Young carers in the UK and young people admitted to hospital

You asked

Please provide the following information:

How many hospital/doctors visits and admissions in people under 18 were caused by blade injuries in the kitchen?

How many hospital/doctors visits and admissions in people under 18 were caused by burns in the kitchen?

How many young carers are there that are aged between 6 and 18 years old in the UK?

How many people between the ages or 6 and 18 (that have to prepare meals) are in the UK?

We said

Thank you for your enquiry.

Unfortunately, we do not have access to hospital admissions and discharges. Therefore, we do not hold the data you have requested.

NHS Digital may be better placed to answer your query. They can be contacted via email at enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk, and by telephone at 0300 303 5678.

Unfortunately, we do also not hold the specific information requested regarding young carers. However, we have recently published the following information regarding carers in the UK, which may help:

Please see the following publication, which provides the number of young carers between 5 and 17 years old in England and Wales from the 2001 and 2011 Census: A summary of unpaid care by 5 to 17-year-olds in England and Wales.

For the Census 2021 we are asking a similar question on provision of unpaid care to the one we asked in 2011. However, the question used for the 2011 Census has been revised, including more granularity of the response options, to satisfy user requirements. A paper version of the Census 2021 questionnaire can be seen (in English and Welsh) on the ONS webpage:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/census/censustransformationprogramme/questiondevelopment/census2021paperquestionnaires.

Our question development for Census 2021 on health and unpaid care can be found on the ONS webpage:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/census/censustransformationprogramme/healthandunpaidcarequestiondevelopmentforcensus2021

Our most recent work on carers in the UK is analysis undertaken in response to COVID-19, which is available via the following link: Coronavirus and the impact on caring. However, please note that this is not in relation to children specifically.

Please also see the following organisations, which may also be able to help with enquiries regarding young carers: Carers UK, Youth Access and the Carers Trust.