Since the beginning of the 1990’s the issue of Young Carers has been  a topic of research in Great Britain (Aldridge & Becker, 1993). Besides small pilot-studies in the 1990’s, the scientific research on Young Carers in  Germany did not start  until the new Millennium (Metzing, 2007). Young Carers are defined as children and adolescents

“who provide or intend to provide care, assistance or support to another family member. They carry out, often on a regular basis, significant or substantial caring tasks and assume a level of responsibility that would usually be associated with an adult. The person receiving care is often a parent but can be a sibling, grandparent or other relative who is disabled, has some chronic illness, mental health problem or other condition connected with a need for care, support or supervision.” (Becker, 2000)

The caring situation has an impact on the physical, emotional and social area of  children as well as in the area of school (Metzing-Blau & Schnepp, 2008). Within the impacts on the latter, different problems can occur, e.g. tiredness, concentration, lateness or absence (Dearden & Becker, 2002).

The research on school absence identifies three categories of children who are absent from school: truancy, school phobia/ school refusal and withholding by parents/withdrawal (Ricking, Schulze & Wittrock, 2007, Hersov quoted. Galloway, 1985). The first two categories are topics of many researches of different disciplines but there is a lack of research regarding the third group which annotates Galloway in 1985. This statement is still contemporary and researchers call it a collective-category where the main feature is that this absence is not initiated by children but for different reasons within the context of their home, e.g. the caring of a younger brother or sister, the disability or illness of the parents which has an impact on the parenting. These possible reasons are merely part of scientific research within the context of school absenteeism (Schulze, 2003).

The phenomena of Young Carers who are absent from school has found little attention in research. There are some studies but these mainly concentrate on caring-activities and achievement in school which identify absenteeism as a problem (Dearden & Becker, 2002). An approach to the group of children who are withheld by their parents could be made through the context of Caring.

Young Carers live in concealment due to the fear of institutions that could tear the family apart. In many cases, this concealment results in these children falling into an institutional gap although professionals of health, education and social services may be in the families. In Great Britain, the topic of Young Carers has a broad attention in society and the research states that professionals of different disciplines have to work together for the benefit of Young Carers (Dearden & Becker, 2002). At the beginning of the research on Young Carers, Fox (1995) identified different professional models of school absence associated with home responsibilities in contrast merely more efforts concerning the cooperation of professionals who work with Young Carers were made.

This pilot-study gives an insight into the interdisciplinary cooperation of professionals who work with Young Carers who are absent from school. It identifies facilitators and barriers within the cooperation by which it should be possible to find ways to get Young Carers who are absent or close to absence back to school. This pilot-study focuses on the following research question:

Which facilitators and barriers are found within the cooperation of professionals who work with Young Carers who are absent or close to absence from school?

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