Young Carers Statement, woensdag 21 oktober 2026

(geactualiseerde versie van het Young Carers IYCC 2024 Manchester Statement) 

Young Carers are usually the group of young people that are seen, but very rarely heard. We want this to be the time you listen to us.

With these words we closed the 4th International Young Carers Conference in 2024. This conference we want to repeat that message: awareness, support and choice.

Awareness
Awareness is essential because without it we cannot be supported nor be recognised. Young Carers cannot gain support if professionals and policymakers don't understand who we are, what we do and what we need. On this basis we would like as a minimum standard for all to acknowledge and uphold the definition of what a Young Carer and Young Adult Carer is: ‘A young person who provides unpaid long term care to an individual with a chronic disease, a disability or any other long-lasting needs such as living with mental-ill health and substance misuse.’

Support
Support sounds simple but accessing it can be dependent on the environment and your demographic. Those who have not heard our stories, it’s time for you to listen! Our stories are all different, so we don’t all fit in the same box. So therefore, we are asking for our support to be unconditional and available to all Young Carers and Young Adult Carers when they need it. Support for young carers is so important, we need to make sure that the young carers of today don't become the cared for of the future.

Caring is such a beautiful thing, but there comes a point where it can become too much without having somewhere or someone to turn to. Which leads on to the last point.

Choice
This isn't the choice of whether we want to be Young Carer's or Young Adult Carer's, because regardless we will provide emotional and/or physical care for our loved ones. We deserve the choice to have our own identity. We also deserve to have a life outside of being a carer.

IYCC 2026 Berlin
Yesterday, we held a pre-conference just for young carers and young adult carers. There, we discussed this year's theme: From Recognition to Action — Supporting Young Carers in a Changing World.

The 2024 statement already asked for Awareness, which is the first step toward recognition. In 2026 we can ask what comes next: action, in a world that is changing around young carers.

Building on that discussion, we'd like to leave you with a few questions to think about. Keep them in mind as you make your way through the conference. Tomorrow, in the closing plenary, we'll share our own answers to these.

The questions are:

• What does "a changing world" mean for young carers in your own life and country?

• Which dimensions of change affect you most; money, mental health, care systems, technology, conflict, migration?

• What can policymakers and professionals do differently for young carers?

So over lunch, and throughout the conference, please keep this conversation going with each other. It will take all of us to make things better for young carers everywhere. 

In this changing world: we are the next generation!

Don't assume what we want and what our future has to hold.

Let us have a choice.

Let us use our voice.

Let us shape our future.