Carers Week · 8 – 14 June 2026
Building Carer Friendly Communities
Carers Week is an annual campaign to raise awareness of caring and the challenges unpaid carers face. This year’s theme calls on all of us – sports clubs, schools, employers, community groups — to take practical steps to make our spaces carer friendly.
TackleLondon is proud to stand with the movement to build carer friendly communities. We’ve worked with 32 young carers. Here’s what the national picture tells us, and why spaces like ours matter more than ever.
800,000+
Young Carers in the UK, and many don’t realise that they are one
2 Per Class
in every classroom, on average, on average, a young carer sits unseen
69%
of schools recorded zero young carers in the 2025 school census
3 Years
average time before a young carer is identified and connected to support
That last number is particularly stark. The 2025 school census showed that nearly seven in ten schools recorded no young carers at all – not because they don’t exist, but because the system isn’t set up to find them. In the meantime, young people are carrying something enormous, largely in silence.
What caring actually looks like
Three in five young carers spend at least three hours a day on their caring role. That’s three hours that aren’t spent on homework, playing sport, or being a teenager. For more than 50,000 children and young adults nationally, caring takes up fifty hours a week or more: a full-time job, held by someone who should be in school.
The emotional weight is real too. Four in ten young carers reported feeling sad in the previous week. One in four felt lonely. Nearly half felt angry. Forty-four percent said they always or usually feel stressed because of their caring role, and more than a quarter report getting too little sleep. These figures describe what a significant number of the young people on our pitches are carrying into every session.
A national picture of invisibility
Young carers are part of a much larger story. New research published for Carers Week 2026 estimates that 11.6 million people across the UK are currently providing unpaid care – and nearly half of all adults have done so at some point in their lives. Unpaid care is estimated to contribute £184 billion to the UK economy each year, roughly comparable to NHS spending. Yet carers continue to feel invisible and undervalued.
Carers Week Report 2026: Building Carer Friendly Communities
- 44% of people currently caring say their role is not understood or valued by their community — around 5 million people.
- 36% of current and former carers who felt their community wasn’t carer friendly said it had a negative impact on their physical or mental health.
- 30% said the lack of support had a negative financial impact on them.
The wider picture at TackleLondon
Young carers are one thread in a much broader story. TackleLondon has worked with young people facing a wide range of challenges, from special educational needs and mental health concerns, to experiences of domestic violence, poverty, and homelessness. Many were navigating several of these at once:
1,547
young people from low-income families or living in poverty
738
had special educational needs and disabilities
189
had mental health concerns
81
had been affected by domestic violence or abuse
60
were at risk of exclusion or had already been excluded from school
32
were young carers
Rugby, it turns out, is remarkably good at reaching young people who feel like no other space belongs to them. The shared language of the game, the structure of a session, and the relationships built between coaches and players create something that’s hard to manufacture in a classroom or a waiting room.
What changed
The outcomes this year reflect what happens when young people feel genuinely supported – not just in their sport, but in everything that surrounds it.
Our impact in numbers
1378
showed tangible improvements in mental health and wellbeing
1327
demonstrated improved relationships with peers, family, and coaches
1290
improved their engagement in school
1208
showed improved learning or work outcomes
1063
showed improved socio-emotional learning skills
All Schools
reported a clear impact on general student wellbeing
For young carers specifically, the value of a space that asks nothing of them – where their role at home stays at the gate – cannot be overstated. Nationally, only 26% of young carers feel their teachers understand the challenges they face. When a young person finds a community that does understand, or that simply makes space without requiring explanation, it matters enormously.
What needs to change
The national picture is improving slowly. Schools are being encouraged to identify and record young carers, and there’s growing recognition that the census data doesn’t reflect reality. But three years is still the average wait before a young carer is linked to any support – three years in which stress, sleep deprivation, and educational disadvantage compound quietly.
Young carers are disproportionately likely to fall out of education, employment, or training between the ages of 16 and 19. One in three already struggles to balance caring with school. Without early identification and consistent support, the long-term consequences are significant – not just for the individual, but for their families.
TackleLondon is one of the communities where young carers can simply show up. This Carers Week, join the movement to build carer friendly communities. Follow carersweek.org and support the campaign at @carersweek – and if you know a young person who might be carrying more than they let on, get in touch with us.