Gloucestershire Young Carers’ annual Twilight Briefing willtoday once again offer young people the opportunity to challenge theperceptions held by professionals of children and teenagers in caring roles.

Perception vs Reality is the title of this year’s TwilightBriefing which will be held at Pavilion in Cheltenham with 100 delegates from health,education and social care expected to attend.

The conference is hosted by the charity, which has beensupporting young carers for more than 26 years but is co-run with young carersthemselves.

Chairpersons for the evening will be Gloucestershire YoungCarers Operations Lead Ele Semadeni and young carer Tia Lumakangliu. Workshopswill focus on such issues as children and parental substance misuse, how youngcarers are supported in education and what a young carers’ journey into furthereducation and employment looks like in reality.

The conference runs from 4pm to 6pm.  

More than 7000 young people in Gloucestershire are believedto be in caring roles for family members experiencing disability, mental illhealth, physical illness or substance misuse issues. Gloucestershire Young Carersprovides support, working with a raft of partner agencies and organisations.The charity itself reaches around 1000 young carers and many more through its network.Its aim is to reduce the impact of the caring role on the aspirations and achievementsof the young people.