STUDENT ESSAY children and young people in a caring role.

The ethical issue of children and young people taking on a caring role is based around caring requiring an inappropriate level of responsibility for their age which affects their current and future wellbeing and education (Dundee Carers Centre, 2018). An ethical dilemma occurs when a choice needs to be made between two unwelcome alternatives with the impact of the dilemma still existing once a choice is made (Banks, 2012). There are multiple sides to the argument surrounding young carers, with one being that there is as much support in place for young carers as possible to ease pressure and enable them to have 'a childhood similar to their peers', as intended by the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 (Dundee Carers Centre, 2021). However, the other side of this argument is that the constraints that young carers face across participation in education, social relationships, and health and wellbeing is too much for a child or young person to take on (Hamilton & Adamson, 2013). Using the reflection-on-action and reflection-in-action model by Schön (1983) I will be analyzing and reflecting on my understanding of this ethical issue after critically analyzing the different sides to this argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]