ROSS KEMP: LIVING WITH YOUNG CARERS

ITV, 7.30pm

Can it really be true, as EastEnders actor turned investigative reporter Ross Kemp claims at the outset, that one in every five young people under the age of 16 in the UK is a carer? It’s a remarkably high figure and Kemp doesn’t give a source for it but, even so, a fraction of that would be shockingly high.

In the second of his series exploring the “biggest issues affecting the UK today”, Kemp spends time with a number of young carers, first staying over with the Haywood family in Blackburn, where 15-year-old Lizzie has so much to do to support her mother, who has physical disabilities and schizophrenia, that she can only study for her upcoming GCSE’s between 10pm and 3am. And in Manchester little five-year-old Ali helps his mother out with the 24-hour care of his sister Zenab, who has cerebral palsy. Kemp also visits a theatre group for young carers in Manchester and briefly questions the “postcode lottery” of council funding provision for them.

It’s not the most forensic of reports, and the line between helping and caring seems rather blurred, but it has emotional impact and certainly raises awareness of the issue. Gerard O’Donovan

Support: Kemp with young carers and their families

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