It has taken more than 20 years of campaigning but this week the government finally published a strategy specifically to help young runaways.
The Young Runaways Action Plan is the culmination of years of lobbying by children's charities through the English Coalition for Runaway Children and, in particular, the Children's Society. It is largely based on the recommendations of the Children's Society's Stepping Up report, which was published last year.
Martin Houghton-Brown, policy advi-ser at the society, says the action plan is a major breakthrough. "It's important when you take into account the fact that 100,000 under-16s run away each year," he says. "It's not simply an action plan about preventing running away; it's also addressing how to keep children safe if they do."
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