How MCA Awards charity partner Honeypot supports young carers across the UK
The Honeypot Children’s Charity has been selected as the annual charity partner of the Management Consultancies Association, for its annual awards night. Ahead of the showpiece gala, Consultancy.uk spoke to Senior Corporate Partnerships Manager Simon Robb, about the vital work the charity does, and how consultants can help.
It is not an exaggeration to describe The Honeypot Children’s Charity as a lifeline for young carers across the UK. For almost 30 years, the organisation has worked to provide a nurturing environment for children aged from five to 12, who are engaged in unpaid care for sick or disabled family members. Serving the ultimate goal of “helping to build brighter futures”, the charity supplies vital respite and mental health breaks to children with the weight of the world on their shoulders.
“Honeypot’s purpose is to give these children a break that they really deserve,” Simon Robb explains. “At the heart of everything we do are our residential respite breaks. And this is where a child will come to one of our honeypot houses, which are across the UK.”
Robb is senior corporate partnerships manager with Honeypot. Having spent three years with the charity, he has seen what this looks like in action – and what it means to the children – first-hand. When children come to one of the organisation’s three houses, each “nestled in the countryside” across the UK, they are able to “put their responsibilities aside for a few days… and just be children again” – creating “childhood memories that they can look back on”, which they can draw on for strength and warmth for the rest of their lives.
“We have a house in Hampshire, one the middle of Wales in Pen y Bryn and one in the countryside in Scotland in Dalleagles. Each of these houses is like a big family home – with a maximum of 12 children on each break… the days are just chock-a-block full of fun activities.”
The fun includes zip-wiring; go-karting; swimming; arts and crafts; movie nights with popcorn and hot chocolate; trips to theme parks, zoos and farms; and campfires under the stars. As well as our respite breaks, Honeypot uses this familial environment to support vulnerable children with social and emotional active learning breaks – or SEAL, for short.
SEAL is crucial to helping build the brightest future for each child with Honeypot, because of the pressures young carers come under, as a result of their caring responsibilities. Noting some of the things these children do to support parents with long-term conditions and, in some cases, terminal illnesses, Robb reels off a seemingly endless list – from “helping with the cooking, cleaning, and chores”, to “fetching shopping on the way home from school” and “helping administer medication”.
Focusing on a handful of the cases in more detail, Robb explains, “There’s a little girl whose mum relies on her to help get out of bed in the mornings. And we’ve got a boy who helps his mum put her sleep apnoea mask on every night. We’ve got another child that we support who is looking after her siblings who both have a motor neuron disease (MND), and they’re wheelchair bound. She doesn’t sleep in her own bedroom because she takes turns sleeping in their rooms to keep them company, it makes them feel safe. So, she’s putting other people’s needs before her own.”
Having to juggle caring with their education can have major impacts on the development of young carers, though, beyond their grades. It can leave them struggling with focus or self-esteem – leading to social alienation on top of everything else.
“A lot of the young carers are severely bullied at school,” Robb explains. “In a school environment other children can see a difference from a mile off, and unfortunately it just makes young carers a big target. So, they’re very often not having the best time at school. Our respite breaks and our SEAL breaks in particular help to build their self-esteem and give them confidence so that they can become better learners in the classroom. It helps make them think about their future.”
According to Robb, many of the children, feel like they are “stuck in a place where they might always have care for someone their whole lives.” – but Honeypot strives to show them another way is possible. They can “have great educational prospects”, and “go on to be whoever they want”.
Sometimes breaking out of the role of ‘young carer’ proves challenging. “When they come to one of our houses, their initial reaction is to pick up after themselves and we have to tell them not to. You’re here to rest.” But when things click, and their empathy aligns with their innate compassion, Robb says it is something wonderful to behold. For example, if one child is crying, “you see all the other children rally around them to try and make them feel calm and safe. And it’s because these children are naturally so empathetic and so thoughtful.”
He adds, “And what’s incredible about this is that these children don’t even know how amazing they are, this is just normal life for them.”
An invisible army
Robb came to Honeypot after deciding to make a change in his career. Having initially worked in journalism, he transitioned to charity work with the Royal National Institute for Deaf People.
“I decided I wanted to shift to do something different,” Robb recalls. “It made me feel like I was doing something good. And that’s the reason I came to Honeypot, too. I love what they do.”
The broad definition of a young carer – someone under the age of 18, who provides unpaid care for a family member or friend with disabilities, illness, mental health conditions or addiction – is the one which people will be most familiar with, if they are familiar with it at all. But as Robb points out, that definition does not really do service to the gravity of the situation. Among the “invisible army” of the estimated 1 million young carers in the UK, Honeypot supports children as young as five, filling a gap in the nation’s care regime, which adult politicians have arguably abandoned.
That 1 million figure comes from a recent ITV investigation into young carers in the UK – and while Robb believes “it’s probably increased even more from that point”, that still represents an exponential expansion of the number of young people facing the huge pressures he has already described. In the census, 128,000 people were registered as young carers in England and Wales, up from 10,000 in 2011. That figure was in itself an 83% rise from the number registered in 2001.
In some ways, this has forced the nation’s leaders to acknowledge a growing crisis. In November 2023, the first ever parliamentary inquiry into young and young adult carers was published, revealing a lack of support is having a devastating impact on their education, wellbeing and future prospects. But two years later, in October 2025, a Carers UK report found unpaid carers, whose finances, health and ability to work are already impacted by their caring responsibilities, were facing “unrelenting” pressure – with 52% experiencing a rise in the number of hours they spent caring each week in the last year.
