Overview
Sector: Education and Social Care
Duration: 5 months
Description: Independent final project at MA Service Design
Stakeholders: This project was done in collaboration with 50+ stakeholders
in the care and education sectors all over the UK. These involved young carer services, early help services, teachers, young carer leads in schools, national charity employees, social workers, young children and parents.
This project is a work in progress. Please get in touch for a more detailed account.
Methods Used
Desk Research
Systems Mapping
Expert Interviews
Contextual Interviews
Co-discovery workshop
Research through Design
Co-design Interviews
Co-creation workshop
Prototyping & Testing
Summary
Care Circle is a National Digital Training Program for school staff that equips them with best practice resources to help them support young carers better in education. It raises awareness about young carers, especially amongst teachers, and empowers them to identify and support young carers within their capacity.
Project Showcase
Problem Space
Young carers are a vulnerable group of people, who because of their caring responsibilities at home, are more likely to suffer in education and miss out on opportunities.
Moreover, the stigma associated with being a young carer makes it difficult for them to seek help, and for staff to recognise their needs and offer help. However, Young Carers identified that support from teachers is the main way school could support them (Clay, D et al, 2016).
27% of young carers (aged 11–15) miss school or
experience educational difficulties
(Dearden, C, Becker, S, 2004)
Co-discovery
Brainstorming Concepts
Research
Process
The research involved understanding two complex sectors - social care and education, and the links between them. The main Discovery and Develop approaches were -
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contextual interviews with local carer’s services, school staff, and charities
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focus groups of young carers
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descriptive interviews with stakeholders who had several years of experience working closely with young carers
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interviews to co-create and test the service with these key stakeholders.
During this process, the project discovered that time, knowledge, and resources are the main constraints of teachers and schools to deliver effective support for students. Carefully considering these barriers, the project found design opportunities in sharing knowledge through digital training and explored the potential of embedding it into the existing roles and responsibilities of the teachers.
Co-creation and Prototyping
Outcome
Care Circle aims to educate teachers and school staff about young carers, give them the confidence to have difficult conversations and provide the support young carers need. It is built around the principles of sharing best practice, developing individual practice, and rewarding schools for participating.
Next Steps
Since the project involved collaboration with multiple stakeholders across the UK, there were several variations in local offerings of services and schools. However, through primary and secondary research, common threads were found around the needs of young carers. In response to this, conversations with charitable organisations are being pursued to develop and deliver this service as a comprehensive national approach to support young carers in education.
