越来越多的呼声要求每所学校都设立一名专门的青少年护工负责人——即一名能够识别出正在照顾家庭成员的学生，并确保他们获得所需支持的工作人员。
Calls are growing for every school to have a dedicated young carer lead - a member of staff who can identify pupils caring for family members and make sure they get the support they need.
由米德-多塞特和北普尔选区议员维基·斯莱德（Vikki Slade）与“我的时间”青少年护工组织（MYTIME Young Carers）合作发起了一项请愿，呼吁将这一职位设为法定要求。
A petition calling for the role to become a legal requirement was started by Mid-Dorset and North Poole MP Vikki Slade, working with MYTIME Young Carers.
该提案要求政府立法，规定英格兰的每所学校都必须任命一名“青少年护工倡导者”。英国教育部尚未对这项请愿发表评论。
The proposal would require the government to introduce legislation making every school in England appoint a Young Carers Champion. The Department for Education has declined to comment on the petition.
总部位于牛津郡的慈善组织“自由青少年护工”（Be Free Young Carers）也支持这一呼吁。
The Oxfordshire-based charity Be Free Young Carers is backing the call.
该组织筹款主管汉娜·沃（Hannah Waugh）表示：“青少年护工面临着巨大的挑战。设立一名专门的负责人将帮助他们茁壮成长、取得成功。”青少年护工可能在家中承担重大责任，而许多学生可能未被学校识别，导致他们无法获得本应享有的支持。
Its head of fundraising, Hannah Waugh, said: "Young carers face massive challenges. Having a dedicated lead would help them thrive and succeed." Young carers can take on significant responsibilities at home and many may not be identified by their school, meaning they can miss out on support they are entitled to.
19岁的凯西·马斯森（Kacey Musson）来自牛津郡，自三岁起便开始照顾她的母亲。她说：“我照顾母亲是因为她患有慢性偏头痛和精神健康问题。”
Kacey Musson, 19, from Oxfordshire has been caring for her mum since she was three years old. "I cared for my mum because she had a chronic migraine disorder and mental health problems," she said.
马斯森表示，如果学校里有一个人能理解她所经历的一切，那将带来巨大的不同。
Musson said having someone at school who understood what she was dealing with would have made a big difference.
她说：“我上中学时，学校只有一位青少年护工负责人，而且他当时是唯一一位，所以能得到的支持并不多，生活非常艰难。”
"When I hit secondary school, there was one young carer lead but he was the only one there so there wasn't a lot [of support] so it was a struggle," she said.
“家里有很多事情要兼顾，尤其是在准备普通中等教育证书考试（GCSE）的时候。我母亲就像一颗随时可能爆炸的定时炸弹，任何事都可能引发她的偏头痛。所以我会想：‘是的，我可以复习一下’，但比起复习，我更担心母亲病情突然恶化，引发偏头痛。”
"There was a lot to juggle with home, especially when GCSEs came around. My mum was a ticking time bomb so anything could trigger a migraine so I would think 'yes I can do some revision' but the stress of waiting for my mum's head to explode and become a migraine was more important to me than revision.
“如果能有更多支持，那真的会很好，因为这意味着我会有一位可以依靠的人……这将会带来巨大的改变。”对许多学校来说，并没有专门的青少年照护者负责人。这意味着缺乏必要培训的老师们不得不挺身而出，帮助填补这一空白。
"Having more support around would have been really good because it would mean I'd have had someone who I could just go to… that would have made a big difference." For many schools, a young carer lead does not exist. It means teachers without the necessary training are stepping up to help plug the gap.
罗西·埃默森是沃灵福德学校的一名教师，由于学校没有设立专门的负责人，她自愿担任了学校的青少年照护者负责人。
Rosie Emmerson is a teacher at Wallingford School and volunteered to become her school's young carer lead because there was not a designated person in place.
她说：“照顾这些年轻人，并尽可能为他们争取权益，比如组织旅行和有趣的活动，让他们能够做回自己，而不是时刻戴着‘照护者’的帽子，这已经成了我工作中最喜欢的一部分……每所学校都应该这样做。
She said: "It's become my favourite part of the job, looking after these young people and championing them as much as possible by organising trips, fun things for them to do so they can just be them and not wear their caring hat… every school should be doing this.
“当你开始看到他们因为我们的帮助而享受校园生活时——比如我们帮他们缓解了作业截止日期的压力，或者他们知道不必向每位老师解释自己为什么特别疲惫——这一切都会让他们轻松一些。”斯莱德表示，推动法律修改是确保孩子们获得所需支持的下一步。
"When you start seeing them enjoying school because we've helped lift some of the pressure with homework deadlines or they know they don't have to explain to every teacher why they're really tired, it makes it that little bit easier for them." Slade said getting the law changed was the next step to ensure children were getting the support they needed.
她说：“青少年照护者面临着许多障碍，这些障碍阻碍了他们获得平等对待的机会。”
"Young carers have so many barriers to level the playing field," she said.
“我们需要政府采取行动，或许可以通过新的教育法案来实现……我们已经发起了一项请愿活动，我希望收集到1万份签名，以便将此事提交到议会。”沃指出，设立一名指定的工作人员，可以让孩子有一个可以求助的对象，同时也能帮助学校更好地了解他们所面临的实际情况。
"We need the government to pick up the change possibly through the new education bill… we've started a petition, and I want to get it up to 10,000 signatures so we can get it into parliament." Having a named member of staff could give children someone they can turn to and help schools better understand what they are dealing with, said Waugh.
她补充道：“我们看到，有些学校确实已经配备了青少年照护者负责人，但另一些学校则没有，甚至从未考虑过自己可能也有青少年照护者。因此，设立这一职位并确保其发挥实际作用，确实非常必要。”
She added: "We see a real mix of some schools who do have young carer leads in place and others who don't have that and have never considered they might have young carers so there's a real need for this to be in place and for it to be a meaningful role."
MYTIME青少年照护者组织的首席执行官克里斯塔·卡特里奇表示：“要求每所学校都配备一名青少年照护者负责人的请愿，将为全县各地的青少年照护者带来切实而具体的改变。我们必须尽一切努力，确保他们的照护职责不会以牺牲教育为代价。”
Krista Cartlidge, CEO of MYTIME Young Carers, said: "g the petition to put a young carer lead in every school will make a real tangible difference to young carers up and down the county and we need to do everything we can, so their caring role doesn't cost them their education."