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Scotland
Aberlour Child Care Trust commissioned some research which showed that 11% of children under the age of 16 run away and stay away from home overnight. This includes many who are forced to leave by their parents. In Scotland alone, 6-7,000 children under 16 run away every year for the first time. Whilst most will run away once or twice and return home, 20% of young runaways leave home three or more times and 28% sleep rough. Perhaps more shocking is the finding that 20% of children who run away are under 11 years of age. Whilst they are away there are obvious risks particularly of physical or sexual assault.
The research also looked into the reasons young people run away. Usually this is to do with problems in the family home. This includes arguments and persistent conflict with parents or stepparents, abuse and neglect, and the need to escape the effects of parental problems with drugs, alcohol or poor mental health. Some of these young people will need long-term intensive support to deal with the effects of trauma whilst others will be able to build on their own resilience with some timely help.
Many of the young people we work with talk about the need for adults who will listen to them and take them seriously. Often they feel there are barriers to them getting the support they need and the services do not offer a sufficient degree of confidentiality or the choice and space to work out problems.
In the following poem one of the young people we have worked with describes some of the feelings that she faced.
Nothing to do, nothing to say
I’ll never know anyway
Across the road, across the sea
To try and get away from my family
I went through murder, I went through hell
Eventually I had to tell
I blocked away emotions
I blocked away my fears
I blocked away my sadness
But always end up in tears
Nothing to do, nothing to say
I’ll never know anyway
I feel ashamed
I feel alone
When I am sitting on my own
Nowhere to go, nowhere to stay
Sometimes that’s why I run away
Nobody to talk to
Nowhere to turn
It feels inside like fire ready to burn
Nothing to do, nothing to say
I’ll never know anyway
In order to offer a more comprehensive service, particularly to those children and young people who are most at risk, Abelour is about to open the first Scottish Refuge for young runaways. We will be able to provide short-term accommodation, and care and support for up to three young people at any one time if they have run away and are at risk of harm. We will then help them address the causes of their running away.
The Scottish Executive are funding this development as a national demonstration project and we hope that the learning gained from this will mean that many of the other thousands of young people can be prevented from running and given the help and protection they need.
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