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Carers

My hon. Friend makes an extremely important point. I was going to come to the difficulties of identifying young carers. As well as the problem that she mentioned, it is even more frightening that some young carers will not divulge that they are carers for fear that if the nature of their parents' handicaps is revealed, they will be taken into care and removed from their family situation, which to their young minds is a powerful disincentive to revealing how much support they give their families. My local authority is relatively lucky in having a very able carers' organisation. Most unusually, it has an organisation specific to young carers. Ably led by director Tracey Smith and a team of employees and volunteers, it provides services for young carers. I know that other areas have similar organisations, some of which are dealt with in the overall remit of carers' groups—Harrogate has been mentioned as an example. The figures quoted in the report are frightening, particularly those acknowledging that in the 2001 census, 165,000 young people were carrying out carers' duties. The report also gives the statistic that 1 per cent. of the population are affected. When researching my own statistics, I found that an independent organisation has estimated that there are more than 2,000 potential young carers in my local authority area of Sandwell, from a population of 3,000 young people in that educational group. Although 2,000 young people might not be a huge proportion of the total number of carers, if one thinks of that figure as a proportion, it is a significant section. The educational opportunities that are lost to those young people as a result of their caring duties are a considerable handicap to them and could jeopardise their life prospects for many years. Those lost opportunities are also a drag on educational improvement statistics in the local area. There is a pressing moral need to enhance the life prospects of those young people by giving them appropriate support.