Runaway children 'fall off the radar'

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Only a quarter of young people who run away from home receive any kind of intervention, peers and MPs have been told.

This week the charity Railway Children presented the findings of their new report, Off The Radar, at a meeting of the all-party parliamentary group on runaway and missing children.

Interviews were conducted over three years with 103 young people living on the streets.

Andy McCullough from Railway Children highlighted the key findings of the research.

100 per cent of young people who participated had been involved in alcohol or drug misuse, two-thirds had been victims of violence on the street and many had been victims of domestic violence.

To combat the problem intervention must be provided on long term basis, he said.

He claimed that the services available to young people living on the streets are outdated and inadequate; they must be changed to suit their needs and lifestyles.

McCullough called for youth services to change their approach at all levels - nationally, locally and on the ground.

The focus of work, he said, should be on relationship building and re-engaging with those who are hard to reach.

He dismissed the idea that more funding will solve the problem.

"It's not all about money, but a change in mind set," he told the meeting.

"Youth workers must move away from youth centres and get back out on the streets.

"We must change our behaviour, to change their behaviour."

He urged policy-makers to be more radical and experiment with new and 'unfashionable' projects.

Social work needs a reinvigoration in the wake of tragic cases such as Victoria Climbie and Baby P, said McCullough.

Youth workers can complement the work of social workers and have a large part to play in intervention, he argued.

They are perceived less negatively by hard-to-reach groups and considered to be less of a threat, he explained.

Geoff Newiss, policy officer at Missing People, was keen to reiterate the seriousness of the hidden problem of runaways.

100,000 young people run away each year, he told the meeting.

Newiss gave his thoughts on the emergency accommodation review recently published by the Children's Society for Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Delivery and the key question of how a real improvement can be achieved should be the focus of talks and policy, he asserted.

Local data and information sharing between stakeholders are two areas which need strengthening, he said.

Newiss expressed his surprise at the inclusion of a cost saving section in the report, according to which, better intervention would result in a reduction in levels of crime, police resources required and demand for health services.

Edward Timpson MP (Conservative, Crewe and Nantwich), whose parents fostered children, stressed the need for a holistic approach to treatment for children living on the streets.

A consensus was reached between all MPs present on this and on the need for early intervention.