do some research into young carers, so we can portray this in the correct way.

Recent headlines from the BBC show that: "Nearly a quarter of a million children in England and Wales are caring for a relative."
Figures from the ONS suggest 244,000 people under nineteen are carers - about 23,000 are under nine.
Girls are slightly more likely to be carers than boys. Among 15-to-19-year-olds, about 5% of girls are carers and about 4% of boys.

From these statistics, we can not only see that young carers are quite common, but also that female carers are more common than male carers, especially within the ages 15 to 19. This has agreed with our idea, and given it more realism. Having this as a part of our storyline, it not only shows the problems and troubles that some teens face, but it enables us to give off a much more mature feel as its quite a complex situation.

It is seen in some TV programmes, for example The Bill, where teenagers end up selling and/or running drugs or turning to prositituion as a way of being able to financially support their families when their parents cannot. This further supports our idea of combining the use of drugs into finding a way for our main character to get money.