About Honeypot
Since 1996 Honeypot has been working to enhance the lives of young carers aged 5-12 years by providing respite breaks and a holistic range of services. In the UK nationwide, we give young carers a break from demanding and stressful responsibilities at home and provide a safe, nurturing environment where children at risk can develop their full potential.
What we do
We support children who are young carers to a sick, disabled parent or silbling. We provide a range of continuous services that meet the multiple needs of each individual child. This includes Respite Breaks, Educational Booster Breaks, Wellbeing Grants, Healthy Eating and Nutrition and Pastoral Support.
We believe in providing early intervention support to children at a young age in order to prevent issues and challenges that arise in a young person’s life becoming deep rooted.
To achieve the most for young carers, we work in partnership with a wide spectrum of organisations that provide complementary skills. We know that to be most effective, Honeypot must sit within the child’s welfare network and respect each child’s individual situation. Over many years, we have successfully built a network of working relationships with over 130 referring organisations, including social workers and GPs, local authorities, head teachers and school welfare officers to ensure that young carers who need our support are referred to us.
We know that there are no easy solutions or quick fixes for addressing the needs of young carers. Depending on the age a child is first referred to Honeypot, we are able to provide ongoing, recurring support for them for up to 8 years.
“We believe that every child has the right to make the most of their one chance at childhood, regardless of the circumstances they experience at home. This is why Honeypot exists.”
Our mission
Very few services exist for young carers. Of the few organisations that do support young carers in the UK, we are the only service that offers consistent outreach support and respite breaks, between the ages of 5 and 12. Without Honeypot, many of these children would have nowhere else to turn: Since 2010, government funding to children’s services has fallen by a third. Currently, the support we give young carers has never been more vital.
While our track record extends back nearly 25 years, our mission has remained the same: We want to build brighter futures for young carers, and create happy childhood memories that they can cherish for a lifetime. Read about our history here.
Annual Reports
Year ended 31 March 2022
Year ended 31 March 2023
Year ended 31 March 2024
Research
Official figures suggest there are 195,000 young carers in the UK, but it is more than likely there are many more from families that do not come forward or others being misrepresented – a BBC survey in 2018 estimated the number could be as high as 800,000. Young carers can find it hard to relate to their peers, struggle to concentrate in school and have little time to play with friends and take part in after-school activities. A survey in 2013 found young carers at GCSE level attain nine grades lower than average (the difference between 9Bs and 9Cs).