When it comes to preventing the can from being kicked further down the road, there are many factors at play. But Robb believes that first and foremost, education around this invisible army will be key in getting the needs of young carers acknowledged and supported in the long-term.
As a team, Honeypot therefore works with hundreds of local bodies across the UK, to try and reach out to as many young carers as possible. This includes partnering with GP surgeries, social services and schools - concentrating on education and making sure that “teachers understand the signs to look out for, for a young carer, that the doctor knows what to look out for” and can then recommend Honeypot.
partnering with – concentrating on education and making sure that “teachers understand the signs to look out for, for a young carer, that the doctor knows what to look out for” and can then recommend Honeypot.
At the same time, there are social norms which need to be overcome – and which Honeypot works to try and help combat. The most pervasive is a “sense of shame” amongst families – which can make hard data difficult to come by. “We want to be able to cut through that, and show that there’s no shame; people can’t help the situation they’re in… and a lot of parents we work with have seen their circumstances change suddenly out of nowhere and all of a sudden they really need that support”.
Robb adds, “I think the more awareness that’s out there, the more that the government and charities can do to help support them.”
MCA Awards
Given the difficulty young carers face in speaking out, let alone being listened to, it is up to Honeypot and its partners to advocate for them. So, when the Management Consultancies Association (MCA) got in contact, looking for a charity partner ahead of its 2025 awards ceremony, the opportunity to amplify Honeypot’s message was welcomed with open arms.
“The MCA Awards was not the usual situation for us – but is one of those things where we’re starting to see more organisations see us and acknowledge us. They did some research around young carers, and when they saw Honeypot, they suddenly realised, ‘Oh my gosh, I didn’t realise carers could be that young’ – so the MCA Awards actually came to us, which is a wonderful thing.”
According to Robb, it is “not something that regularly happens” for Honeypot. In his work in the corporate partnerships team, he is well aware that the majority of the organisation’s work is “having to go out there, reach out and apply for things”. Amid the last 15 years of off-and-on austerity in the UK, Honeypot’s journey has not been easy. It is a tough fundraising landscape with increased competition for funds, and with only 5% of the charity’s income from annual government grants, he notes that “we need to work hard to make ends meet.”
Robb continues, “Being able to have support from the MCA Awards is really crucial for us to be able to continue our work… we want to expand; we want to grow as a charity. In the last financial year, we were able to support 5,000 children, which was our biggest number yet. But that estimate of 1 million young carers means we want to increase that year on year; and we’re only going to be able to do that if we’re able to maintain and increase our current level of support. Individuals, corporates and all types of donors can help us achieve that, because we have to reach more of these children.”
On that note, the MCA Award represents a major opportunity for Honeypot. Not just because the event will call upon more than 1,100 consultants, clients, government officials and media representatives to give what they can to the charity on the night. But because it also puts Honeypot at the centre of the UK consulting industry’s largest annual gathering; where advisors are among the most influential business people in the country – working with large corporations and governments at every level – will be in attendance.
Asked if Honeypot had a message for the guests, seated in Grosvenor House’s grand hall on November 10th, Robb asked them to think back to their own childhood.
“What are the best memories that you have? What were the most amazing experiences that you had? It could have been opening up a present at Christmas that you’d’ve wanted all year. It could be having a great birthday. It could be being surrounded by family or going on a fantastic family holiday. It could be going on school trips or just hanging out with your friends. I would say think about those happy memories, hold on to them and cherish them. But also remember that there are a lot of young carers out there who aren’t being given the chance to create those happy memories.
“Honeypot is about giving those children their own happy memories. We’re giving them the opportunity to take a much needed break and just be kids again. It’s so important that these children are reminded that they are children and they can be silly, they can have fun and they can meet like-minded children. They can make friends and form lifelong bonds. When people think of that, that’s where they can make the connection, and realise the impact that they and Honeypot can have. Just by supporting us you’re creating something that will have longevity and a legacy. We don’t believe that young carers should wait until they’re 18 or even a teenager before they get support. We want to make sure that they have that support from the very beginning so that they’re not missing out on crucial life-building moments.
“Please remember those memories, please hold on to them and please help give those memories to other children who would otherwise miss out.”
The future
Looking ahead, Robb maintains that “more awareness” is the crucial first step in improving support for young carers. Beyond that, though, the hope remains that not only are the general public more educated about the existence of young carers and what they have to go through, but that this impacts “all sorts of organisations and at government level,” so that Honeypot is able to grow and build and help support more young carers.
In the meantime, there are many ways to support Honeypot directly. With match funding backed by kind donors, when people donate at certain times of the year, their donations get doubled. Coming up soon, the Honeypot Christmas Appeal – ‘Light up a young carer’s life’ is launching on Tuesday 2nd December – running for two weeks. Every donation made during this period will be doubled.
Along with donations, the charity hosts events throughout the year that people can take part in, from our comedy night at Piccadilly Circus’ Comedy Store, to pub quizzes, and spaces in some of the biggest walks and runs in the UK. That bridges the London Marathon, to Scotland’s annual Kilt Walk.
The charity also has “amazing volunteer experiences like no other; people actually get to go to our honeypot houses to help out”. And if corporates would like to get involved, there are lots of opportunities. Honeypot will work “very closely with your teams and plan out your year together to help you achieve your CSR goals, sustainability goals or anything else you’d like to achieve.”
“If people want to reach out to us or support us as an individual or corporate, they can email fundraising@honeypot.org.uk,” Robb concludes.
First and foremost, though, Honeypot representatives will be present at the MCA Awards – where the consulting industry’s representative body will also be raising funds on the charity’s behalf. Donations can be made directly via Honeypot’s website, or via QR codes set out on the tables at the ceremony.
