The Children’s Society released a report on 11th July highlighting the plight of young runaways and calling for support from the government.

The report, Make Runaways Safe, says that many young runaways are in grave danger and at risk of harm, physical abuse or sexual exploitation. 

Research by the Children’s Society shows that more than 100,000 children run away from home or care in this country every year. That is one every five minutes. Two-thirds are not reported to the police.

There are very few specialised services for young runaways in England and many of those that do operate have had to reduce their services as a result of funding cuts. 

Fortunately, in South Yorkshire, young people at risk through running away do have services available to them provided by SAFE@LAST.  We provided a range of services including a 24 hour helpline, ongoing one to one support and an emergency refuge – the only one in England. 

The Make Runaways Safe report comments that children as young as eight are running away from home or care and in most cases are not being reported to the authorities.

This is something SAFE@LAST agrees with.  SAFE@LAST works with young people who are 16 and under but the majority of our one to one work is with young people aged thirteen to fifteen.  However we do also receive referrals and helpline calls from much younger children.  The youngest caller on the helpline was only seven and we have worked on a one to one basis with children as young as this.

The report is also calling for a national safety net to be put in place for every child who runs away.  This would include the government drawing up a national runaways' action plan to significantly boost help and support for everyone involved, something which SAFE@LAST fully supports.

South Yorkshire is unique as there are full wrap around, direct access services for runaways.  SAFE@LAST Strategic Runaways Services Director is Deputy Chair of the English Coalition for Runaway Children and has been able to share our model as a model of good practise across the country.  Tracy recently had the opportunity to support two local young people to visit the House of Commons to talk to Ministers about their experiences of running away in South Yorkshire.  Not only was this a great experience for young people but, allowed those in government to hear directly what services these young felt they needed.

To learn more about the campaign or to read the full Make Runaways Safe report please click here.