IMPORTANT INFORMATION!

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1 Spring Edition 2014 WARRINGTON YOUNG CARERS NEWSLETTER IMPORTANT INFORMATION! We have a new telephone number: We would like to say a Massive CONGRATULATIONS to Kat Lamey, who is now our brand new Young Carers Coordinator We at Wired Young Carers Service are sad to announce that our wonderful Young Carers Coordinator & Advocate Micha Whelligan is leaving. We wish Micha luck in her new venture and are confident she will be fantastic in her new role! Kat Coordinator & Advocate You can now find Wired Young Carers Service on Facebook, Twitter and Makewav.es Louise Administrator & Support Worker We look forward to seeing you at our drop-ins

2 There have been some changes made to our Young Carers drop-in sessions, please see the Events Calendar for further details. Venues are: Orford Youth Base Capesthorne Road, Orford, Warrington, WA2 0JF. All ages welcome. Orford Jubilee Hub Jubilee Way, Warrington, WA2 8HE. All ages welcome. The Peace Centre Peace Drive, Warrington, WA5 1HQ. All ages welcome Years Group at the Carers Centre, 86 Sankey Street, Warrington, WA1 1SG Young Adult Carers Group at the Carers Centre, 86 Sankey Street, Warrington, WA1 1SG for ages Wired Young Carers Service are delighted to announce that we have been awarded a grant from Youth Music to deliver a two year music programme for Young Carers in Warrington. We will be joining forces with Score Creative Education to deliver a high quality music project for you to take part in. Sessions will take place every two weeks at our Orford Youth Base drop-in. You will be able to take part in sessions led by a number of talented local musicians, DJ s and skilled music practitioners to develop a Young Carers rock band, drumming group and choir. You will have the opportunity to learn a new instrument, develop new skills in music technology and production, take part in lyric writing workshops and work towards gaining recognised qualifications. The project will include visits to music studios where the Young Carers group will record their own material and produce a video of their work. We will be working towards a number of performances and you will have the opportunity to showcase what you have learnt to family and friends. These exciting sessions will be starting on Thursday 5th June this year, so please come along and get involved! See our Events Calendar for more details. We look forward to seeing you at our future Music themed drop-ins, activities and trips! For more information about Youth Music visit: music.org.uk We would like to welcome Lisa, our new volunteer to the team. Lisa will be joining us at Young Carers drop-ins, trips and activities.

3 Our three Young Carers Champions attended a nurses training event at Liverpool John Moores University on Wednesday 26th March 2014, to represent the views of Young Carers across the country. The Champions participated in the event by delivering a presentation to over 100 nurses from across the country outlining some of the issues Young Carers face and how they can be better supported. Champion Emily says: Today on 26th March, Me, Emma and Matthew did a presentation for nurses. We gave ten top tips for them to change things in schools. One of the top tips in the presentation was about, letting young carers know who they are, how we can find the school nurses and how to contact them. We got a lot of good feedback from the nurses. Champion Matthew says: Over the past couple of weeks we have been preparing for a trip to Liverpool John Moores University to present to over 100 nurses from all over the country. The aim of this was to get across the very important message of how nurses can better support and work to make a difference for young Carers!! I was proud to be part of such a important event...and hope this will go someway to improve support for young Carers all over the country. Champion Emma says: To plan for our interviews we wrote up lots of questions then as a group decided on the top five questions we wanted to use to question the nurses. I feel that the interviews went really well and we received some well structured answers. If I were to give some more interviews I would try and make sure there was minimal background noise so that it could be heard more clearly. A big well done to Emily, Matthew & Emma for taking part in this event. You were fantastic! We would like to encourage ALL Young Carers to sign up to the Makewav.es website and become a reporter for Wired Young Carers Service. You can sign up by following these instructions: 1. Go to and find Wired Young Carers Service. 2. Click on Wired this will take you through to our site ( 3. On the left hand side there is some text that says Join this site, press the button titled Student 4. This will take you through to a page that will allow you to join the site as a reporter. 5. Enter all your details. For your username, please don t use your real name and do not use a photo of yourself for your profile picture. 6. For the password, make sure that it has at least 6 characters, including both letters and numbers. 7. When you have finished, press Yes, that s all correct We will then approve your reporter page. Once It has been approved, you can log in and begin creating content. Wired Young Carers Service will be running a competition for all Young Carers who sign up to Makewav.es as a Wired Reporter! The 2 competition categories are: Most articles written Best story The winners will be announced in the next newsletter, so you only have 3 months to sign up and get creating some interesting articles! Don t forget to add pictures and/or videos! We look forward to seeing all your great work!

