We want to make sure that all children who run away from home or care have somewhere safe to go and someone sound to talk to.

To achieve this we need your help. In the first part of our campaign we want all local authorities in England to pass our Safe and Sound test by making sure they have plans for young runaways in place, in keeping with Government guidelines .

To pass the Safe and Sound test they need to have:

• a manager with responsibility for young runaways
  
  
• a plan about how to respond to young runaways
  
  
• an agreement about how they will evaluate that plan

These may sound bureaucratic if you’re sitting at a warm desk. But for a young runaway these plans could be a lifeline.

But when we asked local authorities if they had these plans in place, 91out of 150 replied but only 7 said they had all three in place.

You can help us make England a safer place for young runaways by sending a letter to your local authority.

The Children’s Society has a special project which has worked with several local authorities to help them meet these Government requirements. If you represent a local authority and want to find out more, you can contact this project by emailing andy.mccullough@childrenssociety.org.uk

Although we have worked across the UK to identify the problems that young runaways face, we can only run this phase of the campaign in England. This is because different rules and regulations apply in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. However, we have worked across all parts of the UK with partner agencies to make sure all children benefit from our learning.

Protecting young runaways cuts across many Government responsibilities. If you want to have a more detailed analysis about how Government policy affects young runaways, you can read our policy paper.