Action for Children’s Pembrokeshire Young Carers recently joined forces with the Arts Society in West Wales to make a short film to mark Young Carers Awareness Day (January 25) that shines a light on the responsibilities young carers undertake to support their families.

The film, ‘This is Us’ was shown in a number of cinemas across Pembrokeshire last week ahead of main features as Action for Children called for more funding for young carers, with research showing that increasing numbers of children are missing out on vital support as local authority cuts decimate young carer services across the UK.

Action for Children’s young persons’ worker at Pembrokeshire Young Carers, Vikki Booth, said: “Figures show that there are 700,000 young carers in the UK, with 29,000 young carers known to the authorities in Wales. The issues they face can range from loneliness and depression to missing out on activities many children take for granted and just needing a break.

“The film was a great opportunity to highlight just what our young carers do to support their families and raise awareness of the enormous responsibilities taken on at such a young age.”

Young carers carry out caring duties at home, often looking after an ill parent, helping to run the house by washing up or caring for siblings. Some, like Noah Pooley (13) from Pembroke, do all of these things on a daily basis.

He said: “My sister has uncontrollable epilepsy and a big part of every day is spent looking after her. My brother has mild autism and my father has ME, so I help my brother keep calm and take over from my dad when he can’t do anymore in a day.

“Action for Children give me a break from caring for my sister and then I can try not to think about it as there’s stuff to do and I can make new friends too. I think it is very important to meet other young people in a similar situation as if you just want to talk to someone, they understand what you’re going through and you understand what they’re going through.”

Lizzy Stonhold, an artist who worked on the film with the young carers for the Arts Society, said: “We looked at the different roles these children do on a daily basis and it was key that the focus of the groups is the opportunity to remove them from the reality these children are faced with.

“So we did a series of workshops looking at their routines and the different tasks these kids do and we animated them. By bringing these tasks that everyone can relate to, to life, we had fun in celebrating these mundane tasks and making them really special. The respect I have for young carers is enormous, it’s brilliant what they do and I loved how you they engaged with the film; they’re very special kids.”