The questionnaire was completed by 925 children across England from two year groups - 11 to 12-year-olds and 14 to 15-year-olds. If the survey was extrapolated across England it would correspond to more than 800,000 secondary-school age children carrying out some level of care. Of those, the survey suggests more than 250,000 young carers are carrying out a high level of care, with 73,000 taking on the highest amount of care. Katie is one of them. “The fact that there are so many vulnerable children who are slipping through the net is one of the biggest scandals of our generation,” says Javed Khan, chief executive of Barnardo's. “These findings tell us, that as a nation, we are relying very heavily on children to provide care to other family members and in some cases to a number of family members,” says Prof Becker. While the survey only covered England, the prevalence of young carers is an issue across the UK. In Wales, the official figures say there are 7,000 but research suggests a figure four times higher. In Scotland, the Carers Trust says there are 29,000 young carers.The trust says there are 30,000 young carers in Northern Ireland.

Within the past five years two new pieces of legislation have been brought in, giving significant new rights to carers in England - the Children and Families Act 2014 and the Care Act 2014. Young carers have the right to a “carer's assessment”, which is the duty of the local authority. These assessments measure the effect on young carers’ wellbeing - health, education or friendships – and whether they should continue carrying out that level of care. “There are many children in this country whose burden of care is so extreme that it would be really difficult, if not impossible, for many adults to do those kinds of care-giving roles for other people – but we are expecting children as young as five and six to [do them]. They need to be assessed and... receive services that reduce the amount of care-giving,” says Prof Becker. But there are young carers not known to the authorities and others have to wait too long for an assessment, some experts suggest. Many local authorities are under intense financial pressure, says Prof Becker. “Some of the authorities are providing good services… [but] there’s very little in large parts of the country.”