Our track record with young runaways

The Children’s Society is the leading organisation working with young runaways in the UK.

We’ve led the way in practice since opening the country’s first refuge in 1985. In 1999 we carried out the largest ever programme of research on young runaways. 13,000 children took part in The Still Running research programme which ran from 1999 to 2004.

The Children’s Society re-addressed the problem of young runaways in 1981 when, during our centenary, we investigated whether there were still children who were away from home and on the street. Such children originally inspired Edward Rudolf to form the Waifs and Strays in 1881.

Since 1985 we have worked with tens of thousands of children who have run away from home and care, and have been thrown out of home. Despite some advances and changes in policies, many children who run away from home are no better off now than they were over 20 years ago.

The Children's Society was the first organisation in Britain to set up a refuge for children in 1985 despite the fact that at that time we had to break the law to set such a refuge up. Since then we have branched out over the years to run a number of refuges and other projects, working with young runaways in Newcastle, Manchester, Leeds, Torquay, Essex and Birmingham, Bournemouth and Weymouth.

After running refuges for 14 years we could no longer afford the high costs required to run them without any support from the Government. In October 2000 we closed our Leeds refuge to concentrate on preventative work and to work with young people on the streets.

We still believe that a network of strategically placed refuges is a key part of a strategy to help young people who run away from home or care, however this is beyond a charitable resource.

Our direct work with young runaways

The Children’s Society has a number of projects working with young runaways, including:

• In-Line, a Youth Task force for homeless young people in Newcastle offering peer education and practical help and drawing up protocols with Newcastle City Council to protect young runaways.
  
  
• Safe on the Streets, a missing persons (MISPER) scheme in Leeds run with West Yorkshire Police. The project offers advocacy, individual work with young people and co-ordinate multi-agency meetings for runaways.
  
  
• Safe in the City, a drop-in centre in Manchester, includes advocacy services, a MISPER police scheme, individual work with young runaways, including with Black and Asian young people.
  
  
• Protocols consultant, one of our consultants is working in the North West to develop protocols for Manchester, Greater Merseyside, as well as Stockport, Bolton, Oldham and Lancashire.
  
  
• Children’s Rights & Participation scheme in Preston works with children and young people running away from care. The project launched new runaways protocols with Lancashire County Council and police on December 1, 2003.
  
  
• Youth at Risk, carries out streetwork with Roma children in London.
  
  
• Young People’s Drugs and Alcohol Service has a drop-in centre in Essex and provides support for young people caught up in drugs and prostitution.
  
  
• The Junction in Bournemouth is a drop-in advice and health centre for young people at risk on the streets and those caught up in drugs and prostitution.
  
  
• Waves offers a family mediation service to prevent the need for children to run away in Weymouth.
  
  
• Checkpoint is a drop in centre in Torbay, Devon, offering advice and advocacy for runaways aged under 13 and protocols for children running from care and home.