A huge lottery cash windfall will be used to help some of the most vulnerable children in Perth and Kinross escape the half-life that results from their role as a carer.
The £340,000 award will be used by the Perth-based charity PKAVS to support hundreds of youngsters aged between five and 18 who effectively put their lives on hold for family members.
Most have had their lives blighted by the so-called “toxic trio” of substance and domestic abuse and mental health difficulties.
Many act as sole or main carer for adults, putting their lives on hold to working as many as 35 hours-a-week, often alongside efforts at securing an education.
The picture has steadily worsened in recent years, despite the efforts of the charity, as families are blighted by ill health and poverty.
For the past 15 years, PKAVS’ Young Carers’ Project has been their sole means of support, offering crisis intervention and aid and offering opportunities for respite.
It currently supports around 300 children across Perth and Kinross but fears as many as 1,800 may be in need of help.
That makes the new funding hugely important to its work and to the wellbeing of youngsters across the region.
PKAVS Carers’ Hub Manager Raymond Jamieson has lived and breathed the plight of so many youngsters for years.
He has hailed the funding – which will effectively secure the future of the vital project until April 2020 – as a godsend for the Young Carers’ project.
Mr Jamieson said: “In the voluntary sector it is incredibly rare to get funding that lasts for three years.
“Thanks to this lottery funding we know that this is in place and that safeguards a number of positions, provides money to deliver services and allows us to plan for the future.
“We currently support around 300 but recent research in Perth and Kinross indicates that as many as one in ten school age children have a caring role.
“With 18,000 school age children in this region that means we still have much to do as there are a large number of carers that we are still not reaching.
“This funding will enable us to do some planning for the future to identify more young carers and offer them the support they need.”
Each young person will have a personal plan, the opportunity to take part in recreational activities, respite breaks and the opportunity to take part in other social events.
An ongoing one-to-one support from specialist staff will also be provided.
Since the Young Carers Project started it has found children as young as five toiling for as many as 35 hours-a-week supporting adults affected by mental illness, drug and alcohol addiction and disability.
A large percentage of these young people are in single parent households, where they can be the main carer.
It can be a full time job, with no end in sight, and many sacrifice their childhoods and their schooling to make sure that their parents are cared for.
As they move into later life, they can be at a huge disadvantage, often without qualifications, friends or any social activities and it can be so difficult for them to secure further education or jobs.
For a huge number the caring commitments will continue long into adulthood.
Charities such as PKAVS assess youngsters on a “traffic light system” and in 2014 reported that around 70% of referrals were at “red level”.
That meant PKAVS needs to intervene straight away as it indicates youngsters are already at crisis point.
Mr Jamieson said there had been “no change” since then, indicating that the root causes of the children’s caring crisis are not being addressed.
The cash award was one of 19, totalling £4.3 million, awarded to 19 groups across the country by the Big Lottery Fund Scotland.
