Are you caring for a child or young adult?
A parent carer is a parent, or other adult with parental responsibility, who cares for a child or young person who requires more care and support than other children or young people of the same age. 
We understand that, because of the high threshold for families to access the children’s disability services, there are families in need who do not meet the eligibility criteria. We can provide support to families who either do not qualify for support, or who have had involvement of services but the case has been closed.
We can also help those sandwich generation carers who are caring for children and also an elderly parent. Alongside these, other children living at home need support in recognising themselves as having caring responsibilities and the impact on their own childhood experience.
Transitions
The move from child to adult services is frequently stressful for parent carers and often means you might be in need of some guidance. We can provide someone to talk to, an explanation of the processes involved and also request meetings to address concerns.
Signposting
Carer Support Wiltshire will signpost you to relevant organisations who can give you further specialist support as a parent carer. The impact of caring for a child can affect other children in the family but we will help you manage this with the help of Spurgeons who provide support to young carers in Wiltshire.
Groups
We hold regular informal peer support meetings, with a parent carer support worker facilitating the sessions to provide expert information, guidance and one-to-one support as required. Parent carers can share information and experiences about matters of mutual interest, including useful events, training opportunities, and relevant activities for their children e.g. SPLASH activities in the summer holiday. The support worker manages an ‘information folder’ which is shared and added to at each meeting.
As well as peer support, the groups arrange for speakers to attend – recent examples include a talk by a housing association manager on tenancy issues, a speaker from the Wiltshire Parent Carer Council, a trainer who does life skills training and someone from the Wiltshire CAB on energy advice.
