Young carer advocates call on Government to 'wake up' to children's invisible plight

May 11, 2021

The comments come after a story on TVNZ's Sunday highlighted that we don't even know how many Kiwi children look after a family member.

People advocating for young carers are calling for the Government to "wake up" after a story on TVNZ's Sunday programme revealed the invisible plight of children providing care for family members. 

While tens of thousands of young Kiwi children are believed to be providing a significant level of care for family members across the country, the true figure could be much higher, with research suggesting some carers are as young as three.

Children’s Commissioner Andrew Becroft today admitted the plight of young carers – defined as people under the age of 18 – in New Zealand wasn’t on his radar until recently.

“[It] hasn’t been logged in our office as a concern for the last nine years but it clearly is and we've been missing it,” he said.

Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni says the Government is committed to improving its understanding of young carers, their needs, trends and issues, and developing support services through the Mahi Aroha - Carers' Strategy Action Plan 2019-2023.

In a post-Cabinet press conference this afternoon, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that the Government is currently working to ensure they have an “accurate picture” of the situation and “what can we best do to understand these circumstances so that we have policies and programmes that are supporting them?”

“That has to be part of our response. It could be the case. Otherwise, that we put in place a response that isn’t actually meeting the needs of those young people,” she said.

There’s a hidden army of children in New Zealand like Amber, Zak and Annabelle who are looking after a family member unsupported.

Ardern said while there are funding tools with Work and Income, “in some cases, I would imagine that they wouldn’t be necessarily known to those families so how do we make sure that no one is missing out on their entitlements”.

“Certainly, some of the feedback to me is we are just still trying to build an accurate picture of how many young people are in these circumstances.”

However, experts say the four actions in the Government’s plan are just words on a page.

“Those four actions will bring a world of change ... Really thorough data, including young carers voices and making sure we understand the experiences and needs of young carers,” researcher Lauren Donnan, who had been a young carer herself, said.

“If we continue to bury our heads in the sand and pretend that four actions written on paper is enough, then nothing will change for young carers.”

World expert Saul Becker says New Zealand’s support for young carers lags so far behind countries like Australia and the UK that we should be embarrassed.

“We need, particularly, for New Zealand to wake up. We need longer and bigger studies. We need studies of different populations.” he said.

The chief executive for Pacific health, disability and social services provider Vaka Tautua, Dr Amanda-Lanuola Dunlop, explained that for Māori and Pasifika, caring for family is "a natural way of life".

Commissioner Andrew Becroft says the concern hadn’t been raised with his office for the past nine years.

“It's a cornerstone of our culture,” she said.

The Government is being urged to not just point to support already in place for adult carers.

“Lumping young carers in with adult services does not work,” Donnan said.

Donnan is now calling for the Government to create a specific group for young carers "to bring those researchers and young carers - former and current - together to start actioning those actions". 

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