Ross Kemp: Living with...

Ross Kemp explores the country's knife crime epidemic. He meets teenagers who say they carry knives for self protection, parents who fear for their children's lives and community leaders taking drastic measures to put and end to the violence.

It's believed that as many as 800,000 people under the age of 18 care for sick parents or siblings: one in 20 children in Britain. In the second episode of his new series, Ross Kemp investigates the hidden crisis of young carers and starts in Blackburn where he stays the night with the Haywood family. Lizzie, 15, carries out care work for her mother, Donna, who suffers from serious physical difficulties and schizophrenia. Ross discovers that due to her care workload, Lizzie often does her homework late into the night. Accompanying a charity worker, Ross is shocked when he meets young carers as young as five. They include Ali, who cares for his his sister Zainab, a cerebral palsy sufferer with epilepsy and visual impairment. Their mother, Hanifa, says she would be lost without Ali's help. Ross discovers how much money young carers are saving the economy but at the same time, funding for services to help them is falling.

In this episode, Ross sleeps out on the coldest night of the year with some of Cardiff's rough sleepers, he meets people from families torn apart by homelessness and uncovers shocking truths about the government's understanding of the size of the rough sleeper population. Ross says: “No one knows exactly how many rough sleepers there are, but both the government and charities agree that rough sleeping has at least doubled in the past few years.” Ross meets a number of rough sleepers in Cardiff and finds out what drove them to their current situation and what help is available to them. He also tries first hand to experience what they go through on a daily basis and spends a nights in a freezing tent and on the street to find out for himself. He says: “It’s interesting how many people pass and don’t catch your eye.