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YOUNG RUNAWAYS AND CHILDREN ABUSED THROUGH PROSTITUTION: WORKING GROUP CONSULTATION PAPER

EMERGING FINDINGS: YOUNG RUNAWAYS

Services

1. Almost 9,000 children in Scotland run away every year. The experiences of each child will be different and there is no single model of provision which will meet the needs of all runaways. A range of services and service providers (both statutory and voluntary sector agencies) are required including:

• Telephone helplines;
• Outreach teams which identify and support children and young people;
• Family mediation and counselling services;
• Centre-based provision and
• Universal services delivered via the health and education services.

2. Young people often experience crisis points late in the evening, outside standard office hours. It is important that support, delivered by a range of service providers, is available as delay can often result in the young person being placed at risk. This could be provided through helplines, better prioritisation of calls on police time, voluntary sector provision and a better developed approach to emergency refuge provision.

3. Children and young people often welcome the opportunity to discuss issues via a telephone helpline. The use of a helpline allows the child to remain anonymous and to retain control of the discussion. They may choose to terminate the discussion at any time. It is important that children and young people know that they can contact a helpline and that these are freephone numbers. Consideration should be given to increasing the advertising for such helplines in areas where young runaways or other vulnerable children may congregate such as railway and bus stations.

4. There are issues around the provision of support through helplines. Helplines are an important element in supporting children but they should be part of a range of available services. There remain concerns that some children who want to contact a helpline are unable to get through and that their call goes unanswered. Helplines are often useful as an initial point of contact for young people but it is important to ensure that children are then able to access further support locally as required. Helplines should have the ability to put children in contact with appropriate local services and these services need to have the capacity to provide support. The Executive has already announced additional support for helplines that provide counselling and support for children (ChildLine and ParentLine) including 500,000 to allow ChildLine Scotland to open up a new call centre and increase by up to 60% the number of children they are able to help.

5. A number of police forces have appointed a dedicated officer for runaways and feedback suggests that this is helpful in addressing repeat running away.

6. It is important that support for the child does not ignore the wider family context. There is a need to offer advice and support to parents who are experiencing difficulties with their children. Family conflict has been identified as the primary reason why children run away from home ³. Running away puts children in danger but it is also a time of anxiety and fear for many parents. It has been suggested that many parents find it difficult to determine whether their child is experiencing normal teenage angst or is at risk. Support to address family conflict through helplines and other support mechanisms can help to resolve problems before they reach crisis point and to assist young people and their families or carers in resolving issues.

Refuge Provision

7. Children who are in need because they have run away from home may have an immediate need for somewhere safe to stay. Some young runaways may be able to return home immediately while in other instances it may take some time to consider the needs and best interests of the child.

8. Section 38 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 enables local authorities to provide short-term refuge in designated or approved establishments and households for children who appear to be at risk of harm and who can request refuge. A refuge does not need to be a dedicated centre. There are other models for providing support to young people, for example with foster carers or in other local authority accommodation. The aim is to provide the child with somewhere safe to stay and access to advice and help for a short period in order to resolve the crisis, to reconcile him or her with family or carers or to divert the child to other suitable services or accommodation.

9. The extent to which local authorities are currently making use of Section 38 of the Children (Scotland) Act is not clear. However, there is concern that children's needs for refuge are not being adequately met. An assessment of how local agencies are meeting the needs of young people for refuge in their area and levels of demand should be conducted as a matter of priority by the Scottish Executive. Additional work is also required on models of good practice in the provision of refuge throughout the UK. Following this work additional guidance should be provided on the provision of refuge support for children and young people in Scotland.

Running Away from Home

10. The majority of young runaways have run from their family home. The most common reasons that young people give for running away from home are arguments and conflict with parents or step parents, neglect and rejection, experiences of emotional or physical abuse or to seek respite from parents' personal problems such as alcohol/drug dependency or mental health problems. Running away is closely associated with problems at school and young people who run away are more likely to be unhappy at school and to have missed time due to truancy or exclusion.

11. Young people who have run away say that they did not have anyone to talk to about their problems or enough information about where to go for help. Research has suggested that increased information about local services which might help to address the underlying problems identified by young people would be helpful ⁴.

Children in Substitute Care

12. While most young runaways run from their family home a higher proportion of young people in substitute care (40%) run away compared with those who have never been in care (9%) and children in care are more likely to run away repeatedly. Some children may have started to run away from home before their entry into the care system.

13. The quality of care experienced by children is clearly important in relation to rates of running away. The Executive is seeking to improve the experiences of children in care. New resources are being provided for throughcare and aftercare to help young people to move into independent adult living and for improving the educational attainment and qualifications of looked after children. However, for some children it is the fact that they are in care or that limits are being placed upon their freedom (possibly for the first time) which results in them running away. It is important that agencies work together to identify those children who are most vulnerable, to ensure their immediate safety and to consider the need for appropriate support to prevent a pattern of repeat running developing.

Information

14. It is important that agencies have readily accessible information on the numbers of young people who go missing. Poor data collection and monitoring makes it difficult to provide an accurate picture of how many children are missing and the outcomes for those children - whether they been found or not. It also makes it difficult for information to be shared between different agencies or across local authority/police boundaries. The Police National Database does hold some information on missing children but that information is not available to other agencies. Computerisation of records at local and national level would be an important step forward in addressing this issue. The Executive is seeking to develop an integrated assessment framework for children and young people, supported by electronic information sharing. This would make it easier to share information among agencies for those children already identified as being potentially in need of support.

Children who cannot return home

15. A proportion of children - especially older children - do not run away from home but are forced to leave by their parents or carers. There are also a number of children for whom it is not safe to return home. For some older children running away is a transition to independent living. Children who cannot return home often need support to prevent them becoming homeless or drawn into high-risk activity.

16. The final report of the Homelessness Task Force, published in February 2002, recognised strongly that access to accommodation and appropriate support services is often a key issue for older children who cannot return home. The Task Force made specific recommendations to strengthen the legal rights of young people assessed as homeless, to improve the support of affordable, entry level, ready access housing for young people seeking their own accommodation for the first time, and to ensure provision of advice, throughcare and aftercare services to prevent homelessness amongst children who have been in care. All of the Task Force's recommendations have been endorsed by the Executive and are being implemented by a wide range of agencies. Delivery of the recommendations is being monitored by the national Homelessness Monitoring Group.

Guidance for Professionals

17. A child who has run away should have the opportunity to discuss with a professional their reason for running away, the risk of it occurring again and what action needs to be taken to reduce the risk, including the need for additional support. The planning and development of services for young runaways should be taken forward within the wider children's services planning process. Local protocols should be developed to support young runaways and to identify and agree the roles of different agencies. Guidance on the content and development of local protocols is attached. Progress reports on protocol development will be considered at the meeting of the Chairs of the Child Protection Committee scheduled for the end of 2003.

Legislative Framework

18. Clear information on the legal position on young runaways and the responsibilities of statutory agencies should be provided to assist professionals working with children and young people. The Executive will issue this information with the final version of the Guidance for Professionals.

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