4 Relaxation Session at Orford Jubilee Hub Drumming Workshop Mixed Drop-In Sessions Family Music session Here are a selection of pictures from various drop-ins so far this year. We hope to see you at our future drop-ins, maybe your picture will be printed in our next newsletter! Zumba Session Meeting Murray the Owl

5 On Saturday 22nd March we opened the Carers Centre to the public for our Wired Young Carers Open Day! We had several stalls full of useful information, these included Warrington Disability Partnership, Psychological Therapies, National Citizens Service, Warrington Youth Club, The Harrison Centre and John Holt Cancer Support as well as a special guest appearance from Murray the Owl! The Museum Trip took place on Wednesday 9th April. The Young Carers who attended enjoyed looking around the museum, learning about Greek Mythology and creating puppets and a puppet theatre. The Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service s and Prince s Trust Team took a group of Young Carers on a trip to Tatton Park farm. On Monday 17th March several Young Carers to did a Bag Pack at ASDA Cockhedge, to raise money for Wired Young Carers Service so Young Carers can go on future trips, events and activities. The group had fun meeting the different animals, feeding the goats, stroking the pigs and holding the tiny ducklings. The day was finished off with a really long obstacle course which was completed by everyone! A BIG thank you to all members of the Prince s Trust Team Programme for organising such an enjoyable day!

6 We would like to say a BIG Thank You to: ASDA for allowing us to Bag Pack at your store, donating a 25 gift voucher which was put towards the Open Day and including Wired Young Carers Service in the Green Token scheme, from which we received 50. Here are some excellent portraits of Murray the Owl, inspired by his visit to our Orford Youth Base drop-in. By Jessica Liz Cotterill our ASDA contact, for volunteering at the Open Day. Lisa our new volunteer, for helping out at drop-ins. Chelsea & Sue Lawton for volunteering at the Open Day and bringing along delicious home made cakes! By Katelyn Warrington Masonic Hall for a very generous 250 donation John Lappin from the Harrison Centre for helping out with the bag pack Anita & Murray the Owl from Hack Back for attending a drop-in and the Open Day. By Kelsey Everyone else who helped out with the Open Day: National Citizens Service/Warrington Youth Club Warrington Disability Partnership Psychological Therapies The Harrison centre John Holt Cancer Support Kim Gandy for making soaps Denise Charlesworth for helping out on the day Warrington Museum & Art Gallery for the guided tour and Greek Mythology craft session By Megan For more information on Murray please visit: Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service and Princes Trust Team Programme for fund raising and organising a trip to Tatton Park.

7 A landmark change to the Children and Families Bill has been debated and passed by the House of Lords. This Bill will give Young Carers stronger rights to assessment and support. Now, when a child is identified as a Young Carer, the whole family s needs will be considered. This means that both children s and adults support services will need to take action to assess why a child is caring, what changes can be made to help the family and to prevent children from taking on responsibilities which would usually be carried out by an adult. The Carers Trust website says: It is important that the Government continues to listen to Carers Trust about how provisions in the Care Bill will support a whole family approach to protecting young carers. The regulations are going to be decided on in spring 2014 and we will continue work with Government to make sure the right changes to the Care Bill are made. These changes need to happen alongside new rights in the Children and Families Bill so that professionals support the whole family. The Children and Families Bill is likely to become a new piece of legislation in February 2014 and the Care Bill should become law in spring Joint guidance for local authorities, services and professionals will then be developed and the new law for young carers will be implemented For further information about the change in laws for Young Carers, please visit the Carers Trust website: Research has been conducted by the NSPCC into experiences of children & young people using social networking sites. They surveyed over year olds in the UK. The Key findings include: Over one in four (28%) have experienced something upsetting on it in the last year. Of these 11% were dealing with upsetting experiences on a daily basis. The most reported issue experienced on social networking sites was trolling. This is the term used to described any unkind, sarcastic or negative comments online. This was experienced by 37% of the children and young people who had been upset. Over half of year olds (58%) believed at least one of the people responsible for the behaviour which had upset or bothered them was either a complete stranger, someone they only knew online, or they did not know who it was at all. Only 22% of the children who were upset talked with someone else face to face about the experience. As part of Anti Bullying week the Carers Trust are asking schools to develop policies for dealing with the bullying of young carers As new research has revealed that a quarter of Young Adult Carers surveyed said they had been bullied at school because of their caring role. The research was carried out by Carers Trust and the University of Nottingham. They found that nearly half of the Young Carers (42%) said they did not have a contact in school to confide in. The most common reason for not speaking to a staff member in school was that they felt there was no point in doing so. Therefore, Carers Trust want schools to appoint a named lead worker for Young Carers to speak to about any problems, issues or concerns. If you are being bullied and want to talk to someone, contact the Young Carers Team on:

