Today at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, the Digital Poverty Alliance (DPA) released Caring and Connected: Empowering Young Carers in a Digital World, a new report on the impact of Tech4YoungCarers, one of the DPA’s flagship delivery programmes. Drawing on the experiences of young carers who received a laptop of their own, alongside connectivity and digital skills support, the research looks at what changed across education, confidence, social connection and everyday life.
Sponsored by E2BN, Tech4YoungCarers supports young carers and young adult carers aged 11 to 25. In its second year, 200 young carers across England received devices, with the evaluation focusing on the first 163 supported and combining surveys with interviews involving young carers and their families.
Before receiving a laptop, participants described sharing devices at home, relying on older technology, completing schoolwork on a phone or staying behind at school to use a computer. Afterwards, 96% reported a positive impact on their educational attainment and 94% felt more confident working towards their GCSEs or A Levels. Families described homework becoming easier to manage, work being completed on time and young carers becoming more independent.
Having a laptop available when it was needed also gave young carers more flexibility in how they managed their time. Sixty-five per cent said it had helped them balance education with caring responsibilities, while digital confidence increased from an average of 6.7 to 7.3 out of 10. Eighty-two per cent said they felt more socially included after receiving their device, and more than half of those who had experienced loneliness said the laptop had helped them feel less isolated.
Sixty-six per cent also said having their laptop had helped them prepare for what came next while continuing to manage their caring responsibilities. Participants were using their devices to research careers and courses, prepare CVs, complete coursework and explore higher education, giving them more independence over decisions that increasingly have to be made online.
“This research gives us much stronger evidence of what Tech4YoungCarers is changing for the young people taking part,” said Elizabeth Anderson, CEO, Digital Poverty Alliance. “Young carers should not have to organise their school or college work around whether a suitable device happens to be available at home. The results around education are strong, but the wider picture is important too. Having a laptop they can rely on is giving young carers more confidence, more independence and more room to think about their own future, with participants sharing that they are now seriously considering going to university or finding work.”
E2BN has sponsored Tech4YoungCarers since its launch in 2024, helping the DPA expand the programme across Cambridgeshire, Peterborough, Southend-on-Sea and Milton Keynes. The report shows what that support has meant in practice for the young carers taking part, while also pointing to where wider change is still needed.
Its recommendations focus on how digital inclusion can become a more consistent part of the support young carers receive. This includes reflecting it more clearly in national and local support, while schools and colleges do more to identify young people who are trying to study without a suitable device or reliable connectivity at home.