Documentary Unit: Research and idea

For our final unit, we were asked to come up with an idea for a 10 minute documentary for BBC three with the theme "teen spirit". The idea I decided to work on was to tackle the subject of young carers.
The BBC is very diverse and culturally accommodating with its ambition to display the best of talent, dramas and documentaries. However, I believe young carers in our society are under represented and their existence is only briefly highlighted once a year with the annual Children In Need broadcast.
Young carers have an extremely difficult life and it is hard for us to imagine the weight of responsibility that sits on their young shoulders. Quite often apart from having to care for a sick or disabled parent they have younger siblings that they need to get washed, fed and ready for school.

Free time – well what free time? Because as well as everything else to do they also need to study and find it hard not to get behind with school work. Imagine when in the holidays or at the weekend all your friends are going out and enjoying themselves and you are unable to go due to either lack of funds or free time.
Therefore, I believe a documentary following the day in the life of a young carer would help to draw attention to what must sometimes be a very lonely place for a young person to find themselves. At the end of the programme the carer would then be made to feel special and have some well deserved attention showered upon them whether it be with a visit to the hairdressers, new dress and an evening out with friends or tickets to watch a favourite football match.

Research 
There are700,000 young carers in the UK. 68% of young carers are bullied in schools.

• 13,000 of the UK’s young carers care for over 50 hours a week.

• Following a survey in 2010, the BBC estimated that there are 700,000 young carers in the UK.

• 68% of young carers are bullied in schools.

The idea that children can be very cruel and their lack of understanding for the situation doesn’t help.


BULLYING IN YOUNG CARERS

• Over 39% of young carers had not informed their teacher or any member of staff that they were a young carer.

• 27% of young carers (aged 11–15) miss school or experience educational difficulties.

Link to having more responsibilities

Worcestershire Young Carers aims to support children and young people age 7 to 25 years who help to look after a parent, guardian or sibling within their home, who is ill or has a disability. This includes caring for people who have issues with drugs or alcohol or have a mental health or learning disability.
Many young people do not recognise themselves as a carer, for them they are simply helping a family member, friend or neighbour. In effect they are undertaking tasks that they consider to be part of their relationship with that person.

In my research I also contacted the Kent Young Carers charity to ask how they would feel about helping us out with the project, should we all decide to go with this idea.




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