How we can build fairer futures for Forces young carers by championing children’s rights

What is one small, realistic step we can take to help create a fairer future for young carers from Forces families? Here are some thoughts from our Learning and Development Worker, Judith Blair, and perspectives from young carers themselves.

Today marks Young Carers Action Day 2026. This year’s theme, “Fair Futures for Young Carers,” highlights the importance of ensuring every young carer has the same opportunities as their peers to learn, grow and thrive. 

Fairness means recognising that not all young carers experience caring in the same way. For some, their caring role exists within the additional context of Armed Forces family life, and that can bring unique pressures alongside adaptability and pride. 

Last month, we joined colleagues at the Scottish Young Carers Services Alliance Conference to facilitate a workshop focused on the experiences of young carers from Armed Forces families through a children’s rights lens. The session introduced the Forces Children’s Rights Charter and highlighted how belonging to a Forces family, alongside having a caring role, can shape how rights are understood, experienced, and upheld.

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Understanding the wider context

Young carers in Armed Forces families may be supporting a parent who has returned from deployment with physical injuries or mental health difficulties, caring for a non-serving parent affected by illness, or have to take on increased responsibilities during deployments. These roles can be temporary, cyclical, or long-term and they can sometimes be invisible.

Armed Forces life can intensify these challenges. Frequent relocations may interrupt education and disrupt established support networks. Moving schools can mean repeatedly explaining personal circumstances. Stigma around sharing family difficulties within military communities can make asking for help feel uncomfortable. A strong sense of loyalty to a serving parent can also lead young carers to minimise their own needs.

Taking a rights-based approach

The workshop offered a refreshed understanding of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and explored how the Forces Children’s Rights Charter reflects these rights in the specific context of Armed Forces life. The Charter highlights principles such as:

• I have the best family life I can (Articles 9 and 18),
• I can do my interests and hobbies with the people who matter to me (Articles 31, 15, and 27),
• My education helps me be my best self now and in the future (Articles 28 and 29).
• Everyone understands me and my rights (Articles 42, 12, and 13).

These rights can be harder to realise for young carers in Armed Forces families. A relocation may mean waiting for support to be re-established. A lack of understanding about Forces life within schools can leave young people feeling unseen. Caring responsibilities may affect attendance, attainment and wellbeing.

Creating fairer futures for this group means ensuring they are recognised in school as both a young carer and a Forces child. It means consistent access to wellbeing support despite relocation. It means meaningful breaks from caring, being listened to when decisions affect them, and having adults who understand how military life shapes their experiences.

The Forces Children’s Rights Charter provides a practical framework to support this work. Young Carers Action Day reminds us why it matters. Together, they give practitioners and organisations the tools and direction needed to turn commitment into action.

But fairer futures cannot be achieved in isolation. They rely on strong interagency working — education, health, the Armed Forces community, third sector organisations and local authorities working collaboratively, sharing information appropriately and ensuring no young person falls through the gaps during transitions or relocation.

When we listen to young carers, recognise their rights and work together across services, we move closer to a future that is not only fairer in principle, but fairer in practice.