East Sussex Young Carers

The guest speaker on Wednesday, 26th September was Fiona Cottingham, a Project Development Manager who is employed by “IMAGO”, a charity that has been supporting the community for 55 year by running a variety of services to support individuals, families and groups ranging from children with disabilities, isolated older people, youth mental health and young carers. Fiona is responsible for overseeing East Sussex Young Carers (ESYC), a group of children who are responsible for caring for a family member with a long-term illness, disability, mental health or substance misuse issues.  ESYC currently supports over 1350 young carers across the county. Although there are over 3,000 known Young Carers in East Sussex, according to BBC research there could be another 11,000 hidden Young Carers

ESYC is run and managed by Imago and funded by East Sussex County Council, and supports Young Carers aged 5-18 across the county. ESYC works with schools, communities, and statutory and voluntary agencies to identify hidden young carers. Following assessment, ESYC offer a range of short-term interventions including signposting, one-to-one support, in school support and workshops. They also offer training and information to professionals. Part of ESYC support is the running of workshops with rolling 12 month programme of 2 hour sessions. The workshops are themed around common themes to Young Carers: help in own development/role, first aid, fire safety, healthy eating, finance/money handling and so on. If necessary, ESYC will provide transport.

Although ESYC is commissioned by East Sussex County Council they still need to fundraise to support the workshops, family picnics, Christmas parties and various other events to help relieve the pressures on young carers and get them to have some social life and fun.

Within the Rother area there are 226 young carers and a higher number in Hastings. Additional funding would, amongst other things, be used to buy group games and run day courses designed to help the young carers to take care of their own welfare, relax and enjoy themselves. A course typically costs around £620 for a day.

Fiona also drew attention to other ways that will help their funds. The Eastbourne Local Lottery https://www.eastbournelocallottery.co.uk/support/east-sussex-young-carers will pass on 50p for every £1 ticket bought and the Co-Op have chosen ESYC as one of the charities supported through their membership card.

President Dave Miles thanked Fiona for her interesting and enlightening talk.