Martyn Oliver's speech at the Young Carers Futures Conference - Oct 23

Sir Martyn Oliver, Ofsted's Chief Inspector, spoke at the 2025 Young Carers Futures Conference in London.

"Hello everyone.

It's great to be here in south London with you all. I had the pleasure of meeting with young carers and MYTIME recently, so it's really very special to have this opportunity to speak more widely with such a dedicated group of people who are all supporting young carers – or indeed, are young carers or young adult carers.

I have a short slot today, so I want to get straight into the heart of what I'm talking about: which is how Ofsted will refresh its approach to education inspection to ensure that young carers and post-16 carers are better identified and supported through their school journey.

What we heard from you

In September, we published our renewed approach to education inspection. It's been based on extensive consultation with thousands of people across the country including headteachers, educators, parents, pupils, young people and indeed young carers.

We were particularly struck by what we heard from young carers and those who support them. The message that came through loud and clear was that when we talk about ‘disadvantage' and ‘vulnerability', it can feel like we solely mean children with special educational needs and disabilities or those eligible for the pupil premium.

These challenges are undoubtedly – and will always continue to be – incredibly important. But we can also account for a fuller spectrum of circumstances that significantly impact children and young people and go on to affect their future.

In an education context, the challenges for young carers can, as you will know better than me, be acute.

Don't get me wrong: many young carers are very able, very capable, and desperate to do well. I heard that so passionately in the conversation Kirsty and I had with young carers who came to see me a couple of months ago. After all, young carers have already shown great resilience and maturity by the very nature of caring for someone else.

But it's also true that, overall, young carers experience higher exclusion and suspension rates compared to their peers. They're more likely to miss school, more likely to struggle with getting their homework done, and more likely to experience mental health challenges. And all these things have a knock-on impact on getting an education, and on getting on in life.

We also heard that schools themselves can struggle, for various reasons, to identify the young carers in their classrooms and therefore fail to provide the support that young carers need.

This is why our refreshed approach to education inspection makes changes that explicitly include and will help schools to support young carers.

Identifying the barriers young carers face

Now we recently commissioned some research from the National Children's Bureau to help us consider how we might conceptualise vulnerability and its complexity.

The research is published online for anyone to read, and it is called ‘From trait to state'. As that title might give away, it explores a broader understanding of ‘vulnerability' that moves beyond seeing it as an inbuilt static ‘trait' – something that stays with you; to a more fluid ‘state' – something that might only be an issue at certain times in life.

It can help us to better visualise how young carers' barriers to learning and well-being might change over time, even if the underlying cause is more permanent.

So, your responsibilities might intensify during certain periods of a parent's illness or reduce if they have periods when they're more well and able. You might find that the challenges increase when other family members aren't around to help and alleviate slightly if there are other people to lean on.

This fluidity can make it more difficult to identify young carers, or to get them help in a timely and targeted way.

I recognise that many providers already go above and beyond in doing so – exemplified by you all here today – but we do have to be honest about the fact that there are still too many gaps to close.

We want to stop young carers from suffering disproportionately in terms of their attendance, attainment and well-being. We must therefore make sure schools truly play their part in supporting children who often take on responsibilities and demands far beyond what might be expected of someone of their age and experience.

Of course, we must do what we can to support young carers and acknowledge the additional pressures they face. But equally we must not allow the challenges they experience to become a reason for lowered expectations, or an excuse for them to drift away from education – and the structure and opportunities it brings.

Young carers deserve the same high aspirations and the same opportunities as all their peers.

And we know that timely, targeted, joined-up support from the educators, social care professionals, volunteers, healthcare staff and other brilliant people like you in their lives gives them the best possible chance to get there.

Our new approach

To help schools play their part, we have put inclusion at the core of Ofsted's new approach.

Inclusion now has its own dedicated evaluation area, and it's also woven through every other evaluation area. It represents a fundamental shift in how we determine what makes a truly inclusive school.

There are now 6 explicit references to young carers, deliberately, across all our inspection toolkits – in primary, secondary and further education settings. This means that inspectors will be specifically looking for evidence of how well any young carers are being identified and supported.

So when we say the words ‘disadvantaged' or ‘vulnerable', it's now clearer that, yes, while we of course mean – and will always mean – children with SEND, with EHC plans, or those eligible for free school meals, we also include young carers.

It's not about labelling for the sake of a label. It's about knowing. Knowing what young carers are experiencing and making sure that they too have equal access to high-quality education that meets their – your – individual needs.

To meet the expected standard, schools will have to demonstrate that they support young carers to achieve, belong and thrive.

In the first instance, schools need to have systems in place to identify young carers. They need to be able to recognise how those experiences manifest in a school context – whether it's missed homework, tiredness, fatigue from overnight caring responsibilities, or distraction because their mind is on the situation awaiting them back at home.

And when schools are aware of the young carers within their classrooms, they must do what's needed to help them achieve good attendance and positive results. So we will look at how schools are managing young carers' behaviour, understanding their learning experiences, and supporting their well-being and personal development throughout their entire educational journey.

To help schools do this, the summary reports that inspectors look at before an inspection will now include the data that's helped enrich those booklets in front of you, from the school census, to include young carers in year group breakdowns. It means inspectors will understand the context and know exactly what to look for. And schools can better track how well their young carers are progressing and identify them as a group where additional support might be needed.

Together, we want these changes to encourage schools and headteachers to be proactive: to be aware of and actively identify young carers in the first place, to truly know their children and understand what's going on in their lives beyond the school gates.

Because only when schools understand the full picture of a child's life can they provide the right support, at the right time, and fully play their part in getting the best outcomes for all children.

Thank you and wrap-up

As I mentioned, these changes are fundamentally about making sure every child and every young person and every young adult can achieve, belong and thrive.

They're about making sure we recognise not only the considerable responsibilities that young carers take on within their families – often with remarkable maturity and compassion – but also that we all live up to our collective responsibility to them – even, and especially, when it's tough.

Because when young carers are supported in their education, they're more likely to continue learning and developing the skills they need for their futures. Writing well, reading with fluency, and being confident with maths.

They're more likely to go on to overcome those terms – ‘disadvantaged' and ‘vulnerable' – that I spoke about at the beginning.

Thank you for the dedication you all put in every day – whether you're a young adult carer yourself or one of the people here to support them or the brilliant Carers Trust, Kirsty and her team.

And if you also want to hear about our social care inspections, there's a workshop happening at 12:15 with CQC – and Jeremy Gleaden, our Senior HMI for social care is there, so don't miss it.

Thank you to everyone, particularly to the carers and young adult carers. Thank you to the adults who support them. Thank you to Kirsty and the Carers Trust."