8 Come and join our Young Adult Carers group! These drop-ins are a great opportunity for you to meet other Young Adult Carers, aged between years. During the meetings you will have the opportunity to put forward any ideas for future trips, events and activities allowing you to shape the service you receive and to tell us what you want. This is also a great opportunity to access peer support, speak with a Young Carers Support Worker or just to chill out and relax. Refreshments will be provided! If you feel this is something you would like to get involved in please come along to our next Young Adult Carers Group meeting, which will be taking place on Monday 26th May 2014 between pm at: Are you soon to be leaving college or currently looking for work? Would you be interested in accessing a session with help, guidance and advice around writing your CV? Would you be interested in going on work experience, and if so what sort of work would you be interested in? If any of this sounds like something you would like to get involved in, please get in touch with us and let us know which areas most appeal to you. We will try to arrange sessions to take place during the Young Adult Carers group drop-ins, covering the topics YOU are interested in. All our contact details can be found on the back page. We look forward to hearing from you. Wired Young and Adult Carers Service 86 Sankey Street Warrington WA1 1SG We are situated between the Golden Gates and the Town Centre. Please see the Events Calendar for future Young Adult Carers Group drop-in dates. All year olds are welcome! The Warrington Collegiate drop-in takes place on the first Wednesday of the month between pm in room DG 01. Our next drop-in will be taking place on Wednesday 4th June Our contact at the Collegiate is Elise Lee, who is based in the Learner Services department. This is a good time to chat with a Young Carers Support Worker or gain access to peer support from fellow students. Or you can just chill out and relax. These drop-ins are for Warrington Collegiate students only. We look forward to seeing you there!

9 Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service's Prince's Trust Team Programme is a FREE 12-week personal development course for 16 to 25 year olds. The Programme gives young people the opportunity to learn new skills, complete qualifications, gain greater self confidence, and it gives people the chance to engage with people their own age and also meet new friends. During the 12 weeks young people go on a team building residential week, participate in a community project and undertake a two week work placement. The programme also helps to improve skills in key areas such as: Communication Confidence Working with Others Setting and achieving goals Reliability Coping Job Search skills Leadership Various qualifications can be gained from the course including: Prince s Trust Certificate in Employment, Teamwork and Community Skills Emergency First Aid at work (HSE Approved) Basic Food Hygiene (certified by CIEH) British Safety Council Level 1 Award in Health & Safety at Work Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service's Prince's Trust Project Co-ordinator, Tamsen Lesko said: "This programme is designed to help develop young people's skills and confidence through practical community projects and work experience so would be ideal for any young carers. The primary focus is team work within the community. "Experience shows us that 80% of all the young people who have completed the course have gone on to achieve greater things as a result. This includes getting back into or going forward into education, gaining employment and training, or simply making new friends as a result of being on the programme." If you would like to find out more about the programme or when the next start date for your area is then please contact Prince s Trust Manager Tamsen Lesko on Alternatively visit the Youth Engagement section on the website for more information. The Community Connector team work with people aged 18 or over who have support needs, by offering support to vulnerable, disabled or older people and their carers. This is done by matching the people they work with to relevant activities, services and support within their communities. Community Connectors can also help people to feel less isolated, encourage people to mix with others in their own communities, link them into services and provide support to help prevent the people they work with from needing more social care support in the future. The team provides a service across the whole of Warrington. They will work with you for between 1-4 weeks to find out your interests and needs in order to match you with the appropriate support and activities in your area. They will visit you at home to discuss your situation and can also put you in touch with other services that may be beneficial for you. For more information please visit:: As part of the Time to be Heard campaign Carers Trust will be teaming up with NUS and The University of Nottingham to give Young Adult Carers the chance take a break from their caring role and find out about further education, careers, apprenticeships and more. It is open to all Young Adult Carers aged years and is taking place on 24th - 25th June at Nottingham University. Accommodation, food, activities and workshops are free. You will need to your own make your own travel arrangements. You can find out more information, and download the information packs, by visiting: Or you can contact the Time to be Heard team on , just ask for Natasha or Sophie.

10 Childline Family Information Service NSPCC Orford Jubilee Hub Orford Youth Base Peace Centre Samaritans Warrington Citizens Advice Bureau Warrington Disability Partnership Warrington Fire Service E G B T L B A T Q G E W Z A K S N E S I U D K E O F P D H L E G B C L P L I G C Z B C E D E K L X A G C E G R Y H B L B D J O A C D P U M H D A F F T T B S F S E B S O I N H S H A P L S I L K V K E V C H I C K E A O A D E B T P T X E D C O O D M N B E E S W V A K Z G E C S I C S Y I K B C D P P M B E G R E E N G C O R F E L Y C H M G U Y B N L E O D B A E S G K E D H L Q S U P I C N C T A D A F F O D I L S D R T H X I L Z P U A C S E M Y A C B P All these words are in the word search except one. Which one is missing? Warrington Hospital Warrington Police Station Bees Blossom Chick Crops Daffodil Easter Green Lilac Plant Seed Phone: Text: Lou: Kat: Contact Us Post: wcschildrensadmin@wired.me.uk 86 Sankey Street, Warrington, WA1 1SG Facebook: Makewav.es: