ENGLAND
The government strategies for children's services try to help runaways through policies like the common assessment framework, having a lead professional for vulnerable young people and the integration of services. Local authority children's services are equipped to support children and young people who run away as part of their general responsibilities for children through intervention and support.
The government is working with The Children's Society to look at how well local authorities are meeting the particular needs of young runaways and will be looking at what action needs to be taken when the charity's work is completed.
SCOTLAND
The Scottish Government is rethinking its guidance for service providers on managing young runaways. It has recently established a National Working Group on Young Runaways, which comprises representatives from the statutory and voluntary sector and services that contribute to managing runaways. The working group has to develop recommendations for action by spring 2008. The Aberlour Childcare Trust has published a study of services available for young runaways. The study found there is insufficient information to identify the scale of the problem and services for runaways are variable, with most attention placed onthose who go missing from care.
WALES
The Welsh Assembly Government is working on guidance concerning children missing from care and from home.
For children missing from care, it will cover prevention, strategies and procedures, support for carers and how to respond when a child goes missing. For children missing from home, the guidance will cover key messages from strategy and procedures and and again how to respond in cases where a child is missing. The assembly government's Safeguarding Children: Working Together under the Children Act 2004 guidance says agencies responsible for the care of looked-after children should understand their role when a child goes missing.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Northern Ireland has a protocol on how health and social services trusts work with the Police Service of Northern Ireland when a child or young person goes missing from home or from care. The protocol addresses situations where children who are living within their families or communities go missing, children and young people run away from care and cases where the police visit a children's home at the request of staff. It provides guidance to assist carers, police officers and social workers in dealing with situations where children run away. A report carried out for The Children's Society in 2001 found there was a need for crisis services and a 24-hour helpline.
AND MORE ...
- Restorative practice proving effective
Restorative practices have improved discipline in the three areas where the technique has been piloted. A Scottish Government-funded study found the technique to be "a powerful and effective approach" for reducing conflict. www.scotland.gov.uk/publications
- Fewer young people drinking alcohol
Binge drinking by 11- to 15-year-olds is rising but fewer young teenagers are drinking, reports the NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care. The report found that 45 per cent had never drunk alcohol in 2006, compared with 39 per cent in 2003. www.ic.nhs.uk
- Primary head teachers needed
More than a third of vacant primary head teacher posts were not filled between September 2006 and March 2007, research by Education Data Surveys has found. www.educationdatasurveys.org.uk.
