We were thrilled to welcome over 100 attendees, including professionals, staff, and young carers, at our annual Gloucestershire Young Carers Twilight Conference. This inspiring event highlighted the power of collaboration to make a lasting difference in the lives of young carers.

This year’s theme, “30 years leading the way with and for young carers: how together we can shape the future” was co-created with young and young adult carers. In October, they dedicated a day of their half-term holiday to thoughtfully plan the event and design six impactful workshops.

The afternoon began with a warm welcome from Gloucestershire Young Carers and our CEO, Cheryl Rhodes. This was followed by a keynote speech from Andy McGowan of Carers Trust, who delivered a compelling message about the challenges young carers face. His address reminded us all that caring responsibilities should never limit a young person’s dreams or ambitions.

The conference featured six diverse workshops addressing key issues faced by young carers, including the journey of caring for a parent with mental ill health, exploring stigma around parental substance misuse, support in education, why it is important to make an effective referral, uncovering the masks of young adult carers and the impact of being a sibling carer. These sessions provided a safe space for honest dialogue and deep reflection, sparking ideas for actionable change.

As the day drew to a close, we gathered key messages from the workshops, including the powerful statement, “If you don’t have the time to make a referral, you are saying that I don’t matter!” This was followed by a Q&A, with young and young adult carers taking the stage to share their views. A final closing statement brought all twenty-one young people together to give a final message to the delegates about how they need to be seen and heard, given a voice and choice, identified and supported.

On the success of the conference, Youth Participation Lead Scott Bailey-Locke shared,

“The response to the conference showed there is an appetite and a desire within the county to help identity and support young and young adult carers in the county. Over the past 30 years, Gloucestershire Young Carers has been at the forefront of supporting these young people and pushing policy development, both locally and nationally, to provide more robust support for both them and their families. The conference is the young people’s opportunity to talk directly to these professionals, completely co-creating the conference including the theme, speeches, workshops and more!

It was fantastic to see so many professionals in attendance and that the impact of the young people and their stories can already be seen with professionals already taking learnings back to their settings and pushing for changes and developments in their practices.”

The feedback from delegates was overwhelmingly positive, with many emphasizing the power of the young carers’ contributions. In fact, 100% of attendees said they would recommend this event to a colleague; so, if you couldn’t attend this year, we warmly invite you to join us for next year’s conference.

Cheryl Rhodes, CEO, expressed her gratitude and hope for the future,

“A massive thank you to those of you who gave your time, creativity, and courage to make the day such a success. Your voices are helping to drive real change, and we’re so proud to stand with you every step of the way. Let’s keep building on this momentum together!”

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