Council’s Guaranteed Interview Scheme to be extended to young carers

The move is all part of the Council’s Guaranteed Interview Scheme which currently ensures that any eligible care-experienced young people and applicants with a disability can receive an interview in recognition of the additional barriers they may face in accessing employment.

Provost Claire Leitch proposed a motion at last week’s Council meeting to extend the scheme to young carers as they can also experience significant barriers to employment as a result of their caring responsibilities. Provost Leitch has been supporting East Ayrshire Young Carers as her chosen charity for the last year.

Provost Leitch said: “We know that our young carers are resilient, compassionate and mature beyond their years, but many of them may not have had the chance to gain traditional work experience due to their caring responsibilities. They will, however, have a wealth of transferable skills that they’ve obtained though caring for family members, particularly around organisation, problem solving, and in many cases dealing with financial and medical issues.

“Too often, caring responsibilities are creating barriers to employment so we want to do all that we can to support our young carers. The Council greatly values lived experience and the contribution that our young carers make every day, and we hope that other community partners, businesses and private sector companies will follow suit and extend a similar offer if they are able to. We will get in touch with our local business associations to ask for their support and to help make sure that no young carer is essentially disadvantaged by being a young carer.”

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