A new Working Group is to be set up by the Scottish Executive to
explore what to do about the plight of young runaways, including the
one in nine children who runs away before they are 16.
One in six young people in Scotland who runs away ends up being
physically or sexually assaulted, and running away is often an
indicator of underlying problems at home.
A coalition of voluntary and statutory bodies called the Coalition
for Young Runaways will draw up a remit for the Working Group, to then
be approved by the Executive later this month, and will work over an
estimated six to 12 month period to produce recommendations. The
Working Group is expected to consist of the members of the Coalition
and some additional civil servants.
The Coalition currently consists of the Aberlour Childcare Trust,
which operates Scotland’s only refuge for young runaways, the
Association of Directors of Social Work, ChildLine, Barnardo’s, Who
Cares? , Edinburgh’s Streetwork project, the Association of Chief
Police Officers in Scotland, Edinburgh, Lothians and Borders child
protection offices and the Scottish Children’s Reporters’
Administration.
While some guidelines on young runaways were issued in 2003,
entitled ‘Vulnerable Young People – Young Runaways’, there is no clear
idea of the progress that has been made since then, so the Executive
has agreed that it will pay for Stirling University to carry out a
major audit to establish the current state of play. This is expected to
report around the end of May.
Some of the ideas that could form recommendations are the provision
of an independent interview for every young person who runs away, a
national police database of young people who run away, and the
possibility that it could become illegal for parents to fail to report
a child missing if they run away.
At the moment, it is estimated that hundreds of children run away,
but are not reported missing and therefore, do not form part of the
numbers of official runaways.
Aberlour regional director Bryan Evans, who is taking the lead for
the Coalition in its negotiations with the Executive, says that some 60
per cent of young runaways are not being reported.
He told Holyrood that at the moment, many young people who
run away have nowhere to go, especially if they are under 16, and
therefore, police or social workers tend to end up taking them home.
“It’s very dangerous to assume that going home is OK.”
Refuge provision can perform a vital role as “time out” of a
troubled situation for young people, Evans said, adding that there was
also a need for mediation between some parents and children to resolve
home problems, which could range from problems at school or divorcing
parents, through to bullying, abuse or neglect.
Glasgow’s refuge is a pioneering model, said Evans, that costs half
of a counterpart refuge in Leeds - £330,000 per year, compared to
£715,000, because it only keeps staff in the refuge when there are
young people there.
The Glasgow refuge opened in July 2004 and has three beds for young
runaways. As at March 2007, 112 young people had used the refuge for
159 periods of refuge. Two thirds of these were girls, and 57 per cent
had not been reported missing.
Evans added that there might be an issue between local authorities
and the Executive in terms of who paid for more support and provision
for young runaways, but suggested a partnership approach between local
government, the Executive, health boards, the police and the voluntary
sector as the way forward